Colourful Icelandic Sheep Part 2

January 19, 2026

Since we talked in one of our last blog posts about the big colour variety of Icelandic sheep, we only got to introduce you to 3 of the many Icelandic sheep colours. The sheep coats in Iceland seem to mirror the changing light and textures of the island itself from the volcanic earth to the Arctic sky. Farmers, spinners, and knitters alike have long admired this natural spectrum, which gives Icelandic wool its unique charm and endless creative possibilities.

Before diving further into this fascinating range of shades and patterns that make this breed so special, it’s worth pausing to appreciate what this diversity represents: a connection between people, place, and animal that has endured for over a thousand years.

Get to know more Icelandic sheep colours

We continue our introduction to the Icelandic sheep colours today, with these colours:

The sheep colour, that you can see in picture 1 is called “Grá” in Icelandic, which means “Grey”. Grá comes in many different shades. Some sheep are darker and some are lighter than others. A dark grey sheep is called “Dökkgrá” and and light grey sheep is called “Ljósgrá”

In Iceland we also have grey and white dotted sheep, which are called “Gráflekkótt”. You can see an example of a Gráflekkot sheep in picture 2.

picture 2: “Gráflekkót” (Grey, white dotted)

You hopefully also remember the colour “Svart” (Black) from our last Blog post of Colourful Icelandic sheep Part 1. In picture 3 we would like to show you Black and White dotted sheep, called “Svartflekkótt”. The right one on the picture is the mother of the ram on the left side of the picture. The ram is about half a year old in that picture, and you can see, he almost reaches the hight of his mother.