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Blackhouses of Scotland
- kamaitachi 2y agoScotland and Ireland are intimately linked by a common language (Gaelic). As an Irish person who speaks English (for obvious historical reasons), visiting Scotland blew my mind because of the common language. Here’s an example of a simple stone house from the south west of Ireland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloch%C3%A1n https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloch%C3%A1n Note that these are some houses from Skellig Michael, used as a film location for one of the Star Wars movies Edit: typo
- arethuza 2y agoWhat became Scotland pretty much originated with the kingdom of Dál Riata that stretched between Ireland and Britain and there are a lot of legends and myths that tell of strong connections between the two e.g. Deirdre of the Sorrows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A1l_Riata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A1l_Riata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deirdre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deirdre
- amiga386 2y ago"Pretty much" is doing a lot of work there. The kingdom of Dál Riata was predominantly the islands and the west coast of modern Scotland. Picts held the north, east and central parts of modern Scotland, the Britons of Strathclyde ruled the south-west and the Anglo-Saxons of Bernicia (later joining with Deira to form Northumbria) the south-east. There were many other tribes, this is a gross simplification. Ultimately the Picts and Celts/Scots of Dál Riata "merged" (if that's the right word? it's not clear who took over who) in the 700s-800s, for certain by the time of Kenneth MacAlpin who was both King of Dál Riata and King of the Picts, and by the 900s this was the Kingdom of Alba, later the Kingdom of Scotland. This Kingdom still did not include what's in modern south-west Scotland, that was won later.
- mbreese 2y agoFWIW, the British History Podcast does a pretty good job of covering Scotland and the migration of people through this period. I actually don’t know how good it is, but I do at least remember all of the names and places you mentioned. :) The podcast is quite England heavy, but does also cover Scotland and Wales, as well as the relevant parts of France, Ireland, and Denmark (as appropriate).
- m-i-l 2y ago> Scotland and Ireland are intimately linked by a common language (Gaelic) Just on parts of the west coast of Scotland - much of mainland Scotland spoke the Scots language, with the (now dead) Norn language spoken in the northern areas (with Norse heritage), and other languages in the border areas. The promotion of Scottish Gaelic as a "national language" is very much modern-day myth-building.
- nmeofthestate 2y agoIt depends how far back you go. Gaelic was spoken across the country, not just on the west coast. Nowadays it's been more or less eradicated, except from the Western Isles (where it's not that widely spoken - English is the main spoken language). And it's increasingly become a political football so you see untrue statements made about its history.
- Affric 2y agoDo you have a source for Gaelic being spoken in places like Berwickshire? My understanding from School of was that it went straight from the Brythonic to the Germanic.
- netcan 2y agoScots is an English dialect, descended from Northumbrian English. The dialect is arguably alive in some locales, including some places northern Ireland. To me, the dividing line is code switch. There are rural pubs and such where people will noticeably switch to standard English when speaking to non-locals. Ulster Scots, it is sometimes called. Hard to draw distinct lines, especially since the "standard" English near Scots speaking locales is not very standard. Glasgow, Newry and whatnot have pretty quirky "standard" English. That said, an average person from Newry won't code switch. If you can't understand the accent, they'll just speak loader, slower and more directly at your forehead. To me that makes it "not a dialect."
- arethuza 2y agoI'm originally from a small fishing village in north-east Scotland and used to speak a very broad dialect called Doric (loons, quines etc.) I'm pretty sure this is fairly different from the "Ulster Scots" you mention. What was interesting is that people from a farming background had a very different accent to folks from the coastal fringe - even though they might only be living a couple of kms away!
- kgeist 2y agoInteresting, in Northern Russia they also had no chimneys up until the beginning of the 20th century (in other places, chimneys were introduced much earlier). They also called it "black heating". How common was it in Medieval Europe?
- dan-robertson 2y agoProbably depends a lot on the house/roof. If you have a thatched roof you probably didn’t really need a chimney because the roof would be permeable enough.
- dave333 2y agoWhy does this remind me of the Four Yorkshiremen comedy sketch - "You were lucky! We lived in hole in the ground." https://youtu.be/ue7wM0QC5LE?si=exz-ZT2YMmZwmi1G https://youtu.be/ue7wM0QC5LE?si=exz-ZT2YMmZwmi1G
- dave333 2y agoOne of these with a rocket mass heater https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_mass_heater https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_mass_heater would solve the smoke and heating problems in one go. Wouldn't need trees either as you could burn whatever is providing the thatch material - small sticks/brush.
- dan-robertson 2y agoThey burned peat, not wood. And I think the smoke was part of the point? The article claims it kept pests out of the roof. Presumably it kept midges away too. Though obviously living with all the smoke wouldn’t be so nice.
- Qwertious 2y agoOr just a small wind turbine with resistive heating; it's not like Scotland lacks wind. I imagine they didn't use PV because 1) Scotland doesn't get much sun, 2) it'd get nicked by the first viking that came along, and 3) if they put it on the roof then it'd be a nightmare replacing the thatch. =p
- syntaxgoonoo 2y agoSoil and Soul by Alastair McIntosh talks a lot about these types of dwellings, and the culture of the people who lived in them. It’s a must read if you are interested in learning about the history of that part of the world.
- alehlopeh 2y agoThe smoke killing bugs in the roof is a pretty nice feature.
- aaron695 2y ago[dead]
- Steve44 2y agoI was going to add that when my father, from Fife on the east coast to Scotland, went to Iceland he was very interested to find out that he could understand many of the place names. He didn't speak a different language, but had quite a strong accent and also quite a lot of different words. [edit to clarify compared to me born & bred in England] The main example he used was Kirkjubæjarklaustur which translates as "church farm cloister". However looking it up this morning adds more depth to the history of the language. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkjub%C3%A6jarklaustur# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkjub%C3%A6jarklaustur# > Even before the time of the first Norse settlement in Iceland, Irish monks are thought to have lived here. Since 1186, a well known convent of Benedictine nuns, Kirkjubæjar Abbey, was located in Kirkjubæjarklaustur, until the Reformation in 1550.
- dijit 2y agoMy family is from Scotland and I was surprised how many slang names for things matched scandinavian languages (Swedish, in my case). Kirk: Church Barn (Baen): Children There was a bunch more, maybe I’ll make a proper list some day.
- Steve44 2y agoYes I think Northern Europe has been quite a mixing pot for a while hence so many common links. The Vikings first settled in Ireland in about 800 AD so presumably the languages were mixing and evolving. Your list would be interesting, go for it.
- vidarh 2y agoMost of the common links between Nordic languages and English is because English is a Germanic language, but subsequent transfer also certainly happened.
- lmpdev 2y agoMy first name, Lachlan, is a Scottish Gaelic name which was used to describe Scandinavian Vikings Specifically it means “Lord from the Land of the Loch”, derived from the Scottish name for Norway: Lochlann I cannot recall others but there a lot of personal and place names of Scottish/Scandinavian mix —————— PS Lachlan has oddly taken off in Australia and is one of the most popular male names for men my age, along with Murdoch’s kid
- Woshiwuja 2y agoThe Companions barracks