Lamb Skinnet
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
LAMB SKINNET (J8x32) 3C (4C set) Thompson RSCDS Book 141- 8 1s set, cast 1 place (2s step up 3-4) and dance ½ Fig of 8 up round 2s. 2(1)3
9-16 1s set, cast to 3rd place (3s step up) and dance ½ Fig of 8 up round 3s. 231
17-24 1s lead up to top, (2s and 3s step down 19-20); 1s set and cast to 2nd place (2s step up 23-24)
25-32 2s+1s dance R&L
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Instruction Videos
Lamb Skinnet - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
Lamb Skinnet is a Scottish Country Dance published by Thompson in 1757 and interpreted by the RSCDS in Book 14, published 1947.(Dance information copyright, reproduced here with the kind permission of George Williams)
Lamb Skinnet refers to the practice of fostering (grafting, or switching), a lamb from one ewe to another in order to save a lamb during the lambing season when one ewe has more lambs than she can successfully care for and another ewe is suitable to accept an orphan.
This involves removing a large proportion of the skin from a dead lamb and temporarily attaching it to the orphan lamb. The mother of the dead lamb will then more readily accept the orphan as her own.
A Cheviot Ewe With Her Lamb - Stornoway, Scotland
Image copyright Cheviot_ewe_with_lamb.jpg: Donald MacLeod from Stornoway, Scotland derivative work: Coycan (Cheviot_ewe_with_lamb.jpg) Creative Commons Licence 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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