Beremeal from Barony Mill – A unique Orkney crop

Bere is an ancient grain that is ground to make beremeal.  Similar to modern wheat in appearance, it’s related to barley and grown in just 10 hectares of land on the Orkney Islands.

Beremeal is flour made from Bere, a unique six-row barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) native to Northern Scotland and the only 6-rowed spring barley available in the UK. It’s known as ‘90-day barley’ because of its short growing season. Sown in spring and harvested in early autumn, the hostile winters that Orkney is well known for mean any food that can be grown in such a short season will continue to be cultivated.

It has an earthy, nutty flavour and is traditionally used in Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles to make a dark-greyish bannock. Nutritional analysis reveals Beremeal is rich in folate, thiamine, pantothenic acid, iron, iodine, and magnesium.

Historically, Bere was cultivated in Wales and Scotland, thriving in poor soil and benefiting from long summer daylight. Bere’s cultivation in Scotland has resulted in significant genetic diversity, and its flour was once a staple for making barley bannocks across the region, with hand mills and watermills producing Beremeal for household and larger-scale use.

Research has found that this strain of barley can fix nitrogen levels in sandy soils (like those on Orkney), eliminating the need for fertilisers.

Exactly when it was brought to this far-flung corner of Britain is a bit of a mystery – remnants of bowls used for crushing barley have been found at the stone-built Neolithic village of Skara Brae, which was occupied from roughly 3180 BC to about 2500 BC.

Processing of the barley

Processing the barley has, of course, developed over time. The first advance in technology was the design of the quern stone a development that has occurred independently in many parts of the world and moved processing on from simply smashing the barley to grinding it between two shaped stones. The lower (stationary one) is the quern and the upper is the hand stone resulting in a more consistent product and much less wastage.

It wasn’t until the Norsemen arrived from the East that the process became less intensive.  The Viking invaders brought the knowledge of powered wheels and geared drives which simplified and improved the processing of the bere. 

The system is similar the world over – a big wheel turned, using a motive force such as wind, water or manpower, connected to a series of gears which turn the stones, removing the tough outer husks in the first stone and then producing beremeal or oatmeal. A process largely unchanged since that time, the only variance being the motive force employed.

Barony mill

Fast forward to today. Barony Mill at Birsay, tucked in the far west of the ‘Mainland’ (the name given to the main island in the Orkney archipelago), is the last place on the islands to mill the grain. Between October and April a tonne of bere husks pass through the mill every two days, it’s dried on the kiln floor before being milled into beremeal, the outer, nutritionally empty husks used to fuel the kiln fire.

This water-powered, totally self-sufficient and sustainable Victorian-era mill is still producing flour, from locally grown bere, exactly as it would have been in the 1800’s, using a technique that would have been recognisable to those Viking invaders.

In the summer months, it opens its doors to those who want to explore away from the well-beaten tourist trail. Orkney can be incredibly busy. The mass cruise ship tourism unloads boatloads of tourists onto the island to the well-visited Highland Park Distillery and Scapa Distillery in Kirkwall. In striking contrast, Barony Mill is calm and relaxed.

Jack, who showed us around the mill, was enthusiastic and eloquent and, his passion for the history of bere, made him a delight to listen to.  His pride in his Orcadian roots shone through, as did his respect and admiration for his grandmother, the only female miller at Barony Mill.

This unique ‘tourist attraction’ (it seems wrong to refer to it as such since that’s not their main purpose) even has small bags of flour, stored in a huge coffin-like box for sale.

Use of beremeal in the Orkney Islands

Beremealmhas been the heart of food and drink in the Orkney Islands over the centuries.  Generation after generation has been raised on bere bannocks (flat bread baked on a hot griddle and often served as a starter instead of a bread roll, a real marmite type food which I love) and everyone on the Islands has tasted a Stockan’s Oatcake or visited the Argo’s Bakery, the two main commercial clients of this mill. 

If the bere is scorched in the kiln before milling the flavour changes. And when mixed with kirned (churned) milk or buttermilk you get a dish known as bursteen, another local staple treat.

Added to the list of uses is the making of ale.  At one time tea was too expensive for the ordinary folk of the islands and, as is the case around the globe when you can’t drink the local water, you have two options – boil the water or make alcohol.  With the Viking influence and long dark nights in winter, alcohol became the purification method of choice.

Bere is still used to make the local beer. Swannay Brewery uses bere grown in the fields around the brewery to make a unique drink that effuses the history of the islands.  And believe me, when you have spent a day out in this rugged landscape with the Atlantic Ocean and a winter gale buffeting you, it warms you from the inside out.

So the variety of ways to sample this amazing grain are varied and nothing takes you back to your visit to Orkney like making bere bannock at home, from flour picked out of that coffin box.