Shapinsay Square Dance : Change and Reaction on an Orkney Island, 1846-7

Sutherland, Paul J.

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Summary

In October 1846, just before setting off on a continental tour to collect works of art for the castle he was building, the new laird of Shapinsay, David Balfour of Balfour and Trenaby, gav a dance for his harvest workers. But dancing was a sin, said the elders of the island's Sucession Church, and they disciplined several of thier flock for having taken part. Outraged the laird demanded that the elders aplogise or be evicted. Yet this was more than just a question of religious conscience versus a landlord's pique, for revoluntionary change was in the air. Balfour and his factor, Marcus Calder, were redrawing the map of Shapinsay from one end to the other with square fields and a new type of farming. They left no room for opposition. The dancing affair became in Calder's words, a trail of strength as to whether the laird or the Seccession elders were vested witht the greater authority in the parish. There could be only one winner.