Building Hassockrigg: Sophie McCarlie’s journey from first gimmers to Highland Show glory
Flock Feature
From bringing home ten Kerry Hill gimmers in 2020 to winning Overall Champion at the Royal Highland Show, North Lanarkshire breeder Sophie McCarlie has quickly established the Hassockrigg flock as one to watch. Tom Ryder reports…
At Wester Hassockrigg Farm in Shotts, North Lanarkshire, the McCarlie family runs 200 commercial suckler cows alongside a busy agricultural contracting business.
Dad Robert and brother Robbie manage the farm full-time, while Sophie works as Marketing and Events Coordinator at Davidsons Animal Feeds.
Sheep were never part of the system until Sophie, aged 19, decided to start something she could call her own.
“I have always had a keen interest in the cattle at home but wanted something of my own that I could work with by myself,” she says.
“I had seen Kerry Hills and really liked the look of them.”
Building the flock
In May 2020, she bought her first ten gimmers from Derek and Cindy Steen’s Whitcastles flock. With Covid-19 disruption casting uncertainty over that season’s sales, Sophie was ‘fortunate to be given the pick of their gimmers’ to begin her own flock.
Those first ten females now form the foundation of the Hassockrigg prefix, named after the family farm, which has grown to around 50 registered ewes. The flock has expanded through purchases at Ludlow, Carlisle and private sales, though it is now predominantly homebred thanks to retained replacements.
“The aim is to breed a well-bodied sheep with clean markings and wool,” Sophie says.
While showing success has come quickly, her focus remains on producing practical, powerful breeding sheep. “I feel those factors should come before markings. I don’t mind a lighter-coloured ewe for breeding.”
Lambing
Two stock rams, Birsca Caspian and Lowlands 44069, were bought at Ludlow in 2023, with homebred Hassockrigg Epic retained for this season. Ewes scanned at around 180% last year, with lambing beginning in early March.
Ewes are housed a few weeks before lambing and fed ewe rolls six to eight weeks prior.
“Correct nutrition is crucial to ensure lambs get up onto their feet quickly and that ewes have plentiful quality colostrum,” Sophie says.
The breed’s reputation for easy lambing has held true at Hassockrigg, with ewes requiring minimal assistance and proving ‘great mothers’.
Lambs are weaned in July, with all male lambs kept entire. Those not retained for breeding are finished and sold at Lanark Auction Mart. This year’s fat lambs averaged £150 when sold in September.
At tupping, ewes are split into groups and run with a different tup each cycle.
“This year I used three different tups – a homebred ram, a Lowlands ram and a Woodhouse ram,” Sophie explains.
Flock competition
As the flock developed, Sophie began benchmarking it against others. In 2023, she entered the breed’s UK and Ireland Flock Competition and won Best Medium Flock, a milestone she describes as a turning point.
“This then made me want to get into showing to further profile my flock,” she says.
Although she did not come from a showing background, fellow breeders offered support and advice, with Cath Kewley and Angie Burgess proving particularly helpful.
“All breeders are very welcoming and want you to do well, so it’s easy to ask for advice when needed.”
Sophie only began showing in 2024, but 2025 has already been a breakthrough year.
Ring highlights
At this year’s Royal Highland Show, which is the event she always dreamed of winning, her gimmer Hassockrigg Easy on the Eye was tapped out as Overall Champion, while another gimmer, Hassockrigg Eliza, was Reserve Female Champion.
“Winning the Highland Show meant a lot to me due to it being my local show and the one that everyone wants to win,” she says.
Alongside showing, Sophie stepped into the judging ring for the first time this season, officiating at Moffat Show in August and the Carlisle September Sale.
Success has extended into the sale ring. At the society’s inaugural sale at Lanark this year, Sophie sold shearling ram Hassockrigg Electrify to J. and P. Owens of the Woodhouse flock for 7,800gns, marking her highest price to date.
Her five shearling rams averaged 2,670gns, and five gimmers averaged 1,050gns, topping at 1,300gns twice.
“It was a milestone that marked how far the flock has come in a short space of time,” she says.
She also took five ewe lambs to the Kerry Hill Flock Book Society Christmas Cracker sale, taking home the reserve champion rosette in the pre-sale show and topping at 2,400gns for Hassockrigg First Class.
Outside of the flock
While the Kerry Hills are Sophie’s own enterprise, they run alongside a significant mixed farming and contracting operation.
The family farms 280 acres, renting a further 380 acres, with the ground sitting 880ft above sea level.
The 200-strong suckler herd includes around 40 pure Luings, which are bulled to the Simmental to breed heifer replacements.
Heifers calve at two years old to Salers bulls for easier calving, while the majority of Simmental X Luing cows are put to the Charolais. Calves are sold for store at one year old, either privately or through Lanark Market.
The contracting business is equally busy, chopping around 4,000 acres of silage and wholecrop each season, along with handling roughly 12,000 bales annually.
Looking forward
Alongside managing her flock and full-time job, Sophie has recently been elected to the Kerry Hill Flock Book Society council.
She says: “I am looking forward to being part of the council and bringing new ideas to the society.”
As for the next five years, her goals are clear and grounded in quality rather than numbers.
“Fifty ewes is a good number for me whilst working full time, so I would rather focus on quality.
“Hopefully I can keep doing what I’m doing – selling gimmers and shearlings, and hopefully breed another Highland Show winner.”
She would also love to take on the Welsh National, which she describes as ‘the big one that everyone wants to win’, adding it to her bucket list.
For Sophie, the appeal of the breed remains as strong as the day she first saw them. “Their presence and cockiness – when a good sheep comes into the show or sale ring and shows itself off, there’s nothing better.”
After starting from scratch just five years ago, the Hassockrigg flock has already made a mark in both the show ring and the sale ring.
“It has been an incredible journey so far,” Sophie says. “I’m excited to see where the flock can go next.”
