ragweed yellowish
bramble yellow & grey
these are the dyes & the colours they make
meadowsweet bright yellow brown
alder dark brown
for the handspun wool hand-woven into herringbone tweed
iris green & light brown
tormentil whitish
bog myrtle mud brown orangish yellow
heather dark orangish yellow medium brown
warm & weatherproof here in the gray damp
nettle yellowish cream brownish grey greyish medium-to-dark brown
lichens white pink rich orangish brown reddish brown bluish grey
the old breed of sheep smaller more delicate
the wool fine had to be housed in winter
not commercially successful
now extinct
Auchindrain = Achadh an Droughinn = The Field of the Thorntree
its name first written in the 1470s its use much older
settled by Scots from Ireland:
in whose language great poetry is still given voice
cluster of cottages lost in the hills
a Brigadoon empty of lives but remnants
pictures mementos scraps of knowledge fragments of tales
Eddie MaCallum was the last farmed here until 1962
Eddie MaCallum was the last alone
once six families here decided by lot the arable land–
Eddie MaCallum the last alone and last
Eddie MaCallum gone
a town standing witness to itself
constant work to keep the village self-reliant
governed by seasons
seed-time & harvest movement of stock on & off the hill
planting bere & oats for their grain & straw
stacked on stone with a base of brushwood
matured then dismantled & the grain thrashed
to a drying kiln when threshed
to a hand quern to grind
keeping the sheep lambing and milking (mix
tar & ewe’s butter rub into the sheep’s skin
to keep parasites at bay)
drovers took to market:
cattle sheep cockerel hens & other fowl pigs
dogs & cats
daily work: sorting the beasts
redding up = maintaining buildings dykes drains
house cottage byre barn
one house with stone walls whitewashed
a chimney thatch strapped down
chicks & hens a-scratch in the yard
cobbles by doors to keep out the mud
then the cottar’s cottage: walls roof smoke hole:
smoke eventually found its way out
common entry to house & byre
the cottar given house & kailyard for a time in return for work
grass thickens its loose thatch
the cottar smelling of smoke and damp
a season of work sweat and sleep dusted with harvest
chaff part of the weave of his clothes wonders
what roof will cover him in the next winter’s rains
does he have parents?
is he too poor for wife and child?
does he bring them leave them where?
does anyone know the cottar’s tale?
if the cottar had a daughter
would he name her Isabella?
dry stone pointed with clay mortar
all houses altered & rebuilt
buried in the walls are stumps for cruck frames to hold the roofs
later replaced by wall-head couples & rafters
old doorways for people & beasts blocked
then new ones broken out of the stone
byres changed to stables peat stoves to cart sheds
loft or part lofts some with attics floors a recent thing
older places closet kitchen byre under one roof
closet for butter & cheese making removed from byre
a kitchen to cook & eat in & where most slept
Dan MacDonald apprenticed as mason
to Stoner Munro Dan MacDonald (Dangerous Dan?
Dastardly Dan? Dan Dead-Shot?)
could sit in bed at one end of the loft
& shoot rats around the meal kists at the other
That’s all we’re told of Dan (Stoner Dan?
Dan the Mason? Rat-Killer Dan?)
houses built end on to the wind
dark smoky: clarty but cosy
women spun by the fire the most social place
kitchens first open hearths
then fireplaces with back-stone
added hood to carry smoke up
finally internal stone gable & flue at “best” end of house
barns built across the prevailing wind:
2 doors set opposite
for the through draft to blow away chaff while winnowing
over the whole site flowers & herbs once bound in gardens spread freely
water carried from springs
cattle in the byre end
barrel sunk outside door for liquid manure
to fertilize kailyard or mordant for dying wool
a “knee of timber” helped to keep a barrow-load or 2 of turnips by the door
salt tub for pickling meat
heather thatch on a layer of rushes with layer of turf beneath
lying on a birch frame
peat store pigsty hen house cart storage
kailyard walled to keep out beasts:
kail parsley for broth turnips a few potatoes
red currants blackcurrants gooseberries mint tansy a Pyrennena lily
too boggy around the burn for sown crops
but here some grazing some meadow hay
2 kinds of rushes:
the jointed which cattle will eat
the common rush which they won’t
used for thatching & pith for wick for burning oil in cruisies
meadowsweet valerian red clover flag iris
willow planted for baskets & rope
rowan trees–berries for jelly
but as much encouraged for protection from witches
a ferryman at Inverary used to visit an old lady who lived in Auchindrain
now a ruin her house was black–nothing but a cruisie–
and the scones were black, and she was black, too
children thought she was a witch
in her garden: selfheal feverfew
sneezewort woundwort
yarrow = Luschosgadh na fola = herb of the staunching of the blood
in the smoke of her house herbs hang drying in smoke
scones on the griddle poised above the fire
she was black, too
proteins: milk cheese fish oatmeal potatoes occasionally salt meat
carbs: oatmeal barley meal potatoes
fats (never enough): butter the little meat
vitamins & minerals from these & vegetables
honey ale & soft fruits were the sweets
eggs only in spring–poultry eaten only on special occasions
coalfish & pollack caught off rocks in summer by the young
split salted dried
flounders speared in shallows
cod & haddock caught in long-lines in deepest water
herring in Loch Fyne famous
several men would work at it in summer
trout from burns & hill lochs: river trout sea-trout salmon
a sheepskin buoy atop the nets
Light = often just firelight
cruisies burned fish oil
a rush dip for special reading writing letters
(a stalk of common rush soaked in melted tallow
after being peeled lasted 8–10 minutes)
The well-off houses would make tallow candles
and later own a paraffin lamp
Soap homemade from ashes & tallow
Washing outside
Inside the house until 1760–1860
just a chest & some stools
after that dresser commonplace
1800s decorative chinaware
wall-clocks a status symbol
willow creel elderwood netting needle
hazel crook heather rope
heather twigs gathered with twine for potscourer
birch besom
baking stone for oatcakes & barley bannocks
Usually the only iron ware in house was a 3-legged pot
after 1750 cast iron before riveted metal plates
(and often the only cooking vessel)
then later a kettle & girdle
spoons of horn
masher from wood horn mug
riddle with groats for grinings
quern–handmill for oat & barley meal
bellows for peat fire
heather whisk for ashes
the kind of industry few of us know
small routines of the daily beasts
larger cycles of planting, reaping, birthing
long summer days to manage the crops to shore up
the walls before the long wet winter darkness
a child learns to feed the beasts to milk to plant
to harvest to love to marry to bury
willow for
wattling creels baskets bindings medicine
rushes for
thatch lamp wicks beasts’ bedding occasionally grazing
ash for
plough tools carts boats machinery
eldge (now scarce) for
netting needles shuttles musical instruments
toys small tools wines medicines
birch twigs make superb brooms
stain-resistant wood for dairy utensils
bark for tanning leather
hazel for
shepherds’ crooks fishing thatching rods
creel basket frames
heather for
thatch strong rope dye basket & creel
brooms pot-scourers hard-weather grazing
oak for
fuel for iron smelting shipbuilding heavy construction
piper & singers then fiddler
most every house had a trump (mouth harp)
or later a “mootheir” (mouth organ)
“Box melodeon”
tunes & songs reeling out into long nights
in the traditional long-house = byre dwelling:
byre
Bridal chest plain
Kitchen:
2 boxbeds linen chest drawer in bottom
closet/milkhouse
parlour
hand-embroidery with Celtic designs
feathers in jar family pictures
cradle humble china cupboard
iron bed chest 2 prints
rug rocker chair good fireplace
caschrom = foot plough
operator works backwards efficient & effortless
1 acre = 70 hours
Isabella Bell Pol Muddy Bell
at the end of her life
came back to live out her days with kinfolk
because giving her a house
exempted the town from paying the parish poor rate
Isabella Bell Pol Muddy Bell
unmarried daughter of a cottar
kept house for her father till he died
then laboured in the lead mines
till she had to retire
Isabella Bell Pol Muddy Bell
her tidy house a stack of peat a fireplace to cook in
boxbed walled & curtained to keep night’s warmth in old bones
a kettle a pot a griddle a cruisie
a rush basket a wool throw
a table a bench a chair a stool a dresser
a horn spoon some china a mirror
who left the eggs on the dresser for you
Isabella Bell Pol Muddy Bell
a weaver was one of the few who lived by practicing a trade
bracken soft/light/medium brown
indigo
clover soft light medium brown
poppy leaves soft grey
dandelion soft light orange
onion skin soft light brown
blueberry dark brown
thistle soft grey
St. John’s wort light light beige
foxglove dark cream
wild daisies soft brown
Neile Graham is Canadian by birth and inclination, but currently lives in Seattle, where her life is full of writing and writers. She is a graduate of Clarion West Writers Workshop and currently serves as its workshop director. Her poetry and fiction have been published in the U.S, the U.K., and Canada. She has three full-length poetry collections, most recently Blood Memory, and a spoken word CD, She Says: Poems Selected and New.