Making hay rope

Long grass or hay is wound into rope with the help of a corra-shùgan or wooden twister. The hay is fed into the rope by hand as it is formed. The rope was used for a variety of purposes including holding down thatch, tying round cornstacks, making rowlocks for boats and horse collars.

The photograph was taken by Werner Kissling (1895-1988), an ethnological photographer, who worked mainly in island and coastal communities in Scotland. He made one of the earliest Gaelic films, Eriskay: A Poem of Remote Lives (1935).

University of Edinburgh, School of Scottish Studies Archives: SSSA F110/29