Sheep shearing at Glendale, South Uist, looking towards Loch Boisdale

Sheep shearing at Glendale, South Uist, looking towards Loch Boisdale

ID: QZP99_97193_04_02 DESCRIPTION: Shearing was hard physical work so it was often done by a team of people. Sheep were placed on a wooden bench or a mound of turf and sheared with hand shears. They were then marked with their owner's mark for identification.The woman kneeling on the ground is Mairi Macrae. Glendale is on Skye, four miles west of Dunvegan Castle. In the 1880s, locals tried to oppose their factor's unfair restrictions but a gunboat was sent in and several of the protesters were arrested, including John MacPherson, 'the Glendale Martyr'. This unrest was one of the events which led to the Crofter's Holding Act of 1886. In 1904 the land was bought from the landlord by the Board of Agriculture and sold to the crofters, who became the first crofter landowners in the country. This image comes from a collection gifted to Edinburgh Central Library by Dr Isabel F. Grant. The collection includes photographs taken by a number of different photographers. This image was taken by Margaret Fay Shaw and is part of the Margaret Fay Shaw Collection, Canna House, National Trust for Scotland PLACENAME: Glendale DISTRICT: Skye OLD COUNTY/PARISH: INVERNESS: Duirinish CREATOR (AV): Margaret Fay Shaw SOURCE: Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh Central Library COLLECTION: I F Grant Photographic Archive Asset ID: 38910 KEYWORDS: