FAIR ISLE WINS CROFTING TOWNSHIP
OF THE YEAR AWARD

The community of Fair Isle has received the 5,000 Township of the Year Award sponsored by Scottish Natural Heritage and instigated by the SCU.

Fair Isle has won the award in recognition of the continued importance of crofting in sustaining local communities and because of the crofters' environmentally-sensitive crofting management practices. It was the island's strong sense of community and co-operation that, together with environmentally-friendly crofting methods, impressed the judges. Fair Isle is only the second crofting township to win the award following Aird in Benbecula which won last year.

To mark the occasion a ceremony took place on Wednesday 13th September at which virtually all the islanders were present. SCU Acting President Alistair MacIver and David Laird, SNH North-East Regional Chairman, presented the cheque to David Wheeler, the island's township clerk. A special fiddle tune was commissioned to commemorate the award, written by island resident and international fiddle maker Ewen Thomson. This was played publicly for the first time at the ceremony.

Acting SCU President Alistair MacIver said: "Fair Isle is a worthy winner of the Township of the Year Award. Not only does the township engage in environmentally-friendly agriculture, particularly sheep production, but the community spirit is tremendous.

"We have always held the view that crofting is an environmentally-sensitive form of land use, and we are delighted that SNH are supporting this award. I have no doubt that the award will go from strength to strength, encouraging even more competition next year; that can only be healthy for crofting. "

David Laird said: "Fair Isle is perhaps best known as a remote place with colourful knitting and fascinating birdlife. The crofting community here has adapted to many changing patterns over the years - but always keeping an eye to integrating human, wildlife and landscape heritages. That is why Fair Isle previously received a Council of Europe Diploma and now has received the SNH-SCU crofting award for best practice.

"It is an excellent model of a crofting township as it is economically viable and yet respects the land which supports it. "

Grazings clerk Dave Wheeler added: "We see the award as recognising the way our predecessors farmed the land - not exploiting it but maintaining it for our use, and for those who will follow on from us."

The judges deciding on the winner had a very difficult choice before them, as most townships nominated were very worthy and each had many merits. But during their visit to Fair Isle the tremendous community spirit and the way that crofting is the mainstay of the island so impressed the judges, that no doubt was left in their minds.

"Every township for which we received a detailed nomination could have been a winner," commented one of the judges, "but Fair Isle was clearly ahead. However, we do urge all townships to keep trying each year. There are many and varied kinds of crofting townships throughout the Highlands and Islands. We want to hear of them all - each year there will be a new opportunity, and it could be your township next year.

JOHN TOAL visits Fair Isle, and discovers the qualities which have earned its community the Township of the Year award

From its roots in Nordic saga and legend, Fair Isle - famed for its intricate knitwear patterns - has survived and retained an island population in inauspicious circumstances and lives on to tell a tale that is well worth broadcasting.

Located in splendid isolation approximately 20 miles either way between Orkney and Shetland and three miles long by two miles wide, the island has sustained and supported a durable people.

As the island's own guide book records: "Fair Isle's population has experienced erratic changes in fortune, numbering as many as 380 in the mid-19th century and less than 50 a century later. Its community has survived through times of extreme poverty, deadly epidemics, wars and tragic sea disasters, which have crippled the life-force of the island."

Today Fair Isle's population numbers over 70 and it is in essence a crofting community. For crofting remains central to the island's survival and forms the base for its development in the modern era.

The situation today contrasts markedly with that of 50 years ago when the island's staple economy of fishing and crofting was regarded as inadequate and was effectively seen as having reached its sell-by date. That the island managed to retain and increase the number of its inhabitants is primarily due to an appreciation of its environment and its particular value.

ORNITHOLOGIST George Waterson purchased the island after the Second World War to establish a bird observatory on it, having recognised its potential for recording immense numbers of migratory birds.

While he himself did not have the resources to develop the island's infrastructure and further strengthen its economy, he had highlighted its importance and the value of the crofting community on the island.

Subsequently, Fair Isle was taken over by the National Trust for Scotland in the 1950s and gradually an impetus toward sustainable development evolved and has continued.

As present day Fair Isle crofter and Grazings Clerk Dave Wheeler records: "Since then an excellent working relationship has evolved between the NTS and the islanders. Not only has there been much input from the landlords with the on-going modernisation of the croft houses, but there has also been support and assistance from them towards various projects that the islanders have wished to participate in as they struggled to improve their lifestyle in what, at times, can be a very difficult environment."

The demands of that environment have ensured a particular respect for it within the Fair Isle community. That itself is evident within their crofting system which follows a traditional and established pattern and has performed a significant role in creating and maintaining the high ecological value of the island's natural environment. Yet while life on the island may seem idyllic on a pleasant summer's day there are winter storms to be endured which can leave it even more isolated and scarcely accessible.

It was in the midst of winter that Dave Wheeler and his wife visited Fair Isle prior to taking on the tenancy of Field Croft more than 20 years ago. For him it was a crucial introduction which ensured he was fully aware of the consequences of giving up his relatively comfortable lifestyle in Edinburgh. He says the NTS carefully vet any prospective new crofter to the island to ensure that they have the capacity to adapt and learn new skills but will also have something to contribute to the existing community.

Today Dave Wheeler is the archetypal Fair Isle crofter with a number of occupations, ranging from providing a daily meteorological report for the Met Office, part-time computer teaching at the small primary school and airstrip fireman for the small Shetland-Fair Isle twice-weekly plane service. In addition he runs his croft, which like the other 17 crofts on the island provides crops for domestic consumption and winter fodder for his sheep and cattle.

