About Us

In 1964 my parents, Gwen and John Jones bought a Cairn pup as a family pet, they named him Ricky. They did not know it at the time but he was of good breeding being descended from Vinovium and Toptwig lines. They were encouraged to show him at Open shows and as a young twelve year old I started showing him.

Ricky did quite well and dad, coming from a farming family, decided that he would like to breed a litter. They bought their first bitch, Sheena, from the Nunsfield kennel of Ida Brooke at Sutton on Sea. Her lines went back to the Redletter breeding of the late Walter Bradshaw. Sheena was mated to Ricky and the family interest in Cairns really started.

In the early days mum and dad shared their interest in Cairns with not only Ida Brooke but Irene Cowley of Woodthorpe fame. The Woodthorpe affix is still going strong and now belongs to Susan Kinton. The family’s interest in showing and breeding continued and when I married Alan in 1975 I “borrowed” Ricky at weekends. Soon our next-door neighbour became hooked on Cairns too and Ricky stayed permanently at The Bungalow, the neighbour looking after him all day whilst we both were out at work.

It wasn’t long before we had rearranged out lives to cope with not one, but then two, three and plenty more Cairns.

Dad’s bitch had just whelped 9 males and we needed a bitch to show so we bought our first Cairn, Thimswarra Estelle (Kelly) from our good friends, Lil and Alf Arrowsmith in 1976, she went on to become our first Champion. Our next Champion was Ch Spirecairn Charmer of Cairngold (Charmer), bred by John Bunting, who had earlier bought his first Cairn from us. Our second and third Cairns were both home bred, Champions Kramer (Kramer) and Catriana (Katy) were both made up in the same year, 1987. This was a good year as our daughter Amy was born in that year! We were busy.

Then followed Ch Cairngold Cosmos (Micky), sire of Ch Shearwater Cae de Sonhas WW02, Ch Cannwood As If By Magic To Starveren and Ch Cannwood Kasta Spell at Doonrae. Micky died at the age of 15 years in 2009. Our next Champion was Champion Cairngold Constanze (Connie) who we sadly lost at the age of 18 and a half years in 2016. Our next Champion was Ch Cairngold Charcoal (Char) followed by Ch Cairngold Cedar (Fir). In 2008 we made up Champion Cairngold Jackpot (Jack) and in 2009 and 2010 his daughters Ch Cairngold Avin A Paddy (Paddy) and Ch Cairngold Candlelight (Candy).

Our next Champion was Ch Cairngold Chico JW (Chico), he gained his Championship in 2019. At the time of writing he has won a total of 31 Challenge Certificates and 10 RCC’s.

In 2022 Cairngold Chiquitita (Kita) became a Champion, she is the daughter of Ch Cairngold Chico, Kita has won 14 Challenge Certificates and 17 Reserve Challenge Certificates including Reserve Bitch CC at Crufts in 2022 and the CC at Crufts 2023.

Chico has proved to be an influential sire both at home and abroad, he now has progeny, including several Champions in 8 European countries. His progeny, two litter brothers bred by Elisabeth Theodorsson in Sweden, have also done well in Canada and America, one winning BOB at Montgomery Kennel Club (USA) in 2023 and 2024 in addition to winning the DCC at Crufts in 2023 and 2025.

To date we have bred/owned 13 UK Champions and 3 Australian and 3 American Champions.

I have judged Cairns at Championship show level on 16 occasions, Alan has now retired from judging but daughter Amy has awarded CC’s 3 times, her time being limited due to the time she spends working as an orthopaedic surgeon. All 3 of us have judged overseas.

We only breed the occasional litter but still attend championship shows all over the country.