Today's historical artefact is a doubler: in the arms of Turriff Community Council we find not only the Mercat Cross of the burgh but the head of a cow - surely, it must be the Turra Coo.
Blazon: Argent, a representation of the Mercat Cross of Turriff between a garb in dexter chief and a cow's head cabossed in sinister chief Gules.
The story of the Turra Coo in the protests against Lloyd George's 1913 National Insurance Act is one of the most uproariously marvellous tales of Scottish Life and is recounted on Wikipedia. It reminds me of the spirit-lifting feud between the late and unlamented Strathclyde Regional Council and the late, great Ian Hamilton Finlay at Little Sparta in Lanarkshire. Here for reference, is the model of the Turra Coo displayed in the burgh.
