My name is Christopher Ritch and I am a crofter in Unst, the most northerly island in the UK. Gunnister is actually five separate crofts amalgamated into one holding with a total area of 108 hectares.

Of this area, only about 5 hectares are classified as arable land, the rest is a mixture of improved grassland and rough hill grazing consisting of heather and coarser grasses.

The croft has been subject to an Environmentally Sensitive Area agreement for the past ten years which has limited the stocking rates on the areas of heather to allow this to regenerate and set dates between which stock are excluded from wetland areas and herb-rich pastures to allow plants to flower and set seed.

In addition, grass for hay and silage is not cut until August to allow ground nesting birds to rear their chicks and two small woodland areas have been planted. I manage an area of wetland under an agreement with the RSPB and two ponds have been created here to encourage diving birds to breed on the croft.

Traditional Shetland agriculture is a low-input, extensive system and I intend to carry on along these lines while attempting to maintain the natural habitat and encourage biodiversity. I keep the use of animal medicines to a minimum, although I do use mineral supplements, pour-on insecticides and worm/fluke drenches.  

I have a flock of around 80 pure bred Shetland sheep, a smaller flock of 40 Shetland Cheviot cross ewes and a herd of 15 Aberdeen Angus or Angus X cattle. These are all hardy, long-lived breeds which can survive, and indeed have adapted to thrive on the marginal land which covers the majority of Shetland.

They are also lighter animals and therefore do less damage to the ground when it is wet than heavier breeds, although I do house the cattle in the winter time to prevent poaching.  The meat from these animals is lean, and because it is slowly reared almost entirely on a diet of grass, it has a great flavour.

The name Gunnister is Norse in origin, meaning “the summer pasture belonging to Gunni” and each year when I am digging my garden I find stone artefacts from Viking times.

It is likely that this land was settled and cultivated much earlier than this however, and there are many ancient field boundaries, standing stones and iron age remains in the area. Sheep were already present in Shetland when the Vikings arrived and it is probably from the interbreeding of these primitive animals and the sheep which the Vikings brought with them that the modern Shetland Sheep has evolved.

I am lucky to live in an empty valley, although it is sad to look out over the roofless ruins of old croft houses. There was a community here large enough to justify a church, perhaps 200 years ago. The people are gone but the descendents of their sheep remain and the church has been re-roofed to become a winter byre for the cows.