shieling

A "shieling" is a summer dwelling on a seasonal pasture high in the hills.{{harvnb|Cooper|1983|pp=124–125}} The first recorded use of the term is from 1568.{{Cite Merriam-Webster|shieling|access-date=5 May 2013}} The word "shieling" comes from "shiel", from the forms schele or shale in the Northern dialect of Middle English, likely related to Old Frisian skul meaning "hiding place" and to Old Norse Skjol meaning "shelter" and Skali meaning "hut".{{cite encyclopedia |title=shiel |encyclopedia=Webster's Third New International Dictionary |year=1986 |volume=3 |edition=3 |pages=2094}}

File:Sheiling plans.svg

A shieling, whether an isolated dwelling or in a group, is a hut or small dwelling, usually in an upland area. Shielings were often constructed of locally available dry stone, or turf. They are mostly rectangular buildings between {{convert|5.7|–|14|m|ft}} long and {{convert|3|–|8.3|m|ft}} wide, although they may have rounded corners or be roughly oval. The rectangular buildings usually had gabled roofs covered in local materials such as turf, heather, or rushes, supported on timbers. The doorway was usually in the middle of one of the long sides of the building, often on the south side; it was often just a gap in the wall, although some shielings had door jambs and lintels made of larger blocks of stone. The smaller shielings consisted of a single room; most were divided into two or three rooms. There were few or no windows. Some sources consider shielings to differ from farmsteads in lacking an enclosure,{{cite book |last1=Ramm |first1=H.G. |last2=McDowall |first2=R.W. |last3=Mercer |first3=Eric |author4=Royal Commission on Historical Monuments |title=Shielings and Bastles |publisher=H.M.S.O. |location=London |date=1970 |pages=9–43 |isbn=978-0-11-700468-9 |oclc=540235}} although they may be surrounded by a bank and ditch, or by a dry stone wall.

File:Shielings on Jura.JPG, from Thomas Pennant's 1776 Voyage to the Hebrides]]

The Welsh traveller and naturalist Thomas Pennant wrote the first description of Scottish shielings:

{{blockquote|I landed on a bank covered with sheelins, the temporary habitations of some peasants who tend the herds of milch cows. These formed a grotesque group; some were oblong, some conic, and so low that the entrance is forbidden without creeping through the opening, which has no other door than a faggot of birch twigs placed there occasionally; they are constructed of branches of trees covered with sods; the furniture a bed of heather; placed on a bank of sod, two blankets and a rug; some dairy vessels; and above, certain pendent shelves made of basket‑work, to hold the cheese, the product of the summer. In one of the little conic huts I spied a little infant asleep.|Thomas Pennant, Voyage to the Hebrides, 1776}}

{{Further|Transhumance}}

File:The Sheiling - geograph.org.uk - 837966.jpg path, Isle of Lewis]]

The shieling system was widespread across Europe, including upland Britain and Iceland. It survives into the 21st century in Norway, Northern Sweden and the higher areas of central Europe.{{cite journal |last=Cheape |first=Hugh |title=Shielings in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland: Prehistory to the Present |journal=Folk Life |volume=35 |issue=1 |year=1996 |doi=10.1179/043087796798254498 |pages=7–24}} Farmers and their families lived in shielings during the summer to enable their livestock to graze common land. Shielings were therefore associated with the transhumance system of agriculture. They were often beside streams, which were used as pathways into the hills, or at the far end of the upland grazing land from the migrants' winter dwellings. The mountain huts generally fell out of use by the end of the 17th century, although in remote areas, such as the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides, this system continued into the 18th century or even later.{{cite book |last=Britnell |first=R. H. |title=Britain and Ireland 1050–1530 : economy and society |publisher=Oxford University Press |publication-place=Oxford |date=2004 |isbn=0-19-873145-0 |oclc=56436869 |page=268}} Derek Cooper, in his 1983 book on Skye, writes that the buildings on the moors were repaired each summer when the people arrived with their cattle; they made butter and cheese, and {{lang|gd|gruthim}}, salted buttered curds.

File:Ruins of a Shieling at Catlodge.jpg, marked by a green area around the building where the land had been cleared, which contrasts with the heather moorland]]