In this respect Dave Wheeler is now little different from other crofting families like the Stouts, Thomsons and Sinclairs whose roots are deeply embedded on this small island. Outwith the crofting community there are few others apart from a number of professional people and former lighthouse-keepers able to live on Fair Isle. In many respects a croft is an essential prerequisite and provides the natural base for both a highly individualistic but simultaneously co-operative lifestyle.

THE 18 CROFTS vary in size from three to 20 hectares, with each crofter retaining his own individual pack of sheep - mainly Suffolk and Cheviot crosses - on the in-bye croft land.

Only a few crofters are able to keep cattle owing to the difficulty of securing sufficient fodder and the high price of importing hay to the island. Although a few crofters keep the hardier Shetland-bred sheep on their crofts most of them are confined to the rougher hill land which is separated from the more fertile croft land by a lengthy stone wall, known as the Hill Dyke.

The hill land provides a common grazing or Scattald consisting of 516 hectares which supports 360 pure-bred Shetland ewes all year round without any supplementary winter feeding. Each crofter is responsible for ensuring that his individual share of the sheep is capable of producing a lamb, and with a 100 per cent lambing percentage there can be few arguments as to whether the system works.

Dave Wheeler attributes this to the relatively low stocking rate which ensures that the sheep remain in good condition throughout the winter.

He explained: "The philosophy of the Fair Isle is one of low cost and low input, while maintaining a healthy hill flock and sustainable hill management."

However, the combination of the individual and co-operative element is further evidenced by the fact that although the crofter has his own sheep flock the lambs are distributed on an equal basis once they are removed from the hill in September. The roster at lambing time ensures that there are always six crofters present on the hill each day and those with other work, such as the inter-island ferry service, always arrange to exchange duties. Even a sprightly octogenarian insists on taking his place on the roster.

All the other gatherings and fank work are handled communally and this attitude extends to the individual crofts where labour and machinery is shared on a co-operative basis. The rich and diverse eco-system which has emanated from this traditional crofting practice would appear to ensure that it would be rewarded by the new Shetland Environmentally Sensitive Area Scheme.

However, individuals such as Nick Riddiford - an environmental ecologist married to a Fair Isle crofter feels that there may not be sufficient allowance within the measures to adequately cater for the rich diversity to be found and enhanced within the Fair Isle crofting system. For him there is a need for the system to be adapted for areas such as this which already maintain valuable habitats and should be rewarded for doing so. However, for some crofters such as Brian Wilson, who also has a small building business, a few adaptations to his croft grazing management should ensure that his croft income will be supplemented by 500 per annum.

Such additional income is important on the island where opportunities for earning can be restricted. However, that has only served to make the island's inhabitants all the more resourceful. In addition to the many part-time occupations from postman, ferrymen to road maintenance workers, many of the islanders are skilled craftsmen and women.

For instance, Stewart Thomson Snr fashions his own implements for working his croft and also makes spinning wheels which are in demand far beyond Fair Isle. His son, also called Stewart, has recently been made redundant from his post as a lighthouse-keeper and is now making furniture, adapting a traditional chair design last used by his grandfather. The backing used for these distinctive chairs is made from a durable oat grown on the island itself. He also hopes to find a niche market for this product which will again be distinctive to Fair Isle.

Another young crofter, lain Best, spent three years studying boat-building in Norway prior to returning to the island. The expertise he acquired there is now put to good use in building the traditional Fair Isle "yoal", which was once commonly used for fishing and also in the rescue of shipwrecked crews around the island's dangerous coasts.

While some fishing continues today for home consumption the local demand for such boats remains limited, but lain Best has discovered fairly lucrative markets further afield where the "yoal" has become a collector's item among boating enthusiasts, although freight charges cause considerable difficulties.

Other islanders are involved in making and repairing traditional musical instruments, and the island has its own traditional folk group.

Spinning and knitting have also developed apace on the island and much of the success of the Fair Isle story is in adapting these traditional skills to a modern era.

There are various versions as to how the distinctive Fair Isle knitting pattern emerged. It is most likely that it was developed and refined by the island women from a garment brought back to the island by a Fair Isle sailor. That element of ingenuity and inventiveness remains particularly evident on the island today.

A knitting co-operative was formed in 1980, consisting of hand-frame machine knitters and hand finishers. And in 1987 Fair Isle Crafts Co-operative obtained a new registered trademark. The knitting industry provides remunerative part-time employment for the women of the island, and with visiting ships passing in the summer demand for these goods often outstrips supply.

WHAT IS EVIDENT is that, despite relative isolation, this is far from a community looking in upon itself.

Its outward and forward-looking attitude is part of its reason for survival. Fair Islanders believe that this is instilled at an early age with the children having to live on the Shetland mainland for their secondary education and many going on to further education and experiencing life elsewhere before returning if they so wish - which many of them do - to live and adapt their experience and expertise to life on their native isle.

The progressive and dynamic attitude of the Fair Islanders has seen over the last 20 years the creation of a communal electricity supply by means of an aerogenerator, a communal water supply, a new community hall, a museum for the island - the George Waterston Interpretative Centre. While many facets of island life are recorded in this building it is no museum society that is being preserved on this island. It is one with a high regard for its traditional culture and capable of retaining it and adapting it in an authentically progressive manner.

A similar approach is displayed regard to the land and the crofting system where an appreciation of environment is instilled and is a veritable part of the Fair Isle culture.

While the island's inhabitants recognise the vital role played in this process by the NTS and by Shetland Islands Council, their survival on the island is ultimately up to themselves. Any assistance provided has not created any so-called "dependency culture"; in fact the reverse is more true.

There are some basic perennial truths which apply to a crofting island like Fair Isle and these are encapsulated in its own guide book. "Even as we look forward to the 21st century, the island's population will still have to contend with the problems of isolation and weather and its survival will be due, as it always has been, to the determination and desire of the people to live and work together there as a community."