Stone age deer

The first red deer in the Western Isles some 5,000 years ago may have originated from northern Europe rather than from Scotland as expected, according to a new study.

Researchers say DNA evidence shows it is unlikely they descend from ancient mainland herds. Neither is it likely they hail from Ireland or Norway.

But the Outer Hebrides deer - which was smaller than the present populations - was very closely related to their Orkney cousins implying a common ancestry or breeding across these islands, says the study.

The report authors suggest they could have come from a Northern European herd and shipped in by sea by boats sailing to the Hebrides.

The long distance voyage of the Hebridean stone age deer

6 April 2016

The report says: "We show that deer from the Outer Hebrides and Orkney are unlikely to have originated from mainland Scotland, implying that humans introduced red deer from a greater distance.

"Our results are also inconsistent with an origin from Ireland or Norway, suggesting long-distance maritime travel by Neolithic people to the outer Scottish Isles from an unknown source."

The Colonization of the Scottish islands via long-distance Neolithic transport of red deer is reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal.

However, it is possible deer came to Scotland in two waves with the earlier genetic type squeezed out to the islands.

Red deer is the largest surviving indigenous land mammal in the British Isles.

They were imported by humans during an era when farming and structured communities was replacing the nomadic hunter-gathering way of life.

Around this period, the stone megaliths dotted around the Hebrides such as at Callanish and Langass were built.

The climate was also warmer and dryer so the imported deer would have thrived on the expanse fertile land before the landscape turned to peat.