The sheep fank

I pass this from a distance quite often when I walk Nellie. It is a place where I spent much happy time!

Today I had an urge to visit it again...for old times sake.

One shot is of the fank from a distance...you can see it in the middle of the top left shot. When I came here at first this was in use. The estate that it is on had cattle and sheep and they would do a large gather from the surrounding hills and take the sheep here to be clipped, dipped etc. The top right shot shows how disused and overgrown it is. The dipper that Nellie is looking over is now full of grass and the concrete is cracked and full of nettles and weeds.

I sat by the river on a rock that I used to sit on and I could hear in my head the sheep bleating, a shepherd that I loved teasing me about this and that, men laughing and sometimes cursing! I could taste the food that the shepherds wife had made for the men. It set me to thinking of years ago.....but relatively few years ago.... when the glen was full of sheep and cattle and all the cases I visited here. I used to stay with the shepherd and his wife and helped out with dipping etc in my time off. I brought my then boyfriend....now husband..... here to meet them and was so nervous because it was important to me that they would like him...they did!

In those days the owners lived on the estate and were quite hands on. Now it is owned by some rich businessman in the fashion industry who rarely visits. He has put off all the sheep and cattle. There is only one man living there now where there used to be two or three families with children. It is simply used seasonally for deer stalking. There is an air of desolation now.

I could rant. This is by no means an exception. Highland estates are dying and being given over to unmanaged wilderness with no place for communities or livestock. Landowners are more often than not absentee and own more than one estate. It is not something that I can affect or do anything to change but it saddens me.

The memories were good though and made me appreciate what and who I have!

On a lighter note the chooks are here and have already given me two eggs. Maybe a shot tomorrow....I just wanted this one today!