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SHEEP SAGA - THE NORTH
RONALDSAYS
Gordon McLachlan
This unique breed now based
principally on the most northerly of the Northern Isles of Orkney - North
Ronaldsay (Map) - were common on the islands of Orkney and Shetland up to a
century and a half ago. Their origins are uncertain, perhaps indigenous,
perhaps introduced with the Norse colonies of more recent date. Certainly
the appearance is not dissimilar to the Gottland breed although it has
been suggested they are closely related to the prehistoric Palustris.
Another similarity is with rare breeds of Asian arkhan sheep in
Kazakhstan.
 It is a small
short-tailed sheep about 18 inches tall at the shoulder, with intelligent
rather dished faces and with a great variety of fleece colour. They
may be horned or not. Roughly 4% rams and 79% ewes have no horns or small
scurs only. The adult ram generally has a handsome set of curving horns,
those of the few horned ewes are short, or stunted, and generally straight
or slightly curved.
The colour originally showed great
variety - white, grey, black, blue grey, "moorit" light reddish brown or
tanay. However more recently with white wool In demand the coloured sheep
tend to have been eaten more than the white, that is to say while there
was still a reasonably, and relatively, large human population.
Their blood group interestingly is
Group B, that is to say prolific, allowing for deaths in years of adverse
environmental conditions, unlike the hill breeds, say Scottish Blackface,
who are Group A if pure, generally having single lambs and greater
resistance to an adverse environment.
 The notoriety
this breed has received centres on their seaweed eating. The
semi-feral flock is maintained outside a wall running round the edge of
the island confining the sheep to beach and foreshore with two areas of
rough pasture described by Pringle in 1874 as "strips of wasteland", and
little changed today. The flock has available about 193 hectares (477
acres) of rough pasture and about 265 hectares (655 acres) of intertidal
ground at low water as its total source of nourishment outside the wall.
The sheep in this area form groups or "clowgangs" inhabiting a section of
the 13 mile shoreline which is divided geologically by geos, rocky
promontories or the conjunction of wall with cliff areas. The groups are
loyal to their section of beach and the small band will "doose" or
butt-off other sheep encroaching on their territory. Low water allows more
freedom of movement so theoretically a sheep could walk around the island
in the intertidal area except that in cliff sections this area is
vertical.
 The sheep dyke
itself is of comparatively recent origin being constructed by the surplus
labour available in 1832 after the collapse of the kelp industry at the
same time that land-squaring had taken place instead of the wasteful
ancient run-rig system. Thus the sheep instead of having a diet
principally of terrestrial herbage with a substantial supplement of
seaweeds, as had any sheep, cattle or even deer who have access to
shoreline be it island or sea-loch, now had to exist almost entirely on
seaweeds. The exception to this generality was that pregnant ewes
were brought inside the wall prior to lambing and for a period thereafter
to maintain milk yield.
Generally there was, and is, plenty
of seaweed available especially in the winter months when gales pile
tangles on the shore by the ton, particularly south easterly gales tearing
the Laminaria hyperborea (cloustoni) from its moorings in the depths of
the sound between Sanday and North Ronaldsay which is 92% covered with
deep water tangles (L. hyperboea 84%, L. saccharina around 16%).
Strangely it is the winter when the North Ronaldsay sheep eat best, the
carcases are at their prime in December. Other times of the year
when the deep water tangles are less plentiful the sheep will wait for low
water when the other seaweeds are exposed; Laminaria digitala grows in the
shallows and can be grazed when the tide is out with some sheep even
swimming to rocky outcrops to reach it sometimes with unfortunate results
if inexperienced swimmers or caught by currents. Other known
seaweeds, the Wracks, are less popular. Channelled Wrack (Pelvetia
caniculata) and Flat Wrack (Fucus spiralis) may be nibbled when young
likewise Bladder Wrack (Fucus vesiculosus) and Knotted Wrack (Ascophyllum
nodosum) but they are not as popular as the Laminariales and Alaria
esculenta. On the other hand the red seaweeds like Pulse (Rhodymenia
palinatta) are probably the tastiest of all but they are not large neither
are they plentiful mainly appearing attached to the slipes of the
Laminaria species.
