View of threshing barn from S

Description View of threshing barn from S

Date 4/6/1997

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number D 23607 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 738987

Scope and Content Threshing barn, Warsetter Farm, Sanday, Orkney Islands, from south Warsetter is a well-preserved example of a characteristic 19th-century Orcadian steading which, until abandoned in the late 1980s was very well-maintained. At an altitude of some 60m above sea level, Warsetter is on the highest point of Sanday, one of the largest of the Orkney Islands. This shows the threshing barn in which the threshing machine, divided over both storeys of the barn, was housed. After harvesting, sheaves were fed into the threshing machine. It separated the straw from the grain and bagged it. The grain could then be dressed and bruised in the threshing barn as it was needed. Warsetter was a mixed arable farm which had sheep and cattle. There were approximately 200 ewes and, during the winter months, about 43 cattle. Orkney's cattle trade expanded significantly with the introduction of a regular steamship service between Kirkwall and Leith on mainland Scotland in 1836. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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