GALL-GHAIDHEIL

THE WESTERN ISLES IN THE VIKING WORLD

TEACHERS' NOTES

DRIED PLANTS IN THE NORSE HOUSE

Plants were probably the most important raw material available to people living in the Western Isles in the past. As well as food, medicine and magical purposes, plants were also used for: cord, twine (string), nets, fishing lines, sewing thread paints and dyes sling shots, bird and fish traps, digging and cooking sticks fuel, fire-drill and tinder baskets, bowls, plates, cups, containers and serving platters blankets, bedding clothing, hats and mats glue and pitch toys scent, hairwash and soap ointment wiping, wound dressings, towels, nappies and sanitary pads building and roofing materials

Plants hanging from the cross beams in the roof. From left to right (if you stand facing the high seat):

RAGWORT (senecio jacobea) Gaelic: buadhlan buidhe/briadhghallan/guiseag bhuidhe/cuiseag/bhuacharlain Medicinal uses: The juice is astringent and used for burns, inflammation, ulcers and sores, a gargle, and bee stings The leaves make a poultice for rheumatism, sciatica, gout. The roots are boiled and used as a liquid for treating bruising and wounds. Dye: Flowering tops and an alum mordant make a brass yellow. Early Ragwort gives a fresh but fugitive green.

TANSY (tanacetum vulgare) Gaelic: lus na fraing/Lus na righ Dye: Flowers gathered in August. The flowering tops and an alum mordant give a mustard yellow Other uses: Leaves used as flavouring

PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE (lythrum salicaria) Gaelic: lus an sith chainnt Medicinal uses: Treated diarrhoea, constipation, dysentry, vaginal discharge, fever, lung and liver complaints, infant cholera, wounds, sores, eye and throat infections, glandular diseases. Dye: Unmordented yarn, flower tops with iron added made a deep black. Other uses: Tannin rich stems used in tanning leather.

DOCK, DOCKEN (rumex species) Gaelic: copag Medicinal uses: Poultice made of cleaned roots for nettle and bee stings. Roots boiled and mixed with beeswax and fresh butter made a healing ointment. Dye: Roots plus iron, and yarn mordanted in iron gave a rich dark brown, black can also be obtained but this can depend on the size and age of the plant. Seeds used with wool mordanted with alum produce colours ranging from amber to oxblood red depending on how long the dye is boiled. If the seedheads are picked late only dull brown colours will be produced. Other uses: Leaves eaten as greens or fed to cattle, stems can be combined with grasses to make baskets.

LING HEATHER (calluna vulgaris) Gaelic: froach/ur Possibly the most useful of wild plants Medicinal uses: Heather tops infused and used as a tonic, to treat consumption, coughs, nerves, depression and heart complaints. Heather tea, liniments and ointments were used to treat arthritis and rheumatism. Dye: Flowering tops gathered before fully open, yarn mordanted with alum gives a signal yellow. Tops, stalks and stems give a gold colour. Other uses: Thatch, bedding, fuel, floor mats, ale and mead (heather honey), tea, rope, nails and pegs from roots, baskets, brooms, feed and bedding for livestock, fencing, tanning.

FLAX (linum usitatissimum) Gaelic: lion (thread) Uses: Stalk fibres used to make linen cloth,thread and rope (see rope supporting the pot from which the cauldron is hanging). Seed can be used for oil which can be used medicinally and as cattle feed.

THISTLE (cirsium species) Gaelic: an cluaran deilgneach, cluaran, diogan, foghnan, giogan Dye: Best colours come from plants picked just before the flowers open. Alum mordanted wool used with whole plant makes yellows and greens.

HOGWEED (hercleum sphondylium) Dye: Early plant tops used with alum mordanted wool gives a vivid yellow.

DOCK (see above)

HORSETAIL (equisetum arvense) Gaelic: clois Medicinal uses: Fluid extracted from the barren stem after fruiting used fresh as an internal medicine (diuretic and astringent), also treated dropsy, kidney disorders, TB, acidity and indigestion, haemorrhage and ulcers. Externally used to stop bleeding, heal wounds, reduce swelling of eyelids. Dye: Green (sterile) tops produce Naples yellow. Other uses: Used as an abrasive due to the high silica content. The shoots of some species eaten as vegetables.

Plants hanging from the beam above the bench - from left to right:

DOCK, DOCKEN (rumex species) Gaelic: copag Medicinal uses: Poultice made of cleaned roots for nettle and bee stings. Roots boiled and mixed with beeswax and fresh butter made a healing ointment. Dye: Roots plus iron, and yarn mordanted in iron gave a rich dark brown, black can also be obtained but this can depend on the size and age of the plant. Seeds used with wool mordanted with alum produce colours ranging from amber to oxblood red depending on how long the dye is boiled. If the seedheads are picked late only dull brown colours will be produced. Other uses: Leaves eaten as greens or fed to cattle, stems can be combined with grasses to make baskets.

MEADOWSWEET (filipendula ulmaria) Gaelic: lus-chneas-chuchullainn Medicinal uses: Contains salicylic acid (an ingredient of asprin), whole plant used to treat fevers and headaches. Dye: Whole plant is used. Roots lifted in June before flowering, ammonia (urine) and iron added produce raw umber. Roots lifted in Autumn with yarn mordanted in iron produce black. If sorrel roots are used as a mordant a bluish colour will be made. Other uses: Flowers used to flavour mead, which is where the name comes from. Plant also used for tanning leather.

SILVERWEED (potentilla anserina) Gaelic: an seachdamharan, brisgean, briosglan, brislean Medicinal uses: Leaves used to make a gargle for sore throats, mouth ulcers and gum infections. As a drink it was used to treat heartburn and stomach ache. Applied as a compress for piles. Dye: Leaves make a soft yellow. Other uses: Of great importance in the diet of people living here as a vegetable. The roots were eaten, boiled or roasted, and tasted similar to parsnips. If eaten raw the roots had a crunchy, nutty flavour. Sometimes the roots were dried and ground to make porridge or flour for bread.

SORREL (rumex species) Gaelic: samh, ruanaidh Medicinal uses: Common Sorrel (R. acetosa) leaves used as a poultice on sores and bruises. Dye: Common Sorrel roots lifted in early winter, yarn mordanted with alum gives an olive yellow , ammonia (urine) added gives a range of colours from brownish orange to brick red. Common and Sheeps' sorrel both used as an after-mordant for indigo (woad) to increase the fastness of this blue dye. Common sorrel is a mordant for black, and the leaves picked in summer produce a blue-green dye. Other uses: Leaves of common sorrel used in salads and sauces, and to remove rust stains from linen.

TANSY(tanacetum vulgare) Gaelic: lus na fraing,lus na righ Dye: Flowers gathered in August. The flowering tops and an alum mordant give a mustard yellow. Other uses: Leaves used as flavouring.

MEADOWSWEET (see above)

BRACKEN (pteridium aquilinum) Gaelic: an raineach mhor, bun rainnich Medicinal: Roots made into ointments for wounds and ulcers. Dye: Fiddle heads combined with alum mordanted yarn produce a corn yellow. Young fronds make an olive yellow. Roots dug in June produce a greyish yellow. Other uses: Bedding for people and livestock Thatching Fronds contain pest-repellant properties 'Green' manure Ashes are an excellent fertilser, and used to wash linen.

IRIS (iris pseudacorus) Gaelic, bog-uisge, seileasdear Medicinal: Used to treat diarrhoea, period pain, coughs, convulsions, dropsy, poisoning, bruises, toothache, weak eyes, ulcers and swellings. Rhizomes made into poultices. Dye: Leaves produced bright green, roots made dark blue, grey and black. Roots also made into ink.

Plants hanging on the wall, from left to right:

RUSHES (juncus species) Gaelic: luachar Uses: Many domestic uses from strewing floors to making pot scrubbers and sweeping brushes, to thatching roofs. White pith of j. effusus used as a lamp wick. A rope to tether animals could be quickly made, although it was not very strong. Also used for basket making.

LING HEATHER (calluna vulgaris) Gaelic: froach, ur Possibly the most useful of wild plants. Medicinal uses: Heather tops infused and used as a tonic to treat consumption, coughs, nerves, depression, and heart complaints. Heather tea liniments and ointments were used to treat arthritis and rheumatism. Dye: Flowering tops gathered before fully open, yarn mordanted with alum gives a signal yellow. Tops, stems and stalks give a gold colour. Other uses: Thatch, bedding fuel, floor mats, ale and mead (heather honey), tea, rope, nails and pegs from roots, baskets, brooms, feed and bedding for livestock, fencing , tanning.

