On the way to the Mart.....

It's the time of year for the lamb sales and these are some of the island lambs off to the Mart in Kirkwall.  These lambs were herded down a "run" onto the deck of the boat and will then be kept in a field over the weekend until the sale on Monday at the livestock Mart.

These lambs were born about May - lambing is much later in Orkney than in the South of England due to the weather.  Some of these lambs may go as "store" lambs to another farm to be fattened on, or they may go direct for slaughter.

It's a busy time of year for the farmers with cattle also being shipped off to sales as well as sheep. So each week until Christmas livestock will be at the pier ready to be transported. The cattle have to be winched off in a box individually so everyone hopes for good weather when they are being shipped.  These sheep had a calm ride back to Stromness though as the weather had quietened down from the gales of earlier in the week.