North Ronaldsay’s wool mill is expanding into new premises, with the development of a meat larder alongside it at a new commercial hub for the island at Trebb. It’s being developed by North Ronaldsay Trust, whose Community Development Manager Luke Fraser describes the progress of the project.

The wool mill was started by the island’s Community Council, buying the wool clip from the growers and sending it to Brora to be spun, and then a unique type of scaled-down spinning equipment was sourced in Prince Edward Island.  Jane Cooper, who herself keeps a flock of another ancient breed, Boreray sheep, will bring the latest news of a development with much potential for North Ronaldsay and other parts of Orkney – a Tiny Trailer abattoir, fitting on two trailers.

The story of the sheep themselves and their traditional management is told by Michael Scott, who is Clerk to the North Ronaldsay Sheep Court and helps to look after the flock of the family croft of Cruesbreck. In recent years the repair of the 13-mile-long sheep dyke confining them to the foreshore has been greatly boosted by the annual North Ronaldsay Sheep Festival, which Tim Ross describes.

For more background to the sheep, their wool and the mill, there is a video narrated by the Trust’s vice-chair, North Isles Councillor Heather Woodbridge.

Organised by the North Ronaldsay Trust and supported by the OIC Nordic Atlantic Fund