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The
North Harbour, Scalpay (taken from postcard).
The
photograph above shows Scalpay as it looked around the
year 1990. This was prior to the building of the new
community centre (so far as I can remember work on the
new hall started around 1993 and the official opening
was in 1996). This page will be updated when I have
more accurate in formation.
To
the right of the picture are the council houses. originally
there was only one row of 4 houses and (approx. 1979)
a further two rows of three houses were added around
1979. In the fore ground to the right behinfd the council
houses you can see the waterlogged football pitch. From
this I would assume that this photograph of Scalpay
was taken in the winter. Improvements have been made
to the pitch and it is rarely waterlogged these days.
Football is played on Scalpay most evenings in the summer
and there are several people from Scalpay who make an
important contribution to the successes of the local
football team Harris F.C. Scalpay also has a team that
competes in the local Welfare League and when there
are 5 A Side competitions Scalpay always seems to put
together a team to be reckoned with. All in all several
talented players enjoy the game of football on this
football pitch.
In
the foreground to the left of the picture there appears
to be stripes in the ground. The soil here is mainly
peat and therefore has poor drainage. To improve drainage
thin channels were dug into the ground creating what
are called "lazy beds". This improved the
drainage very successfully allowing various crops to
be grown from potatoes to wheat and barley. In the past
Scalpay had to be self sufficient as traffic to the
mainland of Scotland was infrequent. When you travel
around Scalpay you can still see masses of lazy beds.
Today few of these lazy beds are in use as Scalpay now
has most of the ammenities that any other place in the
U.K. has, and reliance upon the supermarkets is as great
as anywhere else.
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