The humble sheep has, directly and indirectly, had a profound effect on the landscape of the Highlands and the Hebrides, nowhere more than the Uist archipelago. This pattern of sheep dip, or very similar variants, can be found throughout Uist and Benbecula. The sheep would be lifted into the trough and submerged before allowing it to ‘escape’ onto the flat apron, which woud be enclosed by fencing or hurdles. This would allow excess dip to drip off and run back into the trough, ready to receive the next animal.
Another sheep dip sited within a complex sheep fank alongside the main Uist spinal road. This is a 20th Century structure with the sheep dip the final flourish, although now redundant. The 1901 OS 6nch map shows the top enclosure was then a roofed farmhouse and many fank walls were an adjoined earlier enclosure.
The one metre range-pole in the large enclosure is aligned North-South, red to North (left in the initial view).
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