View of steading from top of lighthouse to NW of steading

Description View of steading from top of lighthouse to NW of steading

Date 8/8/1996

Collection Scottish Farm Buildings Survey

Catalogue Number C 78294 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 738819

Scope and Content Steading from top of lighthouse to north-west, Start Point Lighthouse Farm, Sanday, Orkney Islands Start Point Lighthouse on the island of Sanday is the most easterly lighthouse on Orkney. Low-lying and almost treeless, Sanday has only a few low hills to protect it from the wind. The island is difficult to distinguish in poor visibility and posed a hazard to sailors. This shows the lighthouse-keeper's steading. He worked this croft, or small farm, as well as looking after the lighthouse. The low building on the left with small courtyards at either end was a pig sty. Beyond that is a fuel store, circular kiln, and long barn with a single-storeyed workshop at the end. Crofts, or small farms, in Orkney survived the changes wrought by agricultural improvement in the mid-19th century, unlike similar farms in other parts of Scotland. In Orkney small farmers supplemented their incomes using other trades and became fishermen, stone masons, tailors and blacksmiths. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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