Monastery Farm

September 2000

The brothers receive a lesson in ploughing from Mr A. Harcus of Stronsay.
Three-quarters of an acre of potatoes (tatties) and an acre and a half of swede turnips (neeps) were planted.
This was the first time ground had been broken on Papa Stronsay for twenty-five years.

September 2003

The Papay livestock have been exercising their ‘Right to Roam’ for too long.
Under the careful eye of Mr Andrew Maxwell, the monastery’s Farm Manager,
the long task of fencing Papa Stronsay has begun.

The island’s only listed road receives a T-Junction.

No stranger to the art, Andrew, with his brother Keith and father Mr Cyril Maxwell of Bay, Stronsay demonstrate traditional techniques. Having thwarted the Highland cattle the men first erected concrete strainer posts. (Highland cattle have a predilection for concrete and usually trample on it after nightfall, at the same time pushing over the posts.) Then the stabs are beaten in with the help of a tractor to the uniform height of the manager’s belt. Lastly a combination of shire and barbed wire presents a formidable obstacle to the most agile of island sheep who are known to climb walls with great facility!

December 2004/January 2005

In Papa Stronsay the grass is literaly greener on the other side of the fence.
Ploughing and reseeding of grass has been a priority
and the result is vastly improved pasturage for the cattle and sheep.

For the first time ever running water has been tapped to the furthest extremes of the island. Soon every field will have automatically refilled water tanks for animals, saving the daily rounds of the water trailer.		A newly fenced roadway now links the outlying fields to the south end of the island. With this system one person can assemble and transfer livestock with much greater facility. These sheep are on their way to greener pastures!

Postulant Joseph hard at work with some of the berry bushes. Apart from these fruits the monastery gardeners have brought us peas, broadbeans, lettuce, cabbage and, of course, the usual crops of potatoes and turnips.

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