Ruins of shielings are abundant in high or marginal land in Scotland and Northern England,{{cite web |title=Case Study: Transhumance and Shielings |url=https://scarf.scot/national/scarf-modern-panel-report/modern-case-studies/case-study-transhumance-and-shielings/ |website=ScARF |access-date=7 September 2022}}{{sfn|Bil|1990|pp=233 "Shieling settlements often survive as prominent ruins in present-day upland areas [of the central Scottish highlands]"; 235 "Surveys of present-day ruins also confirm the widespread distribution of this single-apartment design."}} as are place-names containing "shield" or their Gaelic equivalents, such as Pollokshields in Glasgow,{{cite web |url=http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/shiel_n_v1 |title=Scottish National Dictionary 1700- |publisher=Dictionary of the Scots Language |access-date=24 December 2018}} Arinagour on the island of Coll,{{cite web |url=https://learngaelic.scot/dictionary/index.jsp?abairt=Airigh&slang=both&wholeword=false |title=Learn Gaelic |publisher=Learn Gaelic.Scot/Dictionary |access-date=25 December 2018 |archive-date=26 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226035434/https://learngaelic.scot/dictionary/index.jsp?abairt=Airigh&slang=both&wholeword=false |url-status=live }} Galashiels in the Scottish Borders,{{cite web |url=https://swap.nesc.gla.ac.uk/database/?search=&page=2&order=3&d=2 |title=Scots Words and Place-names |publisher=Place-Name Glossary |access-date=9 December 2018 |archive-date=10 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181210063314/https://swap.nesc.gla.ac.uk/database/?search=&page=2&order=3&d=2 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.scottish-places.info/towns/townhistory230.html |title=Galashiels |publisher=Scottish Places |access-date=9 December 2018 |archive-date=10 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181210015841/http://www.scottish-places.info/towns/townhistory230.html |url-status=live }} and "Shiels Brae" near Bewcastle. Turf-built shielings have typically gradually eroded and disappeared, but traces of stone-built structures persist in the landscape. Some shielings are medieval in origin and were occasionally occupied permanently after the abandonment of the transhumance system. The construction of associated structures such as stack-stands{{efn|These were small raised platforms to construct haystacks on, to keep the hay as dry as possible when there was no room to bring it inside the shieling.{{cite web |last1=Griffiths |first1=Karen |title=Stackstands and stackgarths |url=https://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/stackstands-and-stackgarths/ |publisher=Yorkshire Dales National Park |access-date=5 September 2022 |date=15 June 2018 |archive-date=5 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220905181108/https://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/stackstands-and-stackgarths/ |url-status=live }}}} and enclosures indicate that in these cases they became farmsteads, some of which evolved into contemporary farms.{{cite web |title=Introductions to Heritage Assets: Shielings |url=https://content.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/iha-shielings/shielings.pdf/ |publisher=English Heritage / Historic England |date=May 2011 |access-date=22 January 2017 |archive-date=2 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202010908/https://content.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/iha-shielings/shielings.pdf/ |url-status=live }}

Many Scottish songs have been written about life in shielings, often concerning courtship and love.{{cite web |last1=Gauld |first1=Munro |last2=Langhorne |first2=Ceit |title=The Musical Heritage of Glenmoriston: A Scoping Exercise |url=https://www.glenmoriston.net/assets/docs/heritage/The_Musical_Heritage_of_Glenmoriston_Report_12.3.21.pdf |website=Glenmoriston.net |access-date=7 September 2022 |date=March 2021 |archive-date=7 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220907152151/https://www.glenmoriston.net/assets/docs/heritage/The_Musical_Heritage_of_Glenmoriston_Report_12.3.21.pdf |url-status=live }} Several of these are in Alexander Macdonald's 1914 Story and Song from Loch Ness-side, including "Cha teid mi Choir Odhar", "Chunacas gruagach ‘s an aonach", and "A fhlesgaich is cummaire", all from Perthshire, and "Luinneag Airidh" (a shieling lovesong).{{cite book |last=Macdonald |first=Alexander |title=Story and Song from Loch Ness-side |year=1914 |publisher=Northern Counties Newspaper and Printing and Publishing Company |place=Inverness |chapter=14 "The Ceilidh" (songs in Gaelic) |url=http://dbooks.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/books/PDFs/590635432.pdf |access-date=7 September 2022 |archive-date=7 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220907152230/http://dbooks.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/books/PDFs/590635432.pdf |url-status=live }} The song "Chunacas gruagach ‘s an aonach" includes the lines

"Many times often you and I,

Have been at the shieling{{efn|The word used in the original song here is {{langx|gd|àirigh}}.{{cite dictionary |last=Ó Dónaill |first=Niall |author-link=Niall Ó Dónaill |title=Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla |publisher=An Gúm |url=http://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/airigh |access-date=5 September 2022 |year=1977 |archive-date=5 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220905192444/https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/airigh |url-status=live }}}} on Brae Rannoch.

On the hillock of the waterfall,

Where we were resting.

In the bothy of the dalliance,

With a brushwood screen for door.

My mouth placed on your fragrant mouth,

And my hand would be round you, my love."

