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When the West Coast herring season was at its height large numbers of Island women would congregate in Stornoway to await the arrival in harbour of the fleet. At that time, it would not have been unusual to observe the women exchanging local news on the town’s streets whilst busily knitting sundry garments for themselves. When not at work in the herring yards, the women were usually bare-headed and wore distinctive knitted shoulder-wraps or shawls. However, when the boats arrived in port, these garments were soon replaced with more practical apparel. Typically, their working clothes would include hand-knitted woollen pullovers, woollen skirts, oilskin aprons, leather boots, and a head-scarf fastened at the back of the head to keep the salt and herring scales out of their hair. Another essential item of wear were "luideagan" - strips of rag made from old flour sacks - which were wrapped around the fingers. These helped to protect them from the razor-sharp knives that were used to gut and clean the fish. They were, however, less effective at protecting them from the salt and brine which penetrated the skin, often causing painful sores.

During the months of May and June the herring girls or clann nighean an iasgaich, as they were affectionately known, would travel as far north as Shetland to find employment in the bustling herring yards. In late September they would return home for a short while before many would continue down south to England for the winter fishing. In 1913 the Fishery Officer based in Stornoway reported that in May and June of that year, 2400 women had left for the herring ports of Shetland and the east coast of Scotland, with 1613 of them later proceeding down to Yarmouth and Lowestoft. The fact that they were usually referred to as girls, rather than women, was quite appropriate as many of them initially left home at about sixteen years of age.

In the herring yards the women were organised into crews of two fish gutters and a packer. Once the gutters had expertly split and cleaned the fish, the packer would arrange them in layers in their wooden barrels. As the barrels were being filled, copious quantities of coarse salt would be added. After a time the barrels had to be topped up with more fish as the herring settled and became compressed under its own weight. Before finally leaving the yard, additional brine would be added through a funnel inserted into a hole in the top of the barrel. It was essential, particularly during the warm summer months, that the herring catches were cured as soon as the boats arrived. Consequently, substantial numbers of women were required to quickly process the large catches being landed by the boats.

Before the season commenced, the fish merchants and curers would send employees out into the communities to contract the women. Some received a e�rlais - payment of about �1 - which pledged the women to work for a particular employer, once the season eventually got under way. The curers would then begin making arrangements for transporting their employees to the herring ports and accommodating them there once they had arrived. When it was time for the women to travel away from home, girls from all over the island would gather in Stornoway to await the sailing boats that would ferry them to their destinations. A nurse and a local minister would also usually accompany them at the start of the season to provide health care and religious comfort for them whilst they were away from home.

In some places, like Yarmouth, the women would be placed in modest lodgings within the town. This would have been arranged earlier by the curer. At other herring ports such as Lerwick in Shetland, wooden huts were typically used to accommodate six girls at a time. On arrival at Lerwick harbour, the curers’ lorries would carry the girls’ suitcases and travelling chests from the docks to their living quarters. Each hut contained bunk beds topped with straw mattresses, with the girls providing their own bed linen and crockery. Apart from the beds, the huts typically contained a bath, some basic storage facilities and a fireplace. A stove provided the means to heat water and cook. The mains water supply and toilet facilities were located outdoors. Whenever possible, the girls would try to furnish the dwellings with some linoleum for the floors and curtains for the windows.

The women would normally start work at 6 am and continue until the day's catch had been processed. This sometimes meant that they did not finish work until 11 o'clock in the evening. There were breaks, of course, for meals - with breakfast between 8 am and 9 am and dinner from 1 pm to 2 pm. The working week itself was finally over at 6 pm on the Saturday. On Mondays they would usually be given a half-day off work to carry out their washing and to clean the huts.

During the course of the season the curer would provide them with some money to buy food - usually herring or kippers and potatoes, with some meat and soup for Sunday. There were few leisure activities apart from knitting, waulking cloth in the evenings, and a dance night at the weekend.