Sheep breed
Gotland
Gotland
Grey lustrous fleece and prized pelts from the island of Gotland.
Gotland sheep. Photo: „Sheep, Gotland” – Berit Watkin · CC BY 2.0 · Flickr · Resized and converted to WebP
Description1
A Northern European short-tailed breed (Pälsfår) named after the Swedish island of Gotland. It probably arose in the 1920s–30s from the island's native Gute crossed with Karakul and Romanov; the horned Gute still survives on the island but is rare.
A fine-boned, medium-sized polled sheep; its black head and legs carry no wool, sometimes with white markings. The fleece is fine, long, lustrous and dense, silver to charcoal grey, with an even curl.
Docile and friendly, though older rams can become aggressive. Kept for fleece and meat; in Europe its pelt is prized, in the USA its wool among hand-spinners. Besides Sweden it is bred in Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia.
History1
1920s–30s
Develops from the island's native Gute crossed with Karakul and Romanov.
2003
Artificial insemination starts establishing it in the United States.
Breed standard and breed society
The official breed description, breeding goal and herdbook rules are published by the breed's recognised breed society.
- English Wikipedia – Gotland sheephttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotland_sheep
Photo gallery
All photos are freely licensed (Wikimedia Commons, Flickr); author, source and licence are shown under each image.
Sources
Accessed: 2026-10-18.