WILDLIFE
maintaining the dyke in his particular area. Today the Sheep Court continues, although the rules and regulations have altered greatly, and each sheep owner is part of it. Life on the beach has shaped this unique
breed. While the ewes are only brought to in- bye ground for lambing and usually raise one lamb (winter on the shore would prove too harsh to rear two), the wethers and tups remain on the shore year round. Feasting on seaweed, their days are governed
by the tides: ‘They know the tide afore it turns… they’ll be lying under the dyke and they’re starting to move doon afore the tide really turns,’ says islander Sydney Scott. It’s true: as soon as the water begins to retreat there is the patter of hooves as the beach boys follow the sea, often skipping far out onto the newly uncovered skerries in search of their favourite weed – dulse and laminaria. Some young sheep, absorbed by the abundance of food, become oblivious of the returning tide and must swim ashore. Inevitably there are casualties. During the winter the seaweed becomes
even more nutritious and large amounts are washed up. It was traditional to kill sheep around Christmas; selected animals were first inspected by the Sheep Court. Most are now killed at between three and five years old. North Ronaldsay mutton is low in fat and cholesterol and has a wonderful flavour. There are between 2,500 and 3,000 sheep, and though other breeds can be reared else-
where, this is not the case with the North Ronaldsay. Indeed, when kept on the mainland on grass, they develop copper poisoning and must be given a special supplement. Sheep-handling sessions, called pundings,
are important events in the social calendar – though with a dwindling, ageing population, it is a challenge to find enough able bodies to cope with semi-wild animals that have no desire to be penned. Pundings take place at high water when it is easier to round up sheep fleet and agile as the wind that sweeps over their island. Many tales relate to epic drives across slippery rocks with determined animals swimming out to sea to evade capture. A savage storm in 1937 demolished a huge
part of the dyke, and it took 80 men three weeks to build it back up again. Since then, the wall has suffered endless batterings, but in December 2012 another storm of unequalled force, coinciding with a particularly high tide, smashed down massive sections of the dyke. Temporary fencing was hastily erected to try to keep the sheep on the shore, to little avail. Keeping them in check without the dyke will prove hard. I met a couple of islanders, the revered sculptor Ian Scott, now in his 70s, and my old friend Bertie Thomson, nearly 80, busy repairing part of the wall. They were both despondent about the future. ‘I do not want to spend the last part of my life building walls,’ said Ian, ‘but there is no one left here really capable of doing it.’ Thomson, who knows as
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