In the North Sea, between mainland Scotland and the Orkney Islands, lies a mile-and-a-half-long, mile-wide island called Swona. No human lives on it; not anymore, at least. It’s currently, and exclusively, populated by a herd of feral cattle. And yet, according to the BBC, someone had a pair of shoes mailed to the island, and no one can figure out who sent them and why.
Nobody has lived on Swona since 1974. The cows are the descendants of a once domesticated herd that lives among crumbling stone farmhouses and salt-encrusted ruins.
Because of this, Alexander Annal was a little weirded out when he got word from a local post office that a parcel had just been delivered. His family owns Swona and hasn’t done anything with it in decades. So why would anyone ship a size five pair of women’s Adidas training shoes to an island inhabited by cows?
“I thought, ‘Who on earth is going to send a parcel to Swona?’” said Annal. He briefly wondered if it was some artsy tribute to the island. Artists do weird shit like that, right?
Unfortunately, there was no symbolism to be found here. Besides, the reality was much stranger: a pair of sneakers shipped to a place where the only walking going on is from the cattle grazing its grassy fields as they get pushed around by the strong winds that make package deliveries like this one so treacherous.
Swona is mostly deserted. During the summer, charter boats ferry occasional visitors, tourists, researchers, and people with cameras attached to drones onto the island. They stay for a couple of hours and then leave. The visits bring in a little bit of money that helps maintain what little infrastructure remains, and it ensures that the cows are properly fed. But there’s no internet, no residents, and definitely no one to wear a pair of gray women’s Adidas Campus low top sneakers.
It could be a scam. In 2020, watchdogs warned about a weird grift called “Brushing,” where people send unsolicited parcels to random addresses to boost fake reviews. I’ve gotten a couple myself.
That’s just a theory, though. No one knows why they were sent and who they were for. Besides, according to Orkney’s trading standards, if you receive unsolicited goods, you are under no obligation to return them.
The post Who Mailed Shoes to an Island Full of Feral Cows? appeared first on VICE.
