Tom has a good point. I had heard of cattle rustlers but not sheep rustlers. I felt that the heavy hooves of border cattle were trampling my speculation that flocks of sheep were driven from Scotland to York, or vice versa, thereby fostering an interaction between Caldwells in Renfrewshire and Yorkshire. Tom pointed out that the Scots had a closer port at Berwick. Moreover, he mentioned that livestock could be sold at weekly markets or annual fairs in Scotland.

But then I came across this posting by the government of Northumberland :

"Whilst the border wars raged between England and Scotland through the 14th to the 16th centuries, the family clans of the border hills lived in their own state of semi-lawlessness. Sheep stealing and burning each others homes became part of their everyday life." http://www. northumberland. gov. uk/ VG/ rvintro. html

The port of Berwick is located within Northumberland.

Perhaps the dangers of driving sheep to Berwick from the Clyde River Valley, or the costs associated with "protection money" to secure safe passage, or even the risk of carrying coin for payment at toll roads and bridges, might have encouraged alternate passage through grassy hill country, from the Clyde River south to Yorkshire, a region better protected by the English. The drovers would not have to pay turnpike tolls if they stuck to the hills and fords.

Alternately, perhaps a more favorable market price at York encouraged the longer drive.

The weekly market or annual fair would not necessarily provide the best deal. These were licensed affairs for which fees and taxes had to be paid.

A flock of sheep could be driven ten to twelve miles a day. A single rider mounted on a horse could take the lead, searching for the route that would not necessarily be the shortest or quickest, but the most likely to result in delivery of the sheep in good condition. The other drovers could accompany the herd on foot. Yorkshire could be reached within a month. The trips likely would be made near the end of summer, to reduce the size of the flock that would kept in Scotland over winter for breeding in the spring. At the end of the trip, the drovers could deliver mail or delight kinfolk with news from afar.You can confirm all of this as plausible by reading numerous websites devoted to drove roads.

Caldwell, Yorkshire lies in Gilling Parish, deanery of Richmond, diocese of Yorkshire. Gilling Parish sustained a tax valuation reduced by more than 50% following the Robert Bruce raid of 1316. (Colin McNamee, The Wars of the Bruces (Scotland, England, and Ireland 1306-1328), Tuckwell Press, Ltd., 1997, p. 83.) McNamee determined the devaluation by review of the Prima Novio Taxatio of 1317. (Id.)

McNamee noted that during the Scottish raids of 1306-1328 many of the flocks of sheep in England were diminished in size and exports dramatically reduced. (McNamee, supra, p. 106.) He stated that by 1329, wool tithes in Northumberland surpassed those in 1312. He attributes this quick recovery to flocks of sheep being removed from the war zone and returned after the raids stopped. (Id.)

If there were regular movement of sheep between Yorkshire and Renfrwshire, the sheep tracks likely can still be seen today. All we now really need is confirmation from someone in England or Scotland of such tracks. Perhaps aerial views are available from streetmap .com .uk site.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, both English and Scottish landowners increasingly turned to enclosures that left tenants dispossessed, as more and more land was reserved for raising of sheep, to supply the wool needed by the increasingly mechanized textile industry. In 1724, an angry mob of peasants tore down the enclosures in Galloway (the Leveller's Revolt).

In the mid 18th through early 19th century century, sheep enclosures resulted in the displacement of the vast majority of Highlanders, fostering migration to America and elsewhere. Historian states thta sheep enclosure led to the disintegration of the Scottisdh Highland clan system. T.M. Devine, The Scottish Nation, Penguine Press, 1999, p. 174.

Since at least the time the Bronze Age Ice Man over 4000 years ago moved sheep between the valley floor and mountain pasture, shepherds have wandered from their homes.

I do not think it too far fetched to speculate that a wandering ewe brought the Caldwells to the Promised Land.