meaning of a occupational description

[Maiden Stone]

My thoughts on the coloured markings on sheep found on open country, are that each colour denotes the owner of the sheep.  When they are all gathered at the end of the season, then each owner can claim his/her own flock.

I could be wrong 

A shepherd/farmer can also spot his/her sheep from a distance (with binoculars if necessary) without having to approach them. If more than one member of a family owned a flock there would be slight variations in markings.

[Greensleeves]

A lot of the Welsh mountain sheep are 'hefted' which means that they have ancestral lands where they go, which makes it easy for the farmer to find them.  Here, in the spring, the flocks of mountain sheep - having been brought into the valleys for the winter - will be taken up again to the high commons and let loose, and they will, as flocks, go to their 'hefts', and of course, the farmer would know where to find them.  The clearing of the commons in late October is an amazing sight, with thousands of sheep being brought down from the mountains and taken to their winter pastures.

[Maiden Stone]

Ah ha - so that would explain the apparently unfenced sheep grazing in the hills above Llangollen when we went for a drive up that way through the old slate areas - (sheep with different coloured paint splotches on them - mostly pink thereabouts, if I remember correctly.    )

Also on hills and moors in Northern England and other places. There may be local agreements about grazing dates for conservation reasons. An American visitor in Cumberland was puzzled why the sheep didn't run away. They are truly free-range. Cattle and horses can also be turned out in some areas, e.g. Dartmoor and Exmoor ponies.
There's a scene of a flock heading for the hills in the sheep episode of tv series "The Secret Life of Farm Animals". It's set on a Welsh farm. The sheep were let loose on the mountainside directly above the farm. When they reached the mountain they divided into smaller groups, each group following a separate sheep-path; when a path divided each group split again and so on, until each ewe and her lambs arrived at their own patch of grass.
Dry-stone walls on hill-farms have "cripple-holes" built into them which can be opened to allow sheep access to and fro the fields and hillside/moorland, or blocked to keep them in or out, depending on season, weather, availability of pasture etc. A ewe's familiarity with her area enables her to work out if the nutrition to be gained by going to another grazing spot will exceed energy expended in walking to it.

[Greensleeves]

MS's post confirms what I said about hefted flocks.  Believe me, I could bore you all for hours on hefted flocks on the commons of mid Wales, and the management and history of Welsh common land.....   

[Maiden Stone]

Greensleeves once posted a portrait of a handsome Swaledale ram. Swaledale is a small, hardy breed suited for living in upland areas.

[Viktoria]

So many breeds ,the Leicester had wool right down to the ground,well the show rams did.
The Herdwick saved from extinction by Beatrix Potter is a hardy sheep ,well in the Lake District they would have to be.
It seems a shame that such wonderful fabric as wool is now so dear yet the fleeces earn farmers very little.
The Highland Blackface has such magnificent horns,those containers Mulls or Mauls I think for tobacco or snuff at Regimental  dinners ,great horns mounted in silver look like the horns of the H/land B/face.
Viktoria.

[Maiden Stone]

"The Secret History of Farm Animals" demonstrated, with modern technology, how fleece keeps a sheep warm and dry.
A family connected with one of my lines was called Ewbank (counties of Durham and Yorkshire). I think there is/was a place called Ewbank; I don't know whether place or personal name came first. One parish register with Ewbank has Lamb and Hugginson families. I wondered if the last name derived from Hogg(et), a young sheep. (Huggins is a Northern word for part of sheep anatomy.) Surnames Shepherd and Herd occurred in the register. Another name was Cowburn. (I have Cowban ancestry.)

[Viktoria]

An attempt was made to get Hogget more popular.
Like older  lamb but not yet as muttony as mutton which can have an unpleasant greasy taste.
It was used quite a bit in one of the big cookery competitions,Great British
Menu I think but don’t hear of it much now.
In Yorkshire and Scotland too the word Ewe is Yow
Probably other places as well.a ram hereabouts is a Tup.
The little paths worn by the hooves of grazing sheep do practically no harm to the landscape whereas those walkers make cause great erosion and need constant maintenance.
Nothing quite like as charming as a little lamb and it wil soon be  that time again here.Lambing is earlier in many places.
Nice restaurant near me,the dining room facing a lovely hillside.
In Springtime you can see the new lambs playing,climbing over a fallen tree
and literally gambolling.
It would be a hard person who ordered Spring Lamb from the manu.
Viktoria.

[bbart]

In Reply #5, Maidenstone said

I suggest that a sheep walk is/was part of the mountain to which sheep on a named farm were hefted.

That sent me on a hunt which may have resulted in something of interest to the OP.

I could only find one farm of "686 acres with sheepwalk" in the census for the area in question in 1851.  The farm was Nantllwyd, the head was a widow, Margaret Jones, occupation being farmers widow 686 acres including sheep walk.

In searching for that farm, I came across a blog that mentions a John Jones of Nantllwyd, in the right area ( I think!) who gave up some of the farm to have a church built on it, but he died before it was completed. 

The problem I am having is that the writer jumps around in time and places, and I am not sure if they are still talking about the right area when they talk about John's role in the construction etc and there may be more than one farm with that name.

The blog is at http://daibach-welldigger.blogspot.com/2011/07/soar-y-mynydd-revival-at-remotest.html    If someone with better eyes than me wants to take a peek at it to confirm,  just search the page for Nantllwyd.

Edit  I just found a newspaper article from 1933 talking about this church, being the most remote chapel in Wales, which led me to this wiki article! 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soar_y_mynydd  The History section matches that blog!