Gàidhlig / English
Guirmean-an-t-Sléibhe

Guirmean-an-t-Sléibhe

Posted by Abi on 3 August 2017

The Western Isles are famous for many reasons, but every visitor knows of Harris Tweed and the colours of the islands which are represented so well in the cloth. Harris Tweed items are to be found in nearly every shop on the islands and it is very popular with tourists and locals alike. After a month of living in the islands, I have taken the opportunity to look at the colours of Harris Tweed and how they were created.

An informant from Scalpay, Harris, gave Guirmean-an-t-Sléibhe to a researcher, which means ‘a plant from which the colour of blue was taken.’ In Dwelly’s dictionary, guirmean means ‘dyer’s woad or isatis tinctoria.’ According to the person from Scalpay, this plant was used to dye the cloth blue.

There are many words in DASG’s Faclan bhon t-Sluagh about working wool. The word clòmh bàn was collected in South Uist for ‘undyed wool used to make underwear. Flannel-like substance.’ Clearly it wasn’t worth going to the effort of dying the wool if nobody was going to see it! Coire-dath was collected in Scalpay and this was a ‘kettle for colouring wool. The wool is boiled in the cauldron … with dye, vegetable dyes added.’

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