About the Words

There may be some words that are unfamiliar to you.

In the Highlands some people speak Scots and some Gaelic, and some have a smattering of the two in their day to day conversations.

Here are a few from the series!

Midden
This is a Scots word for a refuse heap, now mainly used to describe children's bedrooms.

Tumshie
A Scots word for Turnip, and can be used affecionately for cuddly wee babies!

Bodach
A Gaelic word for an old man.

Cailleach
A Gaelic word for an old woman.

Hogmanay
Scots word for New Year's Eve.

Guising
What Scottish children do on Halloween - dressing up and visiting houses to do a wee song or tell a joke.

Feisty

Scots word for determined and full of courage.

Tapadh leat

Gaelic for thank you.

Fankle

Scots word for an awful muddle. 

Ceilidh

A gathering, with music, stories,  and perhaps the odd wee dance too!

Clootie or Cloot

Scots word for a cloth, so clootie dumpling is a kind of fruit  pudding wrapped in a muslin cloth and boiled. Clootie trees or clootie wells occur in the Highlands usually where there is a water source and where people leave a wee piece of cloth tied to a branch, for good health, or for luck.