The Turra Coo

For the last few days we have been enjoying the company of an old friend from our student days, now half a century in the past. This morning we dropped her off in Turriff, her birth place, before she started her journey back home to the Orkney Islands.

When in Turriff one just has to blip the Turra Coo (Turriff Cow).

In November 2010 our First Minister, Alex Salmond, joined a near 1,000-strong crowd at Turriff to catch the first glimpses of a life-size bronze sculpture of this very special cow.

The original Coo made headlines in 1913 when farmer Robert Paterson, of Lendrum, Turriff, refused to stamp employees' insurance cards with the national insurance tax which had been imposed by Liberal Chancellor David Lloyd George. Mr Paterson and his farmworkers did not believe in the national insurance stamp forced on them by the chancellor and chose to fight back. As a result, a white milk cow cows was seized to meet the insurance debts.

After the cow was seized by the authorities, attempts were made to sell it in The Square at Turriff but a mob of 100 rioted and the sale could not go ahead. They threw soot and rotten eggs at the sheriff's officers and the police. Eight farm workers were subsequently put on trial for disorderly conduct but all were acquitted, having received verdicts of "not proven".

The coo was, however eventually sold, in Aberdeen on December 16, 1913 to a farmer from Gardenstown, for the sum 0f £27. She was subsequently bought from him by other Buchan farmers and returned to Mr Paterson at a meeting in a field off the town square on January 20, 1914. A crowd of more than 4,000 welcomed her home on that day.

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, Mr Salmond said the incident all those years ago was about fighting the perceived injustice imposed by a Westminster government. He told the crowd: "This was a message from the people of Turriff to London that they would not accept injustice foisted upon them".

You can see photograph of the real cow and listen to a fuller account of the incident here.