NETTLES (urtica dioica) Gaelic: sradag Medicinal uses: Nettle tea is an excellent tonic. It has astringent, laxative and diuretic properties. Used to relieve chest complaints, eczema, bleeding and lower blood pressure. Nettle beer used for juandice, gout and rheumatism. Also used to relieve nose-bleeds and headaches. Dye: Whole tops, gathered before flowering, early in the year abd alum mordanted yarn gives a wax yellow. Late picking produces a grey-green. Other uses: Autumn picking (after flowering) of the stalks produces a linen-like fibre. The stalks are dried and pounded with a wooden mallet to separate the fibres which are then spun and woven. Young leaves can be stewed and eaten (like spinach), made into a soup, drunk as tea or ale (roots). An extract of the plant is a substitute for rennet in cheese making. The plant is also believed to have magical elements.

CUDBEAR (Ochrolechia tartarea) Used since ancient times to dye wolol shades of red to purple.

BEARD OF THE ROCK, SEA IVORY(Ramalina scopulorum) Gaelic , fiasag nan creag Used for dyeing orange and brown Xanthoria parientina Bright yellow lichen found on stones made a pink, blue and purple dye.

MOSSES AND LICHENS IN THE BASKET

CLUB MOSS (Lycopodiaceae) Gaelic; garbhag an t-sleibhe Medicinal: Emetic, which has to be treated with great caution. Fumigation with clubmoss used to treat eye disease. Also used for skin treatments either dried and powdered or made into a lotion. Dye: They contain aluminium and were used in the place of the mordant alum when making yellow and blue dye from plants such asmadder (Rubia tinctorum), woad (Isatis tinctoria), weld (Reseda luteola) and willowherb (Epilobium species). Most used species for this purpose are stag's-horn clubmoss, alpine clubmoss and fir clubmoss. Other uses: Plants of protection especially for the traveller.

SPAGNUM MOSS Medicinal: Contains penicillin, used since prehistoric times as a wound dressing. Other uses: Toilet paper, nappies, sanitary towels.

LICHENS Medicinal: Various species used - Usnea (old man's beard) which is hair-like used for problems with hair and scalp, Lobaria pulmonaria (tree lungwort or oak lung) is used for chest complaints, Xanthoria parietina the orange coloured lichen is used for jaundice ('Doctrine of Signatures') Dye: Crotal is a general name for more than forty kinds of lichen used to produce a red-brown dye. Crocur is the name for purple dyes obtained from lichen. Lichens growing on rocks or stones thought to produce a better dye than those growing on trees. They do not need any mordant. Some are boiled with the yarn, others soaked in stale urine first. Said to leave wool moth-proof.

SEAWEEDS (Algae) Used since prehistoric times as an essential food source. So important was it that magic rituals evolved to ensure sufficient quantities. Seaweeds were used in soups, stews and puddings. Dulse was eaten raw, other seaweeds were collected as fodder and green manure. Medicinal: Relieved fever, scurvy, burns, headaches, sleeplessness, constipation. Also used as a tonic.

CARRAGEEN (chrondus crispus) Gaelic, an carraceen Gathered from rocks at lowest ebb tide, bleached until white. Thickening agent.

SEA-LACES (corda filum) Gaelic, gille mu leann Tough stalks stripped, used as fishing lines, nets and ropes.

BLADDER WRACK (fucus vesiculosus) Gaelic, propach/prablach Medicinal: Used as a charm, infused for inhaling. Other uses: Winter fodder for cattle, sheep and deer. Fertilizer for fields. Salt for preserving cheese (ashes from burnt wrack rubbed onto it).

TANGLE (laminaria digitata) Gaelic, stamh/slat-mhara Food source eaten roasted or raw (stalks). Medicinal: Used for treating/preventing scurvy and glandular diseases and clear warts. Contains iodine.

LAVER (porphyria laciniata) Gaelic, sloucan, slochdan Food source, boiled into a jelly, stewed, made into soup.

DULSE (rhodymenia edulis, r. palmata) Gaelic, duiliasg Medicinal: Tonic effect. Used to treat scurvy and constipation. Dried piowdered Dulse taken to treat worms. Externally used fresh as a plaster to treat skin diseases, headaches, and to help expel the placenta. Dye: Makes a brown colour. Other uses: Eaten by Columban monks on Iona. Can be eaten raw, roasted, boiled, fried or dried as a relish. Also makes a milk jelly.

GREEN LAVA, SEA LETTUCE (ulva lactuca) Medicinal: Sooth headaches, induce sleep (applied fresh to forehead). Also used to heal skin.