Scar Steading: Detail of stall remains at S-E end of byre. Digital image of D 3378

Description Scar Steading: Detail of stall remains at S-E end of byre. Digital image of D 3378

Date 10/8/1996

Collection Scottish Farm Buildings Survey

Catalogue Number SC 738884

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 3378

Scope and Content Detail of stall remains at south-east end of byre, Scar Farm, Sanday, Orkney Islands Scar is a coastal farm on the island of Sanday which is part of the Orkney group. Orkney's economy has always relied on agriculture but, in the 18th and early 19th centuries, harvesting kelp, a type of seaweed, became important followed by the rise of the oil industry in the 20th century. This shows the remains of typical stone byre trevises (partitions), sunk into the floor of the byre and attached to the wall. Like so much of Orkney, Sanday is almost treeless which meant that timber was in short supply. However, stone was readily available and was used in many aspects of construction. Due to Orkney's short summers and long winters, cattle might have to spend many months in byre like this. The manure collected from the byre was used to make compost to fertilise the soil though cattle manure had fewer soil nutrients than manure from the sheep, horses, pigs and poultry also kept at Scar. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/738884

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap