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Cairn Terrier Breed History

The Cairn terrier – active, game, hardy, independent, curious, all characteristics passed down over hundreds of years from the original Scottish native terriers of which the Cairn is a direct descendant. Small, short-legged hairy dogs have been around for hundreds of years; there is mention of them in writings of the 14^th and 15^th century.

In the early 17^th century James l & Vl sent instructions to Edinburgh for half-a-dozen ‘earthe dogs or terriers’ to be sent carefully to France as a present and directed that they were to be obtained from Argyll and sent in two or more ships lest they should come to harm on the way. So this would indicate that small terriers were to be found in the west of Scotland some 400 years ago.

The western highlands and islands of Scotland were the main areas where these packs of working terriers were to be found. They were not the fireside pets we know today; they were rough, tough, bold little dogs used mainly to keep down vermin such as rats and rabbits, and to hunt game – badgers and otters. Note fleeing otter bottom left in this 1835 picture

A Cairn would hardly be a match for either of the last two but was used to flush them out from their dens among the rocks to be finished off by the huntsmen – hence the name ‘Cairn’ - the name for piles of rocks. Unfortunately some of the prey declined to emerge and the Cairn often came off worst in such encounters. Sadly, many did not survive to tell the tale.

Not all the Cairns of those days were purely workers though. An 1872 painting of an aristocratic family, shows a child offering a titbit to what is an obvious progenitor of the Cairn. They were also kept as household pets by the crofters of those days and earned their keep by helping to fill the pot with rabbits etc.

Come the 19^th century and the fashion for keeping pet dogs was much encouraged by Queen Victoria who had a large number of dogs including Islay, who although described at that time as a Skye terrier in a well-known painting by Landseer, is very much a Cairn.

The first dog shows were held in the 1850’s and wealthy and aristocratic people soon embraced the hobby. The other Scottish native terriers – Skye, West Highland White and Scottish – are all descended from the same roots as the Cairn but these three developed along different lines having been bred rather in isolation from each other. They were then introduced to the showring and, although originally quite similar to each other, soon developed very individual appearances. This picture, A Scotch Mixture, was painted in the latter half of the 19^th century.

The Cairn was the last to enter the showring, due entirely to the efforts of one lady, Mrs J Alistair Campbell. Mrs Campbell, born Ida Monro in 1871, came of a well-to-do family from Tain in Ross-shire. Her father was a Knight of the realm and her mother had kept Cairns for many years obtaining them from breeders in the Isle of Skye

Mrs Campbell entered dogs at the Kennel Club show in Edinburgh in 1897 as Skye Terriers, but of the four classes she entered, her dogs were recognised in only one – the Brace class - in which they were the only entry so won first prize. Mrs Campbell maintained that this was an admission by the judge that they were indeed Skye Terriers.

The judge at the 1897 show subsequently wrote to Mrs Campbell saying that this type had not been shown for twenty years and, there being no class for them, they could not be recognised. Mrs Campbell persevered, however, and entered at a number of Championship shows winning in Open and variety classes, but she then faced a ‘Catch 22’ situation.

Her Cairns were not recognised as Skye Terriers despite her assertions that these were the original terriers of Skye, and as far as the Kennel Club was concerned there was no such breed as Cairn Terriers. The Kennel Club decided they should be called ‘Short-haired Skyes’ but when Mrs Campbell and the Hon Mrs M Hawkes entered their dogs as such at Crufts in 1909 the Skye terrier exhibitors were most upset, short hair being a major fault in Skyes!

The judge of the day, a Mr Robert Leighton, in his book ‘The Complete Book of the Dog,’ writes that he recognised them as ‘the original unspoilt working terrier of the Highlands’ as he had owned such terriers in his boyhood in Argyll. He notes that Mrs Campbell had brought them all the way from Ardrishaig in Argyll and that ‘the ring stewards were vexed.’

Eventually after much acerbic correspondence conducted in the dog press of the time, a meeting at the Kennel Club, which included Mr Leighton and members of the Skye Terrier Club, agreed that they be called Cairn Terriers. They had in fact been thus referred to for very many years as witness the legend on the back of a painting dated 1857, the property of the Scottish Kennel Club, ‘Picture of a Cairn got from Ross-shire 1856, would kill anything, dead game, good retriever land or water.’

At a meeting in Edinburgh in 1910 the Cairn Terrier Club was formed with Macdonald of Waternish in Skye as President and Mrs Campbell as Secretary. The first Standard was published the following year. Mrs Campbell later moved to Ardersier near Inverness as her husband, a Colonel in the Seaforth Highlanders, had been posted to Fort George. He died in 1914 but Mrs Campbell lived out her days in Ardersier regularly travelling to dog shows in the south.

The last show she attended was the Cairn Terrier Club’s first championship show after WWll, held in Edinburgh in 1946. She was not well and in fact died a few days later.

When the new Royal Dick Veterinary College was being built near Edinburgh in the late 90’s they asked for donations. Donors of sums above a certain level were able to put up a plaque of their choosing and the Cairn Terrier Club gave a handsome donation. Mrs Campbell’s ashes were interred in the family plot in Tain, but she has no memorial on the headstone so this is the one the CTC decided on.

Sybil Berrecloth