![]() "Although you don't taste the seaweed or coastal herbs in the meat, they give it a unique salinity and a very concentrated flavour. The North Ronaldsay breed is so unique," he said. He recently chose North Ronaldsay meat for his inaugural Native & Rare dining experience. Scott Smith, chef and co-owner of award-winning contemporary Scottish restaurant Fhior in Edinburgh, agrees. If it's cooked in the right way – traditionally you'd roast it all day, five hours in the oven – slow-roasted mutton is absolutely delicious, it's just fantastic." "The meat is very lean and rich, and it does have a different taste to Scottish lamb," said Woodbridge. This ageing, combined with the seaweed diet, gives these nimble-footed beasts a distinctive flavour. According to Woodbridge, North Ronaldsay sheep are naturally small and "slow-growing", so it takes them around four years to reach their peak size and weight, making the meat mutton, not lamb when it reaches the plate. What's more, the island's sheep live longer than most other commercial sheep breeds, which are bred to be big, quickly. When DNA tests were carried out on sheep bones found at the Iron Age broch, it showed that those grazing today were genetically identical to the sheep that had grazed thousands of years previously – even if their diet has changed somewhat. ![]() Their isolation has also meant that their genetics remain virtually unchanged from those of their ancestors. In addition, she manages a flock of North Ronaldsay sheep, which I could see grazing between the picture windows and the sun-dappled bay. It's also where Heather Woodbridge, an instantly impressive young woman who wears many hats – including those of deputy leader of Orkney Islands Council, director of The North Ronaldsay Trust and trustee of The Orkney Sheep Foundation – helps out as an administrator. It also has a restaurant where some of the island's 50 inhabitants come to dine (I spied "North Ronaldsay mutton" scrawled on the chalkboard) and overnight accommodations for visitors. The island is a popular stopping-off point for migratory birds, such as whinchats, wheatears, spotted flycatchers and, if you're lucky, rare bluethroats, and this centre monitors them all. At around four miles long and two miles wide, and with virtually no public transport, North Ronaldsay's gently rolling landscape is best navigated on two wheels and this was the logical way for me to go sheep-spotting.Ī few wheel-turns up from the pier was the North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory, the beating heart of the community. I disembarked under a welcome blue sky to find a bicycle leaning against the small ferry terminal, as promised by North Ronaldsay bike hire. Orkney Ferries operates a two-and-a-half-hour service from Kirkwall, which can be somewhat unpredictable while Loganair runs multiple 17-minute flights daily that are also weather dependent. Getting to North Ronaldsay is very much in the hands of the weather and tidal gods. Taking the morning ferry from Kirkwall, Orkney's main town, I sailed the 36 miles north, binoculars glued to my eyes watching black guillemots bobbing in the water and the odd gannet and fulmar swooping across the stern. Here, the local farmers' deep attachment to the animals and unconventional approach to tending them ensured the island's traditional sheep were retained – and they remain intertwined with the island's identity today. However, in most places, the small, slow-growing sheep eventually made way for breeds better suited to large-scale, commercial farming such as Cheviots and Leicesters.īut not on North Ronaldsay. They are descended from traditional Orkney sheep, a species of Northern European short-tail sheep, that were seen across the Orkney Islands for centuries. North Ronaldsay sheep are one of the oldest and rarest breeds in the world. Venture to this tiny Scottish isle and you'll find the tallest land-based lighthouse in the UK, the ruins of an Iron Age broch (a type of drystone roundhouse) and – most bizarrely – a flock of wild-eyed short-legged beasts with a diet that's as unusual as their remote habitat. ![]() Yet, the rocky shore of low-lying North Ronaldsay is anything but ordinary. At first glance, the northernmost speck on the map of Orkney could easily be overlooked.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |