October/An Damhair

Sheep and cattle were sold in October. Cows were sold to the same auctioneers who visited in May. A merchant in the district would visit to assess the beasts and produce a figure which would subsequently depend on how the animals performed at market. There was a term called Luck’s Penny. If your cow or sheep attained the figure quoted by the merchant, the buyer would come and ask the seller for a Luck’s Penny. It amounted to perhaps five shillings or so of the money paid to the seller. There were very few fences fifty years ago. Sheep and cows were not segregated to your own croft, but rather they wandered freely. Rams were removed from the flock in October, and kept in a park of their own. In the older days before parks and fences, the rams were on tethers.

October was also the time to lift the potatoes and take them homewards. ‘Crò bhuntàta’ was the place for the potatoes in the byres. If there was no room in the barn or the outhouse, the potatoes went into a potato pit outdoors in an area that would be easily kept free of sheep and cattle. In the average pit, there would be a load equivalent to ten or fifteen creels full. The potatoes were given adequate time to dry out and then they would be built up something like a miniature pyramid - with a point at the top. Dry straw or rushes would be spread round about the pyramid, then the soil starting from the bottom round by round the very top would be left open until all the steam and sweat escaped. After this, the pit was closed up until the spring time.

The Potato Pit (Slochd buntàta) - Where there was not sufficient storage in outbuildings, the local crofter often constructed a potato pit (known in Gaelic as sloc buntàta). Such pits were built above ground - and it was common for people to have one, two or maybe more. The potato pit housed at least 10 bags of potatoes, though some people preferred to make two or three pits in case one went rotten. First of all, a dry bit of ground was selected where rainwater wouldn’t collect. The method of construction for the pit was to stack the potatoes up into a triangle. When finished, it would be 7 feet in length at least, about 4 feet in width at the bottom, and it tapered to a tip at the top. Some people fashioned theirs round like a cone, whilst others made them long like the roof of a house. People used fodder which at that time remained from the thrashing of the corn (or alternatively rushes) to place on the top of the potatoes, followed by turf, and then soil. The top of the pit was left open with a gap for up to a week to permit moisture to escape. After this time, the pit could be closed. The result was that water could not lie on the potato pit. The earth on top of the potato pit was taken from around the pit itself. You therefore had a drain, and any water collecting round about the pit was taken away by a drain that was made. That left the pit sitting on a kind of pedestal - of up to 7 or 8 inches high. Like brickwork. Sometimes, a fence would be erected around the potato pit. When spring time approached - or rather when the need arose, the potato pit was taken apart. If the store from the barn came to an end, a family opened the end of its pit and drew from that. People also took out a reserve of seed potato (siol-curaidh) during springtime. The potato pit was common in Staffin until around 1980.

Halloween was a time to look forward to. Children dressed up in common with other places, and the goodies on offer from the various doors were nuts, sweets and apples. It was also a night to play a prank or two.