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Vol 15 No 3 Paddocks and Perches Page 4 The Orkney Sheep Foundation By Kate Traill-Price The Orkney Sheep Foundation was founded at While other flocks in similar circumstances the start of 2015 with a clear objective: that of suffered at the chanGes and harsh conditions, “conserving an island heritage.” the wily sheep of North Ronaldsay not only adapted to their new habitat, but thrived The island in question is North Ronaldsay - a upon it. With the wild North Sea throwinG an tiny piece of land dotted at the very top of the abundance of seaweed onto archipelago known as the the shore, the sheep’s diet Orkney Islands, in became an oceanic feast of northernmost Scotland in nutrient-rich kelp. Unlike the United KinGdom. most other animals, the On this small, unassuminG North Ronaldsay sheep are island which counts less actually at their optimum than 50 residents, lives a weight in the deepest breed of sheep unlike any depths of winter, when the other in the world, and this sea’s fierce rip tides produce is the heritage that the OSF an even Greater bounty. is seekinG to conserve: the ancient breed of Each island crofter was entitled to keep a North Ronaldsay seaweed-eatinG sheep. select number of sheep on the shore, and in The flock’s bloodline Goes back thousands of exchanGe would help to rebuild and repair any years, with recent studies by the French section of sheepdyke that ran alonGside their Natural History Museum showinG that Orkney farminG land. sheep were supplementinG their diet with So it worked for hundreds of years but with seaweed as far back as 4000 BC. the island’s population now ageinG and What makes the North Ronaldsay sheep so diminished, a new strateGy is needed. The specifically unique is their habitat. There are sheepdyke has been devastatinGly damaged no fields or pens for these animals. Instead by recent storms, and funds are needed to this small, hardy, Goat-like breed live in one help its repair. Giant flock of nearly 3,000 on the 270 acres of If they are able to venture inland, this special rock and sand that makes up the foreshore. and unique flock risk disease and pollutinG Even more notably, they are kept there by a their pure bloodline by matinG with other 20-kilometer, nearly 200 year old man-made breeds kept on the island, and - with a diet no stonewall known as a lonGer used to ‘sheepdyke’ that runs the eatinG Grass - entire perimeter of the copper poisoning. island. You can help the The sheepdyke was OSF in its mission to oriGinally built in the early rebuild the 1830s in response to the sheepdyke, and by collapse of Orkney’s kelp doing so secure the industry - until then the safety of this island’s most profitable remarkable piece of source of income. A livinG history. To drastic chanGe was needed and between the make a donation or learn more about the OSF residents and the island’s Laird, John Traill, it please visit was decided that North Ronaldsay’s fertile www.theorkneysheepfoundation.orG.uk land would be best used for cattle farminG and Photo above of the iconic lighthouse on the crops. northern point of the island, which is the It was a bold move that saw the wall erected tallest land, based light in Britain. at the tide’s hiGhest level, and the sheep Photo www.visitscotland.com banished onto the beach in the process. Vol 15 No 3 Paddocks and Perches Page 13 North Ronaldsay Sheep, eating kelp on the shore, and on the Dyke .

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