Niall MacLellan from Strome in South Uist, lives in the ideal scenario to keep his agricultural interests going. With the support of his parents, Niall has been able to grow his crofting stock and he cares for more animals than Old MacDonald himself. The fifteen year old is the proud owner of a cat, Misty, two dogs, Ruby & Wallace, two horses, Amber & Jackie, eight cows & over a hundred sheep, who are yet to be named – but his real pride and joy within his stock are his 48 mixed breed hens.

“I’ve been crofting since I was very young, since I could walk.” he says “We always had cows and sheep on the croft and I’ve always worked with my dad. When I was younger we never had as many horses, dogs or hens.”

Ever the agricultural entrepreneur, Niall made his first animal purchase at a mere ten years old. The young haggler soon brought Gloria home – Gloria the pig, from Ardnamurchan. Soon after, there was a happy little drove of five pigs in Strome.

“Gloria came from Ardnamurchan, then we got a boar and she had three piglets, so we ended up with five. But every time we would go away they would just be escaping, digging under the fence and making a mess on the croft and there would be mud everywhere.”

Niall’s patience with his unruly tenants soon wore thin and at the beginning of lockdown, in March 2020, he sold them, replacing his five pigs with a far more civilised resident to the croft, twenty hens.

“My aunty actually has one of the pigs now as a pet. After I bought the twenty hens and I started doing deliveries of eggs in Strome and Kilpheader.”

“I sell eggs every night of the week, and whatever’s left goes to the honesty box at the end of the road. I don’t have enough eggs for the amount of customers the box gets. I have about one or two dozen going in the honesty box each night and they’re gone everyday. People leave money, and if they sometimes forget they’ll always come back, quite a lot will leave extra as well. I have no idea who uses it.

“In the summer there isn’t so much work in the hens, but in the winter there’s a lot more work. In the summer it’s only dark for a few hours but in the winter it’s dark for longer, so they’re inside most of the time. They need a lot more feeding in the winter to keep them warm”

The hen business is going well for Niall and he’s hoping to expand his brood to 60 quite soon. Niall’s next steps would be to get a licence, allowing him to sell his produce to the local hotels, shops and food producers in Uist. “If I got that, I would have a lot more hens and I would sell them to hotels and shops.”

“I’ve stolen half of my dad’s cow shed for the hens now. It makes things easier since there are so many of them, it’s a lot better having them in there and there’s more air getting in there and it stays cleaner for longer.”

This chicken business of Niall’s has been inspired by his Barra Grandfather, Aonghas Uilleam Eoghainn, who was the owner of over 300 hens. “That was his full time job when he was home from sea and he’d sell to all the hotels in Uist and Barra. And when he was away, my granny would look after them”

Crofting is Niall’s main priority at the moment and luckily this is a subject he can study at Sgoil Lionacleit. “We learn a lot in school from going over to Neil MacPherson’s croft and then in the classroom we learn how to do all the paperwork… like movement documents for animals and the IAACS forms and all of that kind of thing. Things that will help me run my own croft in the future.”

“We go over to Neil MacPherson’s croft every Monday and we do things like health checking the sheep, sorting potatoes, lambing, feeding and identifying various crops, weeds and learning how to keep on top of them.

Sgoil Lionacleit is creating an invaluable experience for young people in Uist by providing an education related to some of the most integral parts of island life, and spreading a crucial message to young people that all fields of work are necessary and worthwhile, without pushing them into a university education which isn’t suited to them. The old island attitude of leaving to succeed might finally be starting to be shaken off. 

“I would like to do crofting full time but I don’t have a croft of my own and it’s not something that you could probably make a living out of. Lambing time is my favourite time of year, here’s lots of wee lambs around and it’s the first sign of the winter leaving and the weather getting better. We had 105 lambs this year. We sold about 80 lambs and kept the rest. We’ve got 4 pet lambs; 2 females and 2 males. They’re cute, but a nuisance though!“

Luckily for Niall, there’s many’s a local crofting expert in South Uist. Although he’s learnt most of his skills from his father and his mother, he’s also learnt some from school and some from the local community. “My dad’s pretty much taught me everything I know on the croft, even though we still do fall out at the sheep – It’s hard not to. My mum’s in charge of the garden and she has a polytunnel.“

“I’ve learnt a lot from one of our neighbours, Eoghainn MacLochlainn, more locally known as The Mullach! We used to go over and pick all the apples from the apple trees. He has taught me a lot about apples and bees and ponies. He’s very knowledgeable. I bring him eggs every week. He’s someone that I can call on if I need any help.”

Remember to stop at Niall’s honesty box at Strome road end for some fresh eggs daily and to keep an eye out for his produce in Uist shops in future. 

“I don’t want to leave, I want to stay in Uist, if I find a job that’s suitable.”