Kelp Stalks and Roots
known on Orkney as Tangles or Ware
shrivelled by sun and air
brought ashore from the dense seaweed forests that grow around Sanday
From the C18th until the early C19th kelp brought great wealth to the landlords of Orkney. During the summer months the land was often neglected while the crofters were put to work collecting the ware snd burning it in pits. Reduced to ash, rich in soda and potash, it was exported for production of glass and soap.
In 1806 Patrick Niell writing of his travels around Orkney says: "The kelp of Sanda is generally accounted of excellent quality. The tides around this island flow and ebb with the velocity of a rapid river: and to this circumstance is perhaps to be ascribed both the quick growth of the sea-weed, and it's richness in alkali".
