Scottish Heather

Probably no plant, with the exception of the thistle, is more connected with Scotland and its Highlands than heather. Sometimes called "The Carpet of the Highlands" for the way in which it blankets many a hillside, from ancient times this wild plant has been found to have more uses for every day Scottish life than any other. Into the present century, a typical dwelling in Scotland could be found to have heather used in the walls, thatch, beds, as fuel for fire, in floor coverings, ale, tea, baskets, as well as finding use in its medicine chest and dye pot, to sweep the house and chimney, to feed and bed down the sheep and cattle, and to weave into the fences around the farm.

The Scottish vocabulary is rife with terms such as heathery head to describe a shaggy-haired person, heather-lowper for a hill or country dweller, heather-cow to describe a twig of heather or a broom made with heather, or heather-bleater, another name for a snipe. Even the flower hydrangea has been called heather-range or heather-reenge by many a Scotsman. Houses in Scotland have been found with heather mixed with mud packed within the fail and divot walls.

Roofs can be thatched with heather, the only disadvantage of which being that heather is heavier and catches fire more easily than straw or rush thatch. yet even when houses were thatched with other materials, heather ropes weighted down with stones were used to tie down the thatches.

Evidence of heather rope has even been found in the 4,000 year old village of Skara Brae in Orkney! Ropes were often made with two people, one to feed the heather to the other who would walk backward twisting the strands into rope clockwise on a stick. Heather rope is said to be stronger than straw rope and farmers often used heather ropes, several inches thick and laid upon the ground, to keep the wild geese from feeding upon their crops; it is said the geese would only cross the rope if they were extremely hungry. The ropes stood up well to water and thus were also used for tying up boats and gathering kelp.

Long heather stems are used to weave fragrant kitchen mats called peallagan and for baskets carried on the back or as horse panniers. Since prehistoric times, heather has been used for bedding, sometimes mixed with ferns, stuffing mattresses nearly as comfortably as feather down and much more fragrantly.

Herbally, heather has been infused into tonics to treat consumption and coughs, nerves, depression, and heart ailments. Heather tea, liniments, and ointments were used for arthritis and rheumatism. Many of the brilliant shades of yellow, orange, grey-green, purple, and bronze in Scottish woolens have come from heather dyes. Traditionally, beacons of burning heather were used to summon the clans to battle and the rare white heather was said to hold magical powers, even marking the resting places of fairies. Scots have made heather tea, blending with other plants such as strawberry, barberry, and thyme.

Heather honey was used to flavor mead. And one of the heather's more popular uses has always been in making the fabled heather ale, recipes for which are closely guarded. Ancient Pictish kings held the true original secret for the best of heather ales. Traditionally only the king and his eldest son were given the secret of its recipe, to ensure that it would be kept confidential and would be passed through each ruling generation. Legend has it that after their final battle with the Scots, only two Picts survived, the king and his son. The king of the Scots demanded from them the secret for the ancient brew, threatening them with torture. The father, fearing his weaker son would reveal the secret, promised to tell, only after the Scots killed his son. Of course, once the son was killed, the Pictish king refused to make good on his promise and the secret of the true heather ale died with him when the Scots promptly killed him. The heather ale of today is said to be but a pale comparison to the original nectar, and prized it must have been for the king to have sacrificed his life - and that of his son - for it!

From the bonny bells of heather,
They brewed a drink longsyne,
Was sweeter far than honey,
Was stronger far than wine.

From Heather Ale, a Galloway Legend
by Robert Louis Stevenson