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7. Summer work
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Category: Àiteach / Agriculture
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7. Summer work
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Location: [Arran? see the comment under 3]
Category: Àiteach / Agriculture
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7. Summer work
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Origin: Assynt, Stoer
Category: Àiteach / Agriculture
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7. Summer work
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Origin: Ross and Cromarty, Lewis
Category: Àiteach / Agriculture
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7. Summer work
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Origin: Tiree
Category: Àiteach / Agriculture
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Céitean
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Quot.: “Céitean Samhna”. Note: Indian Summer.
Origin: [Barvas]
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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[sochag]
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I have a note of the words I have sent you from time to time and as far as I can see I have not sent you ‘sochag’. I heard it this summer in Laggan and it seems that it means a plant which grows in wet ground, the willow. However, another old native of Laggan says he thinks ‘sochag’ is the name given to the leaf of the berries (somewhat similar to cranberries) growing beside burns. In his “Church and Social Life in the Highlands” A. Macpherson (a native of Kingussie district) quotes the verse (p. 19) describing the hills in that district which includes the lines: “Chan fhàs fiar no fodar ann / Ach sochagan is dearcagan allt.” He does not give a translation of ‘sochag’ but I seem to remember having seen this verse somewhere with an English translation. I wonder if you have been given this word from any other source?
Location: Inverness
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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an tòc
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This is a mystery somewhat akin to the King’s Evil, only in this instance, animals are the sufferers. An operation is performed on the eye of the animal (sheep or cow). The eyelid is turned outwards and by means of a darning needle and a piece of thread, some particular part surrounding the eye is manipulated so that it can be cut off. This gives immediate relief to the animal. Veterinary surgeons do not believe in it. An instance was quoted to me last summer. The man telling the story told me he had been to a village in Lochs. There was a cow, very far through, stretched out on the ground practically at its last gasp when my friend arrived. The vet had been called and had given her up as hopeless. My friend asked, “Na dh’fhiach sibh bheil an tòc oirr?” “Chan eil fhios againne dé th’ann an tòc.” “Uill bheir mise an tòc bhair na bà agus mur a dèan e feum, cha dèan e cron ’sam bith oirre co dhiubh.” He performed the operation and in ten minutes’ time the cow was on its feet and eating the grass. The amazing thing is that the people of Lochs had never heard of this most effective operation which is still regularly performed in Uig.
Origin: Lewis, Uig
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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beinn
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Quotation: “Galar na beinneadh.” Notes: scrubs on the eyes and nose of lambs in summer after they have been put to the moor. Cured with “ola mhilis” – sweet vegetable oil.
Origin: North Uist
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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brac
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[brɑk] Notes: a fine form of sea-weed growth that attached itself to lines and nets in the early summer and was a great trial to the fishermen. Common to Golspie, and Embo (probably also to Brora, although the old couple I asked didn’t remember it – the man only fished for one season and wasn’t so well up on his fishing terminology as the Embo and Golspie men). Source: Sandy MacKay, 8 Hall St., Embo. Date: spring 1968.
Location: Sutherland [see below]
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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braon
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Notes: warm shower in the summer.
Origin: Islay, Port Charlotte
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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breunlach
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[bɾ[ĩɑ̃]ɫɑx] Notes: soft boggy patch on the moor, which dries only after a spell of summer heat.
Location: Lewis, Barvas
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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ceann-snaidhm
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Quotation: Tha ceann-snaidhm anns an adhair. Bha a’ ghaoth ann am bun a’ cheann-snaidhm. Notes: long strips of cloud, probably parallel but apparently coming together over the horizon (as if boat shaped with the planks coming together). Usually indicates a change in weather – heat haze in summer. [NOTES: slipped under ‘ceann-snaim’.]
Location: Lewis, Barvas
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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coimheadaiche
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[kɛ̃əd̪i] Notes: part-time shepherd. In summer was responsible for keeping animals away from crops night and morning. Usually got a piece of land in return.
Origin: North Uist
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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cotan
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cot for young newly born calf for summer shieling only.
Location: Lewis, Arnol
Category: Crodh / Cattle
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cridhe
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Quot.: “mu chridhe an t-samhraidh”. Note: about the middle of summer.
Origin: [Lewis], Arnol
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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crosgagan
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gusts of wind from a north easterly direction. Occurred at the beginning of summer.
Location: South Uist, Garrynamonie
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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cusg
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(coosg) people in the village of Carishader call the artificial insemination man ‘Bodach na cusg’. I never heard the word until last summer.
Origin: Lewis, Uig
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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céise-bal
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[ce:ʃəbɑɫ] Note: ball as used in the game of Cat and Bat (speileaban [q.v.]); sometimes made with rags, sometimes made with the shed hair of cattle in early summer. This was scraped off the beast and made gradually with spits, rolling hair on till it was of the required size. Céise-bal-ghaoisd [ce:ʃəbɑɫɣw:ʃdʹ].
Origin: [Lewis], Arnol
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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dubh-sheanair
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great grandfather. (Urq.) This summer a Glenurquhart man spoke of his mother’s great grandfather (who was one of the Seven Men of Glenmoriston, 1746) as “dubh sheanair mo mhàthair”. He gave the names of the fingers as: “ordag, mac an ab’, ceanna fad’, ludag, bhideag”. A near neighbour and contemporary (both families in the district for generations) gave them as: “ordag, bhordag, gille fada, mac an aba, bhideag”.
