Photos

For isolated communities throughout the world, preserving food for the winter must always have been a major concern, and it was no different for the people of
Ness (7.4Mb download). As in most island communities seabirds were an important source of fat and protein. Every year from time immemorial men of Ness rowed their open boats across the turbulent Atlantic to Sula Sgeir, a small island group about 40 miles north of the Butt of Lewis, where they found enormous numbers of gannets. Every year they spent a fortnight there, slaughtering some of the gannet chicks or gugas, removing heads and innards and salting them, leaving them to dry in the wind until it was time to go home. That tradition is still carried on today, though the boats are very different, with a special dispensation written into the 1954 Wild Birds Protection Act by a Statutory Order which allows the Nessmen to continue their taste both for adventure and for the guga.

This photo was taken in summer, 1963, as was yesterday's. As soon as the boat tied up, 2 men jumped off, then another pair and another and another. Gugas were thrown from hand to hand up the pier and then flung down apparently at random. A wall of gugas built up, maybe 2 or 3 feet high and several feet wide. They would be left there to dry.
In October, back home we received a parcel - a guga, a present from the people who had entertained us that memorable day. To cook it we boiled it in a bucket of water for 2 hours, then tipped out the oily, smelly, salty water in a corner of the garden. Another 2 hours simmering in fresh water and the flesh was tender and ready to eat with boiled potatoes and sorrel puree. The flavour was a bit like kipper, the texture like duck. We enjoyed it, but would not have wanted it every day. Each autumn for the next seven years we were able to invite various friends to come and sample a guga from Ness.

For a map of Sula Sgeir click here and then on OS MAPS.

This scan needed no pp other than resizing and slight USM.