Shetland Plough

01059

Shetland Plough

2003

This is a model representation of the one stilted plough currently on display in the Shetland Museum. The main beam would have been attached to a team of oxen and towed through the field. As it went the vertical knife would cut through the soil, which was then turned over by the mould boards. The crofter would walk alongside the plough guiding it using the stilt.

In Arthur Mitchell's book 'The Past in the Present' he tells how he approached a Cunningsburgh crofter with a view to buying his plough. However, the crofter was said to be too 'ashamed to send so rude a specimen to Scotland'.

Public

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