On the peatland’s Atlantic shore, a dream or a nightmare?

Winter on the moor.

For seeing in the dark people would use a peat torch, ‘athainne’ in Gaelic, which gave a good light and could be used for seeing the way or to fish for salmon and trout out on the moor at night.

Winter shelter in the lee of a glacial boulder, Rannoch Moor.

Ice on glacial clay. This clay, dredged up from under a bog was laid down at the end of the last ice age.

peat strata.

“The wife brought out a basin of water. The man lifted three live embers from the fire and dropped them one by one from the tongs into the water, with small hissings and wisps of steam. Then he washed his hands and face in the singed water. His wife went through the same lustration. The three children dipped hands and faces and lifted them steaming…”

from ‘The Laird’s Son’ in ‘Winter Tales’ by George Mackay Brown, Polygon, 2010.

How much of this year will you preserve in your memory?Peat to a depth of approximately 1mm is formed each year. It preserves within its strata a register of footprints, pollens, spade marks, carbons, caterpillars, abandoned cars, lost hats and life lived on Scotland’s peatlands. It has been the goal of this year of daily bog blogs to do the same.

Snow/Peat.

Perfect weather to start reading the peated beginning to my jolabokaflod gift, ‘Winter Tales’ by George MacKay Brown.