If you travel north of Europe, you reach Britain. At the northern end of Britain is Scotland, and to the north of Scotland lie the Orkneys, the northernmost island of which is North Ronaldsay. It is a unique island in which a centuries-old method of sheep farming is still practised today. The fields on the island are protected by a sea dyke, a 2-metre high dry stone wall which runs for 12 miles just above the high water line all the way around the island. For most of the year the sheep are confined to the beach side of the wall where they live on a diet of seaweed and sea water. The dyke is there to protect the crops from the sea water and the sheep.
However, the dry stone wall has a few drawbacks due to the way that it was made without concrete, and carefully assembled stone by stone by the islanders. This job starts in the early spring and continues through the summer, autumn and, in bad years, most of the winter. Because it is not solid, the wall tends to let the water through, so the fields that are being protected from the sea water do tend to get covered in sea water. Secondly, sheep can leap up at sections of the stone wall and gradually knock it down, so that they are able to find a way through to eat the crops that lie beyond. So the crops are protected from neither sheep nor sea water.
The wall was completed in 1832. Every year since then the islanders have patiently rebuilt the wall, stone by stone by stone, from spring to summer to autumn to winter. Every year the waves have washed up against it and the sea water has washed through the wall and onto the fields. And every year the sheep have leapt up at the wall, knocked down sections and managed to escape from the beach onto the fields beyond. The islanders break off from their general repairs of the wall to undertake specific repairs to such breaches, patiently replacing stone after stone until the wall is as good as new and the sheep are once more securely confined to the beach side of the wall.
Some years are worse than others. Riptides and storms in December 2012 and January 2013 devastated a large section of the wall, meaning that the fields were covered in sea water, and the sheep once more escaped into the soggy fields that lay beyond the broken wall. The islanders had to work extra hard to rebuild the fragile wall stone by stone, until it was once more the formidable, unbreachable fortress that it had previously been. Then, the waves came back, the sheep leapt up at the wall, and more holes appeared and the islanders had to continue working from late winter into spring, summer, autumn and early and midwinter to repair the wall, to restore it to perfect condition once more.
When there are any controversies about the maintenance of the wall, the islanders take their disputes to the Sheep Court, a special feature of island life. If, for instance, one islander suggests not rebuilding the wall, or building a new and more solid wall, the dispute will be taken to the court, where the decision will be to continue repairing and restoring the old wall.
The ongoing repair and restoration of the sheep dyke is an exhausting, year-round activity for the islanders, who maintain great pride in the structure and significance of the sea wall. The system of sheep management used on North Ronaldsay has been in operation for centuries, and the island is keen to welcome new residents. On arrival, new residents should report to the Sheep Court where you will be assigned to a wall-building team, who you should expect to spend most of the spring, summer, autumn and winter months with, patiently and slowly rebuilding the sea wall, stone by stone by stone by stone by stone …