Photographing traditional sheep shearing in the islands has been on my list for years. This year my trip home coincided with the fank in Garynahine, my Mum’s home village, the day after my wedding shoot – so I took some of the wedding visitors over to experience it and got a few shots and fleeces in myself as well helping uncle Angus. For those not in the know, the process is as follows.
The sheep are all gathered from the moor by the men on foot with their sheep dogs. This took a couple of hours for the Garynahine fank but could take much longer in other larger districts (such as Uig where they used to take 12 hours to cover the area!) . The sheep are then penned in the fank and taken out one by one for shearing. First, three of the legs must be tied (really tight, as I learned when one of mine broke free and tried to escape mid-shearing) then you can shear from the skirts up, turning the sheep onto its other side half way through. Once shorn, the sheep is decorated with marking spray with the owner’s unique mark, the number on its ear tag is recorded and feet are checked before it is put into the sheared pen. The fleeces are sold on in bulk and the wool purchased by wholesalers and processed into coloured thread for resale or weaving into cloth – often ending up as Harris Tweed.
show hide 2 comments