Ferryman Ewan Nicolson, second left, prepares to take buyers from Benbecula to North Uist across the North Ford.
BENBECULA, Iochdar, Grogary, Stoneybridge, Carsaval, Milton, Clachan, Ahmore: the list of cattle sales was like a roll-call, repeated without hesitation and always in the same sequence wherever I went. Like the ocean and the wind, cattle were a fundamental part of life in the islands and the droving teams were as much a sign of the changing seasons as the arrival and departure of migrating birds. I had marked the location of each sale with a circle on my map and set myself the task of locating and photographing them all.
On Saturday morning, drovers, buyers and auctioneers travelled the 26 miles by bus from their lodgings in Lochboisdale to the northern end of Benbecula. Stansa na Fèille is still marked on the map but today a large sign beside the road redefines it. ‘Market Stance Waste Transfer Station’ is busy with the comings and goings of council bin lorries and loud with the rumble of machinery and engines. It’s hard to imagine the queues of men and cattle waiting to get into the sale and the bellowing of calves separated from their mothers.