A website celebrating hilariously battered vehicles from the furthest flung corners of Scotland now boasts a selection of vintage photos – including shots of live farm animals stuffed into family cars.
Among the new treasures in the “Teuchter Wagons” gallery are a Land Rover made into a boat, a sheep squashed into the front driver’s side of a car – complete with giant furry dice – and an ancient snap of a cow perched on the back seat of a Ford Cortina.
The pictures prove that driving a beat up or modified car and using it to transport livestock is not just a fad but a noble Highland tradition.
The cow picture, taken in Harris in the 1970s, shows the head of a black bullock sticking out of the rear passenger window.
Both cow and car belonged to farmer Donald Mackay, who was taking the beast from a croft in Cliasmol in the north of Harris to be sold.
His daughter Betty-Ann MacLeod, 48, remembers the day it happened and said it was a logical decision at the time.
She said: “He had no other way of getting it there. He didn’t have a trailer and so putting it in the car was the only option.
“He had removed the back seat and the cow was a small enough size to fit in – it just did what it was told.
She added: “I was so embarrassed at the time but everyone who saw it loved it.
“That’s the kind of thing people did in those days.”
Teuchter Wagons, which hit the headlines in October, was set up by Ruairidh Macrae, 34, who grew up in Lochcarron, along with pals David Maclean, and Ruaridh Phillips.
For the benefit of townies, the Facebook page defines a Teuchter Wagon as a vehicle used to transport “sheep, sh**e, or Teuchters”.
Mr Macrae, a marine engineer, said the inspiration had come from his father’s old Vauxhall Brava and the collection was intended as a fond tribute to the ingenuity of fellow teuchters.
“It’s a little thing that Highlanders like to do – keep an old wreck around the place,” he said.
“We thought we had better do this before these cars disappear.”
