The art of tanning has been practised in Scotland for centuries and dates to around the Bronze Age.
According to the Heritage Crafts association, tanners in Scotland originally used combinations of different types of barks and plants, such as tormentil in their work. In the Highlands and the area around Fife, peat tanning in which hides were submerged in peat bogs or combined with bark was practised.
Today, Scotland’s heritage craft of tanning has become increasingly endangered with only a few tanners still remaining and the family business of Skyeskyns is the last commercially producing sheepskin tannery left.
Established in 1983, by Clive and Lydia Hartwell, on their small croft in Waternish, the tannery began as a way of making better use of
