History

The dogs were used by crofters, shepherds, and foxhunters for pest control – foxes, rats rabbits were their early quarry, but with the advent in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of sporting pursuits, the dogs were much favoured for use against badgers and otters. Their “gameness” – the ability to ignore pain and continue to fight on – became legendary, and even at the beginning of the 20th century there were packs of Cairns that could not be handled by anyone other than their keeper! Dogs varied enormously in size, shape and colour depending on the terrain they worked, and the quarry they were used against.

From the mid – nineteenth century the differences began to resolve and the separate breeds of terrier developed – the Skye, Scottish Terrier and the West Highland White became well established, but their progenitor the Cairn, remained comparatively unknown except in the remote sporting estates in Argyllshire and the Isle of Skye.

The first few years of the twentieth century saw efforts by a few dedicated breeders and exhibitors to have these little dogs officially recognised by the Kennel Club, but early attempts were obscured by confusion over the name to call them. Foremost among the pioneers was Mrs Campbell, of Ardrishaig, whose first Cairns were brought over from Skye by her father. Mrs Campbell called the dogs variously “short – coated Skyes”, or “Prick – eared Skyes”, leading to vigorous confrontation with the breeders of the Skye Terrier, whose dogs had been recognised for at least 30 years!

Mrs J Alastair Campbell was born Ida Monro in 1871 in Palamcottah, India, where her father was an army Captain . She was one of a family of six, three boys and three girls. The 1881 Census shows That the family had returned to Scotland and were living in Edinburgh. By 1891 her father was Inspector Of Constabulary for Scotland  and he was Knighted in 1894.

Ida’s mother fell in love with the Cairn breed after her husband had brought some Waternish Cairns from Skye- although at the time, the 1870’s, the breed was still referred to as Skye terriers -and Ida continued her mother’s loyalty to Cairns all her life.

So Moghan, who is buried at Tigh-an-Rudha, was one of Ida’s Skye Terriers. Is it possible that the Gaelic spelling Moghan may also be written Moighan? It’s more than likely. If so, then it is probable that Moghan was the sire of Roy Mohr, ex Calla Mohr, which then places him at the very root of the Cairn family tree.

From Tigh-an-Rudha Mrs Campbell began her campaign to have her favourite terrier recognised by the Kennel Club and the world of dogs. She circulated Secretaries of show societies and the Kennel Club in her efforts to have classes for the dogs, and claimed never to have been unplaced with them.

At Inverness Show in 1909 her dogs were entered as Short-Haired Skyes or Prick-eared Skyes but were registered at the Kennel Club on the Skye Terrier register. This greatly upset the Skye Terrier fraternity and a protracted and acrimonious dispute took place in the columns of the dog press between Mrs Campbell on the one hand, and Sir Claud Alexander, Secretary of the Skye and Clydesdale Terrier Club, and James Porritt, Secretary of the Skye Terrier Club of England, on the other. Captain A R MacDonald and Robert Leighton, both sporting terrier men of vast experience each contributed their own recollections, quoting old breeders of the ‘Original Type.’

Tighru Fiona

Things came to a head in 1910, where at Cruft’s there were two classes on offer for “Cairn or Short-haired Skyes”, but Mrs Campbell, joined now by the Hon. Mary Hawke, ensured a showdown by entering their dogs in the regular Skye Terrier classes. Miss Clifton, judging to the Skye Terrier Standard, found not one point in these dogs that matched the Standard so she marked them “Wrong Class”. On 6th April 1910, the Kennel Club received a deputation from the Skye Terrier Clubs, who outlined their objections to these short haired dogs which, in spite of differing so much from the accepted Skye Terrier, were still being accepted on the Skye Terrier Register. Letters suggesting alternative names were read, and after discussion and examination of photographs, the Committee decided:

“ That the breed, (hitherto described as Short-haired Skye Terriers) shall only be registered as Cairn Terriers in the British, Colonial and Foreign dogs, which have no separate classification on the register”

Alex Fisher wrote in the 2nd edition of the Cairn Terrier, “The “Brocaire” strain of Mrs Campbell was established by Ch Gesto and is generally acknowledged to be of the purest type of Cairn, absolutely free from any trace of Scottish Terrier character, built on light, agile lines, not unduly short in body, and with the characteristic foxy face and expression upon which Mrs Campbell laid such stress.

In addition to Ch Gesto, Macleod of Macleod, Doran Bhan, Roy Mhor and Calla Mhor, all Skye- bred Cairns, played a very strong part in the formation of the strain from which has descended some of the most famous winning Cairns in the World”.  In total 5 Brocaire Cairns became Champions.

Col. Campbell died in 1914 and in 1918 Mrs Campbell moved north to Inverness then a year or so later to Eskadale House, Ardersier on the shores of the Moray Firth, where she lived until her death in 1946. She continued to show her dogs from there and attended her last show, the Championship show of the Cairn Terrier Club, just a few weeks before she died. Her ashes are interred in the Monro family burial plot in a quiet little cemetery at Easter Kilmuir, Ross-shire.