The song is similar to the famous "Bothan Àirigh am Bràigh Raithneach" (The Shieling bothy on Brae Rannoch).{{cite web |last=Fowlis |first=Julie |author-link=Julie Fowlis |url=http://www.juliefowlis.com/songs/ |title=Na h-òrain air 'Uam' / The songs on 'Uam' |publisher=Julie Fowlis |year=2011 |access-date=8 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014165014/http://www.juliefowlis.com/songs/ |archive-date=14 October 2012}} Shielings are mentioned in the folk song "Mairi's Wedding",{{cite book |last=Roberton |first=Hugh S. |author-link=Hugh S. Roberton |title=Songs of the Isles |section=Lewis Bridal Song (Mairi's Wedding) |location=London |publisher=J. Curwen & Sons |year=1937 |pages=20–21 |url=http://imslp.org/wiki/Lewis_Bridal_Song_(Bannerman,_John_R.) |access-date=5 September 2022 |archive-date=7 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220907184325/https://imslp.org/wiki/Lewis_Bridal_Song_(Bannerman,_John_R.) |url-status=live }} in the weaver poet Robert Tannahill's song "Gilly Callum",{{cite book |last1=Tannahill |first1=Robert |last2=Ramsay |first2=Philip A. |title=The works of Robert Tannahill: with life of the author, and a memoir of Robert A. Smith, the musical composer |date=1853 |publisher=A. Fullarton and Co. |location=Edinburgh |page=14 |url=https://archive.org/details/worksofroberttan00tann/page/14/mode/2up}} and in the musicologist William Sharp's "Shieling Song" of 1896,{{cite web |last=Sharp |first=William |author-link=William Sharp (writer) |title=Vocal settings of 'Shieling song' |url=http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=41302 |publisher=The LiederNet Archive |year=1896 |access-date=26 March 2013 |archive-date=12 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312034353/http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=41302 |url-status=live }} and in the title of Marjory Kennedy-Fraser's tune "Island Sheiling Song".{{cite web |url=https://archives.collections.ed.ac.uk/repositories/2/archival_objects/190998 |title=Music Fragments & Various, c 1900–1925 |publisher=The University of Edinburgh |access-date=13 October 2022 |quote=Envelope marked ‘Duets’: letter from Marie Thomson, Edinburgh, 15 September 1923, ‘The Road to the Isles’, manuscript, arranged for twopart chorus by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser, ‘Milking Croon’ and ‘Island Sheiling Song’ and ‘Pulling the Sea-Dulse’, manuscripts, arranged for two voices by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser. |archive-date=13 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013233856/https://archives.collections.ed.ac.uk/repositories/2/archival_objects/190998 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.nls.uk/media/1056439/section-14-ma-mckay.pdf |title=Discography section 14: Ma-McKay |publisher=National Library of Scotland |access-date=26 March 2013 |archive-date=1 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130201214416/http://www.nls.uk/media/1056439/section-14-ma-mckay.pdf |url-status=live }} Edward Thomas wrote a poem called "The Shieling".{{cite web |url=http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/2941 |title=The First World War Poetry Digital Archive: The Shieling |publisher=OUCS.ox.ac.uk (originally Faber & Faber) |access-date=26 March 2013 |last=Thomas |first=Edward |archive-date=26 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140426201725/http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/2941 |url-status=dead }} The Scottish poet Robert Burns mentions a "shiel" in his song "Bessy and her Spinnin' Wheel"{{cite web |last1=Burns |first=Robert |url=http://www.robertburns.org/works/376.shtml |title=Bessy and her Spinnin' Wheel |year=1792 |via=robertburns.com |access-date=7 December 2018 |archive-date=5 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005031817/http://www.robertburns.org/works/376.shtml |url-status=live }} and his poem "The Country Lass".{{cite web |last1=Burns |first=Robert |url=http://www.robertburns.org/works/375.shtml |title=The Country Lass |year=1792 |via=robertburns.com |access-date=24 December 2018 |archive-date=5 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005035818/http://www.robertburns.org/works/375.shtml |url-status=live }}

• Scottish vernacular architecture
• Croft
• Knocking stone
• Scottish Vernacular

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Bil |first=Albert |year=1990 |title=The Shieling, 1600–1840: The case of the central Scottish highlands |publisher=John Donald |place=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0859761581}}
• {{cite book |last=Cooper |first=Derek |title=Skye |publisher=Routledge |year=1983 |pages=124–125 |isbn=978-0710095657 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ys49AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA125}}
• {{cite web |last=Munro |first=Neil |title=The Lost Pibroch and other Shieling Stories |publisher=William Blackwood and Sons |year=1899 |url=https://archive.org/details/lostpibrochando00munrgoog |ref=none}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130429182845/http://www.incallander.co.uk/shielings.htm The Shielings in Scotland: The origins of the Shielings and their function]
• [https://www.mountainbothies.org.uk/ The Mountain Bothies Association]

{{Scottish architecture}}

{{Huts}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Stone houses

Category:Buildings and structures in Scotland

Category:Huts

Category:House types in the United Kingdom

Category:Agricultural buildings

Category:Scottish traditions

Category:Transhumance

Category:Pastoral shelters