Tag: Scots

The cloudberry — a golden-ripe berry of the high ground, growing on boggy moorland above the treeline. The berries ripen to the color of amber and have a tart, honey-sweet flavor. Nan Shepherd called it 'a name like a dream.'

Drifting, blinding snow — a blizzard so thick you cannot see your own footsteps behind you. The world dissolves into white, and direction becomes a matter of faith.

A cold, intermittent gleam — a glint of faint light, as from sun on ice or water seen through cloud. Not steady illumination but a flicker, a signal from the landscape.

A steep hillside or slope — the ground that rises sharply from a valley floor or riverbank. In Scotland, the brae is where the easy walking ends and the climbing begins.

A halo around the sun or moon — a luminous ring caused by ice crystals in high clouds refracting light. In Scotland, a broch around the moon means rain is coming.

A stream or brook, especially in Scottish hill country — the water that comes down from the mountains, gathering in corries, falling through linn, and running through glen to the river below.

A narrow ravine or gorge — steeper than a glen, tighter than a valley. Water runs at the bottom. The walls may be rock or earth. In the Borders and Lowlands, cleughs are the hidden places.

A lapping, murmuring sound of water — the low conversation a burn has with its stones. Not a rush or a roar but a continuous, contented hum.

A dry-stone wall built without mortar — each stone fitted by hand, held by gravity and the skill of the builder. In Scotland, dykes divide fields, mark boundaries, and provide shelter from the wind. Also a geological term: a sheet of igneous rock that cuts across existing strata.

Weird, unearthly, uncanny — the quality of things that belong to another order of existence. An eldritch light. An eldritch cry. The word carries a shiver.

Electric flickers in the sky — atmospheric electrical discharges, sheet lightning, or the shimmer of aurora seen from below. Not a bolt but a wash of light, as if the sky briefly caught fire.

A deceitful promise of better weather — a brief clearing in the sky that tempts you to believe the storm has passed when it hasn't. The mountain's lie.

A thin powdering, as of sifted snow — the lightest possible dusting on rock or heather. Not a snowfall but a suggestion of one. The mountain wearing powder.

Enchantment, illusion, a spell cast by landscape or light — the quality of a place that makes it seem other than what it is. A mountain in certain light has glamourie. So does a forest at dusk. The word acknowledges that the landscape can deceive and that the deception is part of the beauty.

Cold sea fog blown onshore, especially along the coasts of northeast England and Scotland. An advection fog — formed when moist maritime air crosses cold coastal water. Can shut down a summer afternoon in minutes.

A waterfall or the pool at the base of a waterfall — the place where the burn drops over rock and gathers itself before continuing. In Scotland, linns are swimming holes, landmarks, and names on maps.

 A spawning nest built by a female salmon or trout in the gravel bed of a river. She turns on her side and beats her tail against the bottom, excavating a shallow depression into which she deposits her eggs. The male fertilizes them, and she covers the eggs with gravel swept from upstream. A single redd can be two to ten feet long and contain thousands of eggs. It is the architecture of a species' continuity, built and abandoned in the same day.

Noisy blunderers — storm clouds, loud and clumsy, rolling in over the hills. A Scots word that turns weather into character.

Resinous fir roots dug from the moor for kindling — the buried remains of ancient forests, preserved in peat and saturated with resin. They burn hot and bright and smell of pine. The moor remembers the forest.

A steep, rocky cliff or escarpment — bare stone exposed by erosion or landslip. A scaur is the mountain showing its bones.

A stone-built shelter used during summer grazing months on the Hebridean or Highland moor. The journey to the shieling alone was a coming-of-age moment for a child. The paths to shielings were cairned onto the moor as guide-lines through the bog.

 Fine snow or ice particles blown from a ridge or summit by the wind, streaming off the peaks like smoke. Also used for sea spray carried by gale-force winds.

The stiff-legged, exaggerated vertical leap made by gazelles, deer, and some other prey animals in the presence of a predator. Not flight — display. The animal is advertising its fitness, telling the predator: I've seen you, I'm strong, don't bother. Also called pronking. The leap costs energy and gains nothing except the message.

Scots: to wander aimlessly, unguided by outcome or destination. Not lost — choosing not to choose a direction. The word has no anxiety in it.