View showing former silage pit (NC 5324 1490) from NW See MS/744/102/1, 2, 3, item 2

Description View showing former silage pit (NC 5324 1490) from NW See MS/744/102/1, 2, 3, item 2

Date 17/8/1995

Collection Scottish Farm Buildings Survey

Catalogue Number C 61100

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 738266

Scope and Content Former silage pit, Shinness Steading, Highland Shinness Steading was built on the huge Sutherland estate which, by 1873, comprised almost 1.3m acres, more than 90% of the county. Shinness was originally a sheep farm, but between 1872 and 1877, the land was drained to create four new arable farms and in 1882 new buildings were erected at Shinness itself. This shows the remains of the farm's silage pit from the north-west, with the threshing barn above. The pit has a porch above it built of stone with a corrugated iron roof. The double door which originally opened into the pit is now covered by the modern, metal-built implement shed to the right of the picture. The pit was 2.15m deep and lined on three sides with red 'plastic' clay bricks. A silage pit was a particularly innovative idea as most such pits were not built until after 1883. It is the only silage pit left on the Sutherland Estate, was part of the original farm lay out of 1882, and was used until the 1920s. There was a wooden ramp over the pit which had a concrete floor. The silage was used as fertiliser for the crops grown on the farm. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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