The first of a series of puzzle caches based on the historic industries of Skye.
Ruins of an old salthouse - Loch Pooltiel
The history of herring fishing on Skye dates from prehistoric times. Evidence from the archaeological excavation at High Pasture Cave shows that early man was fishing and eating herring sometime between 1200 BC and 200 BC (late bronze age to early iron age) . Within the fish remains found and identified during excavation, herring was the main species represented. 57
It wasn’t until the 19th century that herring fishing was conducted on an industrial scale In those days, of course, the fish trackers were not technical instruments as they are today, but watching nature, “You either watch for them playing, you know, jumping out of the water or watch for a gannet diving on a spot of herring. Birds used to be our best friends then. Seagulls and gannets, of course”. 18
Herring is a small fish but shoal in large numbers. The all time record catch is believed to be held by a Shetland fishing boat, the Reaper, with almost a quarter of a million fish. Here on Skye, the catches were much smaller, the record being held by the Uig boat, Northern Gannet with 53,914 fish, the second biggest catch being by the Eilean a’ cheo of Elgol which caught 27,743
The job of gutting the fish was for the women. The - "clann-nighean an sgadain", could gut up to 60 fish in as many minutes, getting them ready for packing into large barrels of salt. 747
In Scandinavian countries, the annual Herring Festival is still a major event and perhaps it was the Vikings who originally brought this festival to Skye hundreds of years ago. On Skye, the Herring Festival (Lath na Gocaireachd) was celebrated each year in April. 6
The festival “queen” was the “Silver Darling” (as the herring itself is often called). A pretty young girl was selected and dressed, rather like a mermaid, with a long knitted fish tail. The festival “king” was the fisherman who had caught most herring in the previous season. He was known as the Sgadan Dearg and represented his village. The other villages each selected their own champion (known as Amadan or sometimes Dearg Amadan) who challenged the Sgadan Dearg in a series of games such as “crans”. (whereby the participants were given a short time to collect as many large stones as possible in the type of barrel or basket which would normally be used to bring the herring ashore) The winner was the person capable of lifting the heaviest barrel. 3
Herring is no longer fished commercially around Skye and as the herring declined in number so the festival itself lost importance and is no longer celebrated. 440
APRIL FOOL
Placed with kind permission of the John Muir Trust
Please note that there are some red herrings in this description.
The terrain difficulty is based on the assumption that you will walk. While it is possible to drive to near the cache location, the road is in extremely poor condition, little more than a track in places. There is very little parking at the north end of the Moll Road, please do not obstruct passing places. Place for a few cars (and the chance to pick up another cache) at the south end of the road
PLEASE NOTE: I no longer live on Skye and cannot maintain this cache. It is available for adoption but in the meantime, I would be grateful if visiting cachers help to keep it in good condition for those who follow.