Location: Inverness
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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feaslaichean
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warble fly. Picked up from the ground and developed through the cow’s leg till it reached its back. Would be ready to be uprooted in summer. [NOTES: corrected to ‘fèaslaichean’.]
Location: South Uist, Garrynamonie
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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fiùradh
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[fȷu̟ɾəɣ] Quot.: “fiùradh gaoith”. “Nach ann oirr’ a tha a fiùradh.” Soft, warm breeze in summer.
Origin: Ness
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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fochann
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Quotation: fochann tughaidh. Notes: when corn stalks with seed still on them were left among the thatching, they grew again in summer.
Location: Stornoway, Melbost
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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fàladair
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[fɑ:ɫəd̪ɛð] Notes: grass that comes up later on in the year in a place which has been grazed in early summer.
Origin: Uig, Lewis
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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galar
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Quotation: “galar na beinneadh.” Notes: “scrubs on the eyes and noses of lambs in summer after they have been put to the moor.” Cured with “ola mhilis” – sweet vegetable oil.
Origin: North Uist
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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glaodhain
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potatoes with roots growing out of them at the beginning of summer.
Location: South Uist, Garrynamonie
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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gruidheam
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a meal something like black pudding. When cattle had come down from shieling there was a custom of extracting blood since the cattle were healthy enough after their summer pasturage on the shieling land. This blood was boiled and then salted in a container and set aside as an ‘aindeal geamhraidh’. When it was needed it was put in a pot with fat and onions. Eaten with bread like a black pudding.
Location: South Uist, Garrynamonie
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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imrich
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[ĩməðiç] Quot.: “Na chuir sibh a mach an imrich fhathast?” “An d’thug sibh dhachaidh an imrich fhathast.” Note: the clothing, utensils, etc. which were taken to the shieling at the beginning of summer and brought back at the end of the season.
Origin: [Lewis], Arnol
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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liumpanaich
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long trailing sea-weed, string-like, which grows in thick patches in the summer. It can be dangerous to bathers. There is none in winter.
Origin: Lewis, Uig
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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logais
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I’m sorry I can’t identify this one. I remember an old fisherman making reference to it. He spoke about ‘na logaisean muigh as a chuan’ when he went there with the great lines in his youth. Whatever they were, they had a voracious appetite! This summer I heard the phrase ‘Dhitheadh e man logais.’ Perhaps they were a kind of slug – anyway, if the great lines were left too long, the whole catch was eaten.
Origin: Lewis, Uig
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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lomradh
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wool shorn off in summer.
Origin: [Arran]
Category: Obair na Clòimhe / Wool-Working
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losgadh-cas
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Notes: caused by dried sweaty socks in summer.
Location: Coll, Sorrisdale
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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milis
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Quotation: ola mhilis. Notes: a sweet vegetable oil, used sometimes to cure scrubs on the eyes and noses of lambs when put to the moor in summer.
Origin: North Uist
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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mocain
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old stockings worn on the feet in the summer-time instead of shoes.
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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na luinn
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shimmering, glitter-like appearance in grass during an especially hot summer.
Location: South Uist, South Lochboisdale
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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oiteag
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Notes: puff, light gust of wind in summer that dies out quickly.
Origin: Islay, Port Charlotte
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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ola
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Quotation: ola mhilis. Notes: sweet vegetable oil, used sometimes to cure scrubs on the eyes and noses of lambs when put to the moor in summer.
Origin: North Uist
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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platack
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3. When lines were hauled they were stored in a rush mat called a platack. 4. Platack. Roughly 5' x 4'. When the fisherman got home he untied his platack and red his line into a herring basket or cotton sacks all ready for baiting with either lug worm, limpit [sic] mussel or herring according to time of year. Mainly lug in the summer months.
Category: Iasgach / Fishing
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sacanaich
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Quot.: “sacanaich na Samhna”. Note: Indian summer. Warm period in October. (Put also under Samhainn.)
Origin: Ness
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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seacanaich
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[ʃɛkɑṉiç] Quot.: “seacanaich na Samhna”. Note: period of good weather in the late autumn. Indian Summer.
Origin: Uig
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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stamhradh
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summer. An stamhradh.
Location: Na Hearadh, Scalpaigh [Harris, Scalpay]
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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taigh a’ bhainne
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The milk house. A small bothy built of drystone and thatched. It had no window and this kept the milk and cream delightfully cold in hot summer weather. ‘Tigh a’ bhainne’ had a press or cupboard where milk vessels were kept. Here the housewife kept her ‘crannachan’ or churn, a tall round wooden vessel with its perforated lid, or ‘lumachan’, through which the long handle of the ‘loinid’ (churn-staff) entered. Here, too, she kept her ‘crog’ of butter with its immaculately white skin covering called ‘imideal’, and ‘fiodhan’ [q.v.], a wooden receptacle, where cheese was made.
Origin: Skye
Category: Taigh Gàidhealach / House and Furnishings
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tairnainaich teas
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thunder brought on by summer heat.
Location: South Uist, Garrynamonie
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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tighean-samhraidh
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summer houses.
Location: Harris, Scalpay
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
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turloch
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loch that dries up in summer.
Location: Skye
Category: Measgaichte / Miscellaneous
