Scottish Sheep units conversions

  • Length
    • 1 Sheeplength is the snout-to-rump length of a 2 year old ewe.
      • 4.33 feet
      • 1.319784 meters
    • 1 kilosheeplength  = 0.82 miles = 1.32 km
    • Sheepmile is the length a sheep can walk in a mile without prodding.
      • Sheep will not walk a mile unprodded, thus this is undefined.
    • 1 Sheep toe, or just “Toe”, is the width of an adult ram.  0.43 inches.
  • Depth
    • ebfa2b587ff5945f8905fd95682302381 Wooltum is the depth of the wool on the stomach of a 4 year old North Country Cheviot ram during mating season.
    • 8.3 inches
    • While this may seem to be a length analog unit.  It is strictly forbidden to use Wooltum to measure anything other than depth.  See the inter-Scot standardization meeting of 1734.
  • Area
    • suffolk21 Chas or Sheeparea is defined as the size of the wool shorn from a 3 year old female Manx Loaghtan sheep when it’s been 1 year since the last shearing.
    • Note that this is not simply square Sheeplengths.
    • 1.9 m^2
    • Until 1878 the exact dimensions of a Chas were a source of contention.  Different clans used different species of sheep to measure a Chas.
    • The clans of the Highlands used a Suffolk sheep which is 2.33 m^2.
    • northcountrycheviot-web-1The clans of Orkney used North Ronaldsay for their Chas which is 1.03m^2.
    • The inter-Scot standardization meeting of 1878 settled on the Manx Loaghtan, this in itself was controversial as the breed is from the Isle of Man, which had not been part of Scotland since 1399.  It is believed that this was an attempt to regain control of the Isle of Man from England since the Isle of Man Purchase Act 1765 just 13 years earlier.
  • Volume
    • 1 sheepbladder is the volume of a 2 year old ram’s bladder.
      • 0.1075 gallons
      • 0.407 liters
  • Velocity
    • Sheep-panic – the speed an average Highland ram will travel at when unexpectedly encountering an Englishman in a state of undress. Generally held to be quite fast.
    • After experimentation it is 3.6 Sheeplengths per shake of a sheep tail.
  • Acceleration
    • The acceleration that a Highland ram undergoes when experiencing a sudden meeting with an Englishman in undress AND realising that he is the last sheep in the flock – ie closest to the rampaging and rampant Sassnach.
    • 6.1 sheeplenghts per shake squared
    • AKA as one sheepsquirt
  •  Weight
    • 1 Cudam is the weight of olde Sèitheach MacCaorach’s prize-winning ram, Eòghann, the day it turned 27 years olde in 1634.
      • 331 pounds
      • 150.139 kg
      • Sèitheach is pronounced “SHAY uch”
      • Sèitheach MacCaorach lived up past the swamps near Mastomper commons.  His neighbor, Hernanford Shwells, hated Eòghann because he used to eat up all his cabbage.  It is told that this hatred lead to the untimely conversion of Eòghann into haggis.
    • 1 Cudam-jewel, abbreviated Cj, is the weight of one of Eòghann’s “jewels” the day he was turned into haggis.
      • 3.1 pounds
      • 1.40614 kg
  • Pressure
    • 1 Bah is Cudam over Sheeparea
  • Electric Charge
    • One Flossy is the amount of electricity generated by rubbing one sheep’s wool along a Greater Highland Shepherds Hook.
  • Time
    • 3 shakes of a sheep tail, unknown