 The
nutritional content of the seaweeds varies seasonally, in fact it shows
even greater seasonal variation than terrestrial herbage. Amazingly these
sheep have adapted their digestive systems to utilize the peculiar sugars
present in, particularly, brown seaweeds. These sugars are different
from those present in green plants. Brown seaweeds contain alginic acid,
proteins, mannitod and laminarin. The first mentioned has a
structural function and the last is the seaweed equivalent of starch.
Laminarin is a glucan. Starch is a mixture of amylose and amylopectin. It
appears that in simple terms the Orkney sheep rumen bacteria can break
down the laminarin when very efficient rumen protosoa utilise the glucose
so formed, all since 1832.
The grazing habits also have had to
change with the diet. Instead of grazing during the day and
ruminating at night as other sheep generally do, the North Ronaldsays
graze with the tides (twice in 24 hours) and ruminate between low water
periods.
 The
native flock on the island is controlled by a Sheep Court with Native
Sheep Regulations which state the number of sheep each croft can keep e.g.
Holland 60, Bridesness 25, Newbiggins 45, Garso 25, Bewan 20. There
are 18 regulations in the 1968 version which were substituted on 4th
September 1968 for those of 1902. They cover sheep marks, the repair and
up-keep of the dyke, disposal of corpses, the election of Sheepmen -
"elected by the districts respectively to carry out and enforce the
present Regulations, strictly, honestly and without fear or favour" - down
to the Registrar - "Eighteenth - the Registrar for his services, shall be
allowed to keep fifteen sheep without being called upon to keep up any
share of the dykes"!
The sheep marks had to be recorded
"on or before the first day of February next" in the Sheep book. The marks
are made in the lambs' ears and are a language of their own. Here are some
of the descriptions, the sheep being seen face on, marks on the left ear
given first:-
Bewan Thumb bit behind, three rips
(stooed)
Lochend Rip, stooed hemlin before
Grind Shear, axe behind
Parkhouse Four bits, three ripe
North Manse Piece off and bit
behind, three rips
And so on for 67 crofts in 1934,
alas many fewer today. A fascinating record just the same, part of a
separate unique life woven around a separate unique breed.
I became involved with it because
of a problem arising when the native flock began to be dispersed away from
North Ronaldsay in case some disaster - e.g. Foot and Mouth Disease,
massive oil pollution - should wipe out the flock with the loss of a
unique gene bank.
 Groups of
sheep were moved to a variety of new locations many of them inland where
the sheep were faced with a diet consisting totally of terrestrial
herbage. A considerable number died unforseenly. The cause of death
was Copper poisoning. In a few cases this was the result of introducing
mineral supplements to their diet injudiciously containing Copper, but in
the majority of cases there was no apparent reason. I was called
upon to investigate this and to do so a small flock was set up at the V.I.
Laboratory in Thurso and many visits were made to North Ronaldsay.
Briefly by analysing the mineral constituents of terrestrial diets and the
seaweed diet we showed the problem lay in the Sulphur and Zinc levels,
without going into too much technical detail, and that after a number of
our flock had died of classical copper poisoning while eating only the
grass and hay of the laboratory paddocks, we could arrest the development
of haemolytic crisis by administering zinc sulphate. We also
demonstrated that after two generations on terrestrial herbage the North
Ronaldsay sheep could re-adapt to terrestrial herbage and stopped dying
without zinc sulphate treatment.
Dispersed flocks on islands like
Linga Holm near Stronsay never had a copper poisoning problem because
their diet was terrestrial herbage plus seaweed.
This is but a glimpse of an
enchanting breed. Their story goes on with new horizons in the
exotic breeds market, the exotic wools trade and perchance the gourmet
world.
It has been a rare and delightful
privilege to have been involved with them. Long may they continue.
Note
North Ronaldsay is the most northerly of the Orkney Islands that lie
to the north of Caithness across the Pentland Firth.
Map See
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