The Stone Stairs.

No 56. THE STONE STAIRS.

The Stone Stairs.

I found this old photo yesterday of the roup or sale of Isauld in November 1955 among many treasures while clearing out some of the House of Isauld in preparation for Sharon and my moving to Ivy Cottage at Greenland, hopefully completed before you read this. Old treasures turn up in the most surprising places, but after 53 years in this house there is much to find. Must not get too sentimental about it but heart-stopping at times. This photo is of the Farm Roup of Isauld in early November 1955 when Mrs Macdonald was retiring and my late wife Nettie and I were taking over the farm on a tenancy from the U.K.A.E.A., some small recompense for having to sell and leave the very good House of Lower Dounreay at the point of a gun. Nettie and I and our son Tom moved into Isauld House in May 1956.
I wrote some time ago of our farm sale in November 1944 at Whitehall in Stronsay and mentioned the Stone Stairs, but had no foto of that though I was there. Stays in my memory. We were at Greenland Mains by that time but I was determined to go to the sale. A pound or two from mother and off I set walking to get to Scrabster for the St Ola, only 12 miles. Got to West Greenland road end and Dan Gunn fortuitously came down his road in his Hillman car on his way to Thurso. Picked me up and kindly drove me to Scrabster. I had time enough to wait thanks to his lift, so spent the time looking at the many fishing boats tied up in the old harbour, now so few.. Passport control, or identity card anyway, then the old St Ola to Stromness, bus to Kirkwall, up to Buttquoy unannounced but Charlie Tait made me very welcome and a bed for the night. Very early next morning down to the Kirkwall Pier and the Earl Sigurd which father had chartered for the day to take his hopeful buyers out to Stronsay for the sale. And it was full.

As at Isauld in the foto, and large in that day, was the sale of the bits and pieces from the top of the Stone Stairs. That stone stairs at any farm sale is familiar to all those who have been to a farm roup and the best possible platform you could get for the auctioneer from where he could see and take all bids. Odds and ends kept appearing as if out of Aladdin’s Cave, an endless stream taking hours to clear before moving on to the cattle and the sheep and the implements laid out in tidy lines in the nearest field
The photo is of the late Ben Sinclair of Alexander Sinclair, Auctioneers, Wick and Thurso, a firm who completed their Century in business before retiring and selling to Aberdeen Marts. Their Wick Mart is now a car park for the Council, their Thurso Mart is now Tesco’s Store.
Ben is in full flow, taking bids from where he could find them, even a bidder sitting on a cloud if need be!!! . At the top of the stairs is Geordie Allen (late), who worked at Isauld for Mrs Macdonald and stayed on to work for us at Isauld until he retired in his 70s to live in Thurso, continuing his art of the very best drystone dyke building as a part time occupation on Scrabster Farm for John Henderson. He had previously been on Lower Dounreay with Jack Davidson but the Wartime trauma of very good farm being turned into a never used Airfield for the Admiralty meant a reduction in farm staff so he moved next door to Mrs Macdonald on Isauld. Jack was killed in Sicilly in 1943, a Major in the Highland Division. I believe on his last leave he hardly went out as his farm was being bulldozed to oblivion.

The white capped man I cannot presently recall but some reader will. Below him is Uistain Macdonald holding a parcel of hessian four bushel bags on his shoulder.
On the left of the photo leaning on his horn handled shepherd’s crook is the late John Morris, at the time of the sale living at Borlum in Reay but latterly at Olrig House. Above him is David Sinclair though I thought it could have been the late Donald Coghill of Stemser. I will take a rain check on that one, probably David Sinclair is correct as he stayed at Isauld and worked spare time for Mrs Macdonald. His main job was as an auctioneer with Hamilton’s Auction Marts in Thurso.
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The lady whose head appears at bottom left of the photo should be Carrie Sinclair of Sinclairs Marts, keeping the Roup Roll as each item was sold, what it was, how much it made, whom to. The real hero, however, is the Stone Stairs.

Stone Stairs were such an important part of old farming, found on almost all farms. They had an advantage in that they took up no floor space inside the building. One at the end of the loft give good head room for entry in the centre. of the gable end. ((( as at Stainland.))) This with low buildings and low roofed lofts was a serious concern, side stairs needed quite a fancy door for entry and would usually intrude into the roof, needing a dormer type roofed opening for entry.
The stairs gave good loading for carts, one could lower sacks of grain to a suitable step and onto the cart. To fill the Loft bags of grain or any other commodity would be swung between two men from a cart onto the usual platform at the head of the stairs as in the Isauld photo and then taken on a spanker through the door and into the loft. The “Spanker” was a small two handled two wheeled shallow lower lipped sack barrow still used to day for many tasks, but not for taking bags of anything into a farm loft. Wool bags at sheep shearing time at Isauld were put into the loft at the Stone Stairs and again very handy for loading onto the wool lorry.
Another practice, and very much more usual, was to get a sack of grain balanced on ones shoulders, if barley two cwts or 100 kgs, if oats 1.5 cwts or 75 kgs, and walk or rather climb up the stone stairs and into the loft. Serious work, needing balance and know-how more than strength. Really yesterday’s version of today’s fork-lift truck.
A stone stairs often had a small compartment underneath which did service as a dog kennel. At Isauld it had a tiny pane of cemented-in glass and a wooden door tin lined to stop a dog eating his way out. One poor dog I had suffered a massive infestation of ticks, a left over from the days when Mrs Macdonald also had the hill farms of Brubster and Achvarasdal, and her dogs would have a day on the Hill now and then to help John Mackay her shepherd. The result was taking home to Isauld a severe infestation of these loathsome parasites.
It was in my first year at Isauld, I had never seen ticks before. But a good bath for the dog in sheep dip, the dreaded DDT but what a boon it was then, and a good copious soaking under the stairs with more. Threw in a lot of Jeyes Fluid for good measure, the place sure stank for a few days!! I never saw another tick. Anyone who has walked a Hill with a gun dog will know what I had to contend with, and it is still a serious menace for Lymes Disease in humans. Not to be trifled with either.
Now demolished after an unfortunate fire in August 1997, the Isauld Stone Stairs is no more. Funny enough, I still miss it!! ,