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Heritable maternal effects have important consequences for the evolutionary dynamics of phenotypic traits under selection, but have only rarely been tested for or quantified in evolutionary studies. Here we estimate maternal effects on early‐life traits in a feral population of Soay sheep (Ovis aries) from St Kilda, Scotland. We then partition the maternal effects into genetic and environmental components to obtain the first direct estimates of maternal genetic effects in a free‐living population, and furthermore test for covariance between direct and maternal genetic effects. Using an animal model approach, direct heritabilities (h²) were low but maternal genetic effects (m²) represented a relatively large proportion of the total phenotypic variance for each trait (birth weight m² = 0.119, birth date m² = 0.197, natal litter size m² = 0.211). A negative correlation between direct and maternal genetic effects was …