No 103. A Burden of Straw.

A long time ago, but yesterday too. Rain On My Window (Tears in My Eyes) will be an ongoing tale of my early memories of life shared by my younger brother David on Whitehall Farm in Stronsay, Orkney, of our childhood on a working farm in the 1930s before we lost our innocence.

No 103. A Burden of Straw.

In my early days straw came loose from the threshing mill in the barn, no balers to make it into neat bundles, no bunchers to pack it into handy packages, no straw carriers or blowers. At Whitehall making windlins was a constant task, large windlins for the feeder and cow byres, medium for the yearalts, small windlins for the calfie byres. An early morning task before it got light enough to see outside in winter, the paraffin oil lanterns warm flickering glow making shadows dance on the barn wall.
Rats scurrying out of sight, mice too, rustling in the straw. A pigeon resting on the easwas, maybe a few. Easwas for the uninitiated is the flat ledge on the top of the stone walls on which the rafters sat, handy for storage of many things in a low building but too high in the straw barn.!!!] A nesting place for the pigeons later in the year, though they did nest over the long spread of summer. I do not remember sparrows resting there though we had hundreds around. More often sitting on the rafters among many other places.
Doors kept the gale outside, cosy. Oddly in William Tait’s Diaries he makes no mention of making windlins though making simmins was a frequent enough task for wet days. Usually the cattlemen who made their own windlins though on a bad day the other men could be found doing that task, storing the windlins in high stacks around the barn walls.
The stable at Whitehall was blessed by having a door directly through a wall into the back of the straw barn so carrying along a wind swept passage in a howling gale was not required. All the rest of the stock accomodation was fiercely exposed around the square.
Windlins were not just handy but took care of loose straw in the wind. The men could carry quite amazing burdens of windlins under each arm, how they did it I never did learn. Load up in the barn, ease sideways out of the door and off to whatever byre needed. Saturday was a day when straw windlins would be carried to the byre for the cattlemen, gave them a slightly easier Sunday. No half days then, though I do remember when they came in. “Id’ll never work, bhoy!!”

I do not remember any loose straw being carried at Whitehall except loading a cart for a crofter or “Building oot”. The cattle buildings were in a square around the central dung midden, out one door and in at another.

Later at Greenland Mains I was introduced to carrying a “burden” of straw. The steading was all enclosed, passages leading directly from one building to another. The only outdoor bit was a short step to the Back Court, out and in a few yards and sheltered. Much straw was carried there to bed the cows that usually went out during the day to the Flats beside Loch Heilen. Sometimes if we had a surplus to get rid off it went into that Back Court to be trampled under.


A “burden” was built up in the barn with a four-toed graip, layers of loose straw being carefully stacked pancake-style man-high just so. Then a shoving of the graip into the base of the burden, helped in by a tackety boot, making sure it was deeply embedded.
A careful lifting and tipping towards the man, carry some of the weight on his hip. It was a balancing act, if not done properly the whole heap would fall away to be redone.
In my days at Greenland Mains I worked with the cattle during the winter with Jock Coghill the cattleman, a expert and monstrous burden carrier. The only byres were the milking byre and the sucklers cum feeders byre, otherwise it was all loose courts. Straw was carried along the narrow passageways to fill the straw racks and also to throw over the racks into the courts for the cattle to half spread with a toss of their heads, and we would finish it off ourselves. The cattle did a pretty good job of head down into the loose straw, they had a Ball.
The other method of carrying a burden of straw was with a length of rope, enough to lay on the ground in an “off and back” loop. On that loop the cattleman built a burden of straw, then took the loose ends back over the top and through the loop, pulled tight and off we go. It took a bit longer to build than a graip burden but held more, and was more secure for the great outdoors. The amount of straw carried was unbelievable.
That same method was used for many tasks World wide. I once saw in 1979 some Chinese women carrying huge burdens of firewood over the Border from China into Hong Kong using the same technique. There is nothing new under the sun.