Obair La
Sunday 10 April 2005, 6.10pm, STV and Grampian
Islands Crofter
The Shiants and the Pairc area of Lochs in Lewis provide stunning backdrops 6for this week’s Obair La, the television series that allows us to briefly share a few moments in the busy lives of six remarkable people who live and work in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
John Murdo Matheson, a young crofter from Gravir in Lewis, has always had a deep regard for the land his family has worked for generations. His father, recognising the young boy’s interest in crofting and livestock, affectionately referred to him as ‘Friends of the Earth’ in recognition of this affiliation.
For the past eight years, John Murdo has been tenant of the Shiant Isles: a group of small islands situated about five miles off the east coast of Lewis. Now uninhabited, these islands will have witnessed mans footprints over the centuries; from the first millennia Irish Christian monks who visited our shores, to the Viking raiders and the Lords of the Isles who held dominion throughout the west coast of Scotland during different periods of our turbulent history.
The largest of the Shiant islands is Garbh Eilean, a rugged and steep rocky outcrop that rises some 500 feet above the sea. Eilean Mhuire, the most fertile of the three principle Shiant Isles, is embellished with the characteristic ripples of rigs or lazybeds; testimony to the industry of earlier times when fertile pockets of agricultural land on the lower slopes were actively tilled and worked. The third island, Eilean an Tighe, was the main focus of early habitation and now supports the only building on the Shiants – a picture-postcard cottage used by John Murdo during working stays on the islands. Throughout the summer, the island is also utilised by the many visitors to the Shiants, attracted by the unique environment and birdlife of this unspoilt Hebridean jewel.
The rich rustic browns and greens of the landscape, combined with the stunning coastline, are awe-inspiring in their natural beauty. But the picturesque and seemingly idyllic island setting belies the depth of dedication and sheer hard work required to manage livestock on the Shiants.
On a good day, John Murdo can get from his home in Gravir in Lewis to the islands in about thirty minutes aboard the small RIB he bought especially for this purpose two years ago. He maintains a flock of a few hundred Cheviot sheep on the Shiants; grazing throughout the year on the lush grass that carpet much of the Hebridean archipelago. Back home in Lochs he keeps a flock of the smaller hardy blackface sheep.
His season’s work on the Shiants starts in November when he ferries the rams out to the island, taking them back off again around New Year time. The lambing season commences in May, and later, during the summer, the sheep are shorn near the cottage at the foot of Eilean an Tighe’s imposing escarpment. In mid-September, after the lambs have spent several months gorging themselves on the island’s rich natural pasture, they are ready for transportation back to Lewis for the annual livestock sales. This is a difficult and potentially hazardous operation for John Murdo and his helpers that involves guiding the animals off the precariously steep and craggy hills before ferrying them out on a small boat to the larger fishing vessel that awaits its cargo for onward shipment to Lewis.
The offshore islands have a preponderance of seafowl; many of which migrate there about the same time each year. One of the most charismatic of these are the puffins, which arrive around the tenth of May to prepare their nests; briefly heading back out to sea for a week to build up their reserves before finally nesting.
In his book about the Shiants, ‘Sea Room’, the islands’ owner Adam Nicolson eloquently describes the awkward, almost comical, landing of the arriving puffin as, "less a controlled jump-jet settling into place than a managed crash, after which there is a lot of head-shaking and shoulder ruffling by which coherence is re-established and dignity restored."
Though the Shiants form a key part in John Murdo’s life, his main occupation is delivering feeding stuff and agricultural goods to the numerous crofts and smallholdings scattered throughout Lewis and Harris. Having been previously employed on a Lewis farm for thirteen years, then for a time at Stornoway abattoir, John Murdo’s entire life has been spent in agriculture and farming.
Produced and Directed by Magaidh MacKinnon, Paracas Media, edited at Studio Alba in Stornoway and funded by Seirbheis nam Meadhanan Gàidhlig, Obair Là will be broadcast on STV and Grampian on Sunday 10 April 2005 at 6.10pm.
For further information:
Magaidh MacKinnon, Paracas Media
Tel: 01851 810 269
