No 68. RABBITS pb 07.01.2011

No 68 RABBITS.

There was a famous song going the rounds during the War of 1939/45. . “ Run, rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run.” The song had a long ago provenance but was adapted in memory of a Shetland rabbit alleged to have been killed by German bombing early in the War. Or so they said.!!! .
The song was sung at every Concert I remember during the War anyway, the chorus rising to the rafters. .

Rabbits were big business for some people. Wm Tait’s Dairies1880 to 1941caused me some surprise when I came across the entry for the Bu of Rousam in 1898/99 for rabbits shipped out of Stronsay for my grandfather David Pottinger.
The Bu’ of Rousam was connected to the rest of Stronsay by a narrow sandy neck of land, the Links. That area was grossly overrun by rabbits. Still is but to a much lesser extent. Our father told us that the Links was where he and his elder by 2 years brother David as boys caught rabbits and made their pocket money by selling the skins.

There was a down side to rabbits, and the Diaries make m,ention of it. On October 7th 1897, William records “Carting sheaves all day - finished Cupa field & a few loads from Brecks - took in most of the Murtle Oats from Big Park - all the rabbit cuttings put in sheaf loft.”
Rabbit cuttings were the parts of the grain fields next the Links and savaged by rabbits to the extent the straw was too short to be cut other than by the scythe and salvaged as fodder.
That damage to crops went on into my day at Greenland Mains. The Links end of adjoining fields was often severely damaged, both grain crops and, even more expensive, the crops of turnips. Rabbits preferred swede turnips, sweeter than yellows, and would come past the yellow turnips to get to the sweeter swedes farther up the field. We could not fool them by sowing yellows in the lower parts of the fields.
Rabbits fed on a broad front but hares would come up the field along a line of swedes taking a skinning bite here and there as they went, leaving a lot of damaged swede turnips that would then be further ruined by frost. We did not have too many hares, today they are pretty scarce.

Lower Dounreay was not a rabbit problem but at Isauld we had a well populated Links with some rabbits coming over the Isauld Burn from Sandside Estate Links Golf Course in a very hungry winter to add to the damage in adjacent Isauld fields. Water in the Burn did not deter them.
According to the Diaries, the trapping season at the Bu’ began in November.
And the entry for Nov 06 1899 makes reference to the rabbit hunters starting that day.

It looks as if the rabbit hunters might have come from another of the North Isles as the Orcadia went in to Kirkwall from Westray on Mondays, calling en route at Papa Westray, Eday, Sanday and Stronsay.
Their first shipment of 76 pairs was Monday 13th Nov. Winter cold kept them fresh enough without refrigeration on the S.S. Orcadia in to Kirkwall. During the week they would be hung high in pairs on wires in an airy shed in the steading until crating for shipping. Then they were hung in pairs in open lath- sided crates with plenty of air circulation. Whole rabbits were perishable and I found only in the colder months of December through to early March were rabbits shipped to Kirkwall. These months were also the months when the rabbits favourite pastime of breeding even more rabbits was temporarily halted. So all rabbits caught were marketable.


Every Monday for the time of the rabbit hunting a cart went from Rousam to the pier
with a load of rabbits, sometimes two carts. he last shipment in 1899 was March 6th.
That would be the end of the season as the rabbits would begin breeding by then,
and therefore no longer saleable.
There were no money entries in the Diaries for Sales so I cannot tell if the rabbits were sold for my grandfather or if the hunters worked on their own account. Nor can I tell what price they made. I suspect they may have had a sharing system, the Diary does not tell

William’s Diaries show that hundreds of rabbits would be caught each season .
In 1898 going into early months of 1899 the figure was 1155. For 1899 into 1900 the total was 1625. The numbers were incredible, and that in thye days before refrigeration or “sell by” dates. .
. The skins could be dried and kept much longer and in slightly warmer weather. The entries for 1895 / 96 tell of skins sold as well and the total comes to over 900.

At Greenland Mains, with a very well populated Links, we sometimes ran a rabbit net right across the bottom of a field and then chased the rabbits into it. On a good night the haul was staggering. Had to be a dry windy night to mask our noise, calm nights were a waste of time.
The trappers in my early days at Greenland were Pindi and Dink, more properly James Mackenzie from Barrock and Donald Suitherland from Culag, Castetown, I think. They were hardy souls who came on their bikes and carted the rabbits to Castletown hung over the crossbars. Then it was in to the Railway Station in Thurso by Sutherland’s Horse Lorry.

The most memorable occasion I had with them was one winter’s day when I was working in the Long Feeders Byre at Greenland Mains. I was thankful to be indoors as the day was one of indescribably smoory snow. Fine to the extent it sifted in through the slates of the Welsh Slate roof and filtered down like a fog in the byre. It got everywhere, settling like sifting sugar on the backs of the cattle.
The bottom door, upper and lower halves, burst open. Two absolutely white from head to toe apparitions staggered in, Pindi and Dink. They had been caught out on the Links by the sudden onset of the Blizzard. Experienced outdoor men though they were, Nature had caught them out.
They set out towards the farm steading with the wind behind them. Smoory snow swirls around you so even with the wind on your back you cannot see. Once going to School in Stronsay David and I were similarly caught.
The snow swirled around them to the extent they could not see the road at all between the hedges. They went over the fence to the middle of the Lea Tack field and could see better where they were going. Up the field, over one dike and on to the next, working South towards the buildings with the blizzard on their backs.
I took them in to the warm Kitchen and mugs of hot tea revived them.
But the Barrock Road through Greenland Mains could be unforgiving
Years later Franker Bain lost his life trying to walk home to Barrock in a similar blizzard. We found him 3 weeks later when the drifts melted.