25/09/2026
The Romans wrote home about them with wonder. Irish kings gave them as gifts to emperors. And by the nineteenth century, this magnificent breed had almost disappeared.
The Irish Wolfhound.
The Irish Wolfhound is the tallest dog breed in the world and has been woven into Ireland’s history for well over two thousand years.
Roman writers recorded large Irish hounds arriving in Rome around 391 AD, where they caused considerable astonishment. They appear throughout Irish literature, mythology and law, and were traditionally associated with kings, chieftains and nobility.
These magnificent dogs were used to hunt wolves, deer and the great Irish elk, while also guarding the homes of Ireland’s most powerful families. The Brehon Laws even set out who was entitled to keep them.
Their place in Irish mythology is equally remarkable. Cú Chulainn means “Hound of Culann”, a name he took after killing Culann’s great guard dog and offering to take its place. Fionn mac Cumhaill’s legendary hounds, Bran and Sceolán, are among the most famous animals in Irish folklore.
To receive an Irish Wolfhound was considered a great honour. For centuries, they were given as diplomatic gifts to kings, emperors and even popes.
But their fame came at a cost.
So many were exported from Ireland as gifts and curiosities that their numbers began to decline dramatically. By 1652, Oliver Cromwell had imposed a ban on exporting wolfhounds because so few remained in Ireland.
Then came an even greater problem: the wolves disappeared.
Ireland’s last wolf was killed in the late eighteenth century. With their principal purpose gone, maintaining such an enormous breed became increasingly difficult, and the Irish Wolfhound was brought dangerously close to extinction.
The breed was rescued in the nineteenth century through a carefully planned revival led by Scottish army officer George Augustus Graham. He sought out the remaining examples of the old Irish Wolfhound and worked to restore the breed, using Scottish Deerhounds, Great Danes and other breeds as part of the process.
The modern Irish Wolfhound is therefore both an ancient Irish breed and, in part, the result of a remarkable nineteenth-century reconstruction.
Today, they are renowned for their enormous size, gentle nature, loyalty and dignity. They also hold a special place in modern Irish tradition as the regimental mascot of the Irish Guards.
Perhaps the finest description of the breed remains the simplest:
“Gentle when stroked, fierce when provoked.”
An extraordinary dog with an extraordinary history, once prized by kings, sent across Europe as a royal gift, brought almost to extinction when Ireland’s wolves disappeared, and ultimately brought back from the brink.
A true symbol of Ireland’s ancient heritage.
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