86228: Harvesting the corn

Tying the corn into sheaves ‘sguaban)’which were stacked in a cone shape with the ears pointing upwards and the root ends on the ground with about ten sheaves to each cone ‘adag’. If the weather was good, the ‘adagan’ would be carried in a few days to the stack yard ‘iolainn’, a drystone walled enclosure and there the corn stacks ‘cruachan coirce’ would be built.

If the weather was inclement, the ‘adagan’ would be made into a smaller corn stack ‘torran’ and when a good drying day came, the ‘torran’ would be carried to the stack yard and the corn stack proper would be made. To secure the corn stack, a heather rope would be bound tightly round it. The heather rope was later replaced by Sioman Thearlaich – a brown coir rope introduced to the Island by Charles Morrison, Stornoway, hence the name.

The top of the corn stack would be covered with a piece of canvas or sacking and tightly secured to prevent birds from stealing the grain; the top layer was the only place where the grain was exposed.