The Turra Coo

Had a great drive up to Turriff and had a wonderful family get together with soup, oatcakes and bread all home made. In the afternoon after much blethering we had a walk through the town and came across the famous Turra Coo.

"The Turra' Coo (the Turriff Cow) was a white Ayrshire-Shorthorn cross dairy cow which lived near the Aberdeenshire town of Turriff in north-east Scotland in the early twentieth century. The cow became famous following a dispute between her owner and local people against the government over taxes and compulsory national insurance.

In Turriff, popular protests were held in the Johnston and Paterson Mart, and Robert Paterson, a Lendrum farmer refused to stamp the insurance cards of his employees. This resulted in orders on 13 December 1913 for Turriff's sheriff George Keith to seize property to the value of £22 from Paterson's farm. However, this was more difficult than it seemed as officers could not move property without local assistance, and the locals refused to help in protest.

The CowSheriff's Officer George Keith removed the only piece of property which was easily mobile: Patersons' white milk cow, which was led to Turriff on foot. The next day, the citizens of Turriff found the cow tied in the village square, decorated in ribbons and painted with the words 'Lendrum to Leeks' in reference to Lloyd George's Welsh origin, and representing the sheriff's and government's victory over the hostile farmers. The cow was put up for auction. The response was a near riot, and a 100-strong mob proceeded to pelt the sheriff's officers with rotten fruit and soot.

The cow was eventually sold to a farmer Alexander Craig for £27, but Bryony Miller, a local girl and wife of the Patersons' farmhand John Miller, with his help, rallied the local community together to buy back the cow for Lendrum, where the cow died six years later and was buried in a corner of the farmland."

The statue now stands proudly tethered to the ground in the centre of town, complete with its garlands around its neck.