“Thall ’s a-bhos air Galltachd ’s an Sasainn”

Each herring season, girls would ‘travel the herring’.

They would travel huge distances round the coast of Britain, following the migrating shoal.

This meant they were away from their homes and families for months at a time.

When they went away, each girl would take with her a few items of clothing and personal possessions, bedding and the crockery and cultlery she would need for meal times.

This would be carried in a ciste (a wooden chest). Whilst the women were away, they would live in basic little wooden shacks near the dock, sharing with up to five other girls.

“gaoth na mara geur air an craiceann”

Teams would be expected to be on hand the minute the fish was landed by the boats.

This sometimes meant long hours waiting around (unpaid) on the cold and blustery dockside.

To pass the time while they were waiting for the boats the women would chat, sing songs and knit.

When they were working, they would wear an oilskin apron and big rubber or leather boots to protect their clothes and feet.

A headscarf would prevent some of the fish scales and salt from getting into their hair and a woolen shawl kept out some of the cold.

Surprisingly, they didn’t have any gloves to protect their hands from the gutting knife and this often left them with painful cuts and wounds on their hands that were made worse by the frequent exposure to icy cold water and salt.

“na miaran cruinne, goirid a dhèanadh giullachd”

When the herring was landed, it was poured into a fàrlain (a big wooden trough) with water and plenty of rough salt.

The women would stand over this, poised with a cutag (a sharp gutting knife), ready to start work.

As they gutted, they would throw the fish intestines into a gut basket, and simultaneously assess the size and grading of each fish, throwing it into the appropriate basket behind them, ready for the packer.

The girls were so used to their work, they could almost do it blindfold. An average cutair could gut and sort around 40 herring a minute, but the most experienced ones could manage up to double that amount.

Because herring is an oily fish, it had to be cured with salt as quickly as possible to prevent it from rotting.

Apart from this, the salt had an additional benefit. It made the gutters’ job easier because the coarse salt made the fish less slippery to handle.

In an effort to protect their hands, the women wrapped cotton rags tightly around their fingers. But, working quickly with slippery fish and a razor sharp cutag meant that nasty cuts were sometimes inevitable.

Working elbow deep in wet salty fish meant that the smallest of nicks would be very painful and slow to heal, so they had to be extremely careful.

Not only were their hands uncomfortable, but if they were too damaged to work, they and their team would suffer loss of wages as a result.