Bronze, Signed Hamish Mackie
Numbered Edition of 9
Dated 2025
Size 160cm high x 250cm long x 110cm wide / 63″ x 98.5″ x 43.5″
Sculptures can be shipped world wide at cost, no VAT payable on exports outside the EU.
£144,000 inc VATI’ve always had a soft spot for cows. As a boy, I used to lie on my back in a field full of cattle and wait from them to come and inquisitively inspect. This inspired me to make one of my first sculptures when I was about 9 years old of a calf’s head, which my father still has.
Highlands are a hardy ancient breed of cattle with long horns and long shaggy coats. They have two types of hair – a downy undercoat to keep them warm, and a rough external layer to keep the weather out. Highland have been described as almost as cold tolerant as Caribou and Reindeer.
The highland cattle society was established in 1884 and Queen Elizabeth II so admired the breed she established a herd at Balmoral Castle.
I studied highland cattle on the Isle of Mull. I never knew that a cow’s horns grow up and a bull’s horns grow straight out or down. I was able to take measurements from a highland cow owned by Adam Henson who farms the Cotswolds Farm Park near my studio. It is home to over 50 breeding flocks and herds of British rare breed farm animals.
I sculpted the clay original for this highland cow sculpture over a steel armature. The heavy texture is complicated to cast into bronze. Lockbund Foundry have done an amazing job – not many can achieve this level of surface detail. I look forward to people doing a double-take when they see this highland cow life size sculpture in a landscape!
