Literary Landscapes booklet
teachers resource
Cairngorms
NATIONAL PARK
Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhonaidh Ruaidh
LOCH
LOMOND
& THE TROSSACHS
NATIONAL PARK
LITERARY LANDSCAPES
Place Names of Scotland’s National Parks
Contents
Introduction 02 Using this Resource 03 Curriculum for Excellence 03 National Parks in Scotland 04 Place Names Map 06
Setting the Scene 08 Linguistic Heritage 08
Place Names Themes 09 キ Theme I Cultural Heritage and History 09 Theme 2 Wildlife and Biodiversity 19 Theme 3 Landscape Features and Habitats 25 Theme 4 Folklore, Songs and Stories 31 Theme 5 Traditional Routes 37
Further Resources 39 Websites 41 Books 41 Places to Visit
Image credits: Front cover and inside cover Mark Hamblin
www.cairngorms.co.uk Contents
www.lochlomond-trossachs.org 01
Introduction
02 INTRODUCTION
Coit Ghartain Boat of Garten 7 Obar Neithich 9 Nethy Bridge Baile nan Granndach 14 Grantown on Spey
An Gleann Mor 4 Glenmore An Carn Gorm 8 Cairngorm An Aghaidh Mhór Aviemore..
Scotland is covered in place names from several different languages: Gaelic, Scots, Doric and Norse. The Cairngorms National Park and Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park have a particularly rich natural and cultural heritage, and unlocking the language of the land gives a new way to see these landscapes. Place names can tell us the history of particular areas: the way that people used to live and work; the ecology of a place; culture of songs, stories, poetry.
The sharing of experiences is important to Gaelic and Scots culture. Both have a strong oral tradition, sharing knowledge and connecting places through stories, poetry, song and music. Within this resource there are a number of prompts for different ways to share your experiences and new knowledge with others. www.cairngorms.co.uk
In the traditional Gaelic view of land, people belong to places. The question, ‘where are you from?’ in Gaelic is ‘cò as a tha thu?’, which literally translates as ‘who are you from’. This is because, historically, groups of people (or clans) have been so strongly associated with certain areas of Scotland, that asking ‘who’ you are from can also tell people ‘where’ you are from. Identity was, and often remains, rooted in the landscape around you
- the fields, rocks, hills, forests, rivers and lochs within your local area.
This resource offers opportunities for learners to gain different perspectives on places in the Cairngorms National Park and Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. Through different activities you are encouraged to see the landscape through new eyes.
Using this Resource
This resource provides a guide to common place names in Scotland. There are suggested activities for schools, groups, and individuals.
The resource can be used to support a class project.
An online map accompanies this resource. You are encouraged to discover a place name, find its meaning, explore the place, and share your investigations on the map. This will build up a rich, interactive map, showing where different types of place names can be found.
“outdoor learning offers many opportunities for learners to deepen and contextualise their understanding within curriculum areas, and for linking learning across the curriculum in different contexts and at all levels.”
Education Scotland
Curriculum for Excellence
The activities within this resource have been developed to support the Curriculum for Excellence, offering learning experiences at a range of levels.
The resource is designed to support outdoor learning. You are encouraged to take the activities outside and learn in the landscape. This will deepen learners’ understanding of Scotland’s nature, built heritage, culture and society.
The resource provides many opportunities for interdisciplinary learning: • The activities primarily support Literacy across Learning • The resource supports a number of language curriculum areas, including Scots Language, Gaelic Learner Education and Gaelic Medium Education. • The suggested activities make links with a wide range of curriculum areas, including Expressive Arts, Technologies, Science and Social Studies, Health and Wellbeing and Numeracy.
www.lochlomond-trossachs.org 03 Introduction
National Parks in Scotland
In Scotland, National Parks are extensive areas of the very highest value to the nation for their scenery, wildlife, and cultural heritage. They provide an integrated approach to management and sustainable development to safeguard the special qualities of these areas for the long-term. They also provide opportunities for the public to enjoy the special natural and cultural heritage. There are two National Parks: Cairngorms and Loch Lomond & The Trossachs.
Black Grouse Lek
Twinflower Mark Hamblin
Summit of Ben A’an, overlooking Loch Katrine and the Trossachs Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority 04 www.cairngorms.co.uk
Cairngorms National Park The Cairngorms National Park is Britain’s largest National Park (4,582km²) and contains a unique range of landscapes, wildlife, habitats and people.
Nearly 50% of the Park is designated as important for its nature and landscapes and one quarter has a European conservation designation (Natura 2000).
It has five of Scotland’s six highest mountains and impressive landscapes and landforms sculpted by ice age glaciers. The central mountain area supports a unique collection of plants and animals including golden eagle and dotterel, while the interaction between people and nature has produced the rich diversity found in the heather moorlands. The Park also contains the largest continuous area of natural and semi-natural woodlands in the UK.
Capercaillie, Scottish wildcat and twinflower are found in the pinewoods. The clean waters of the Spey, Dee and Don support wildlife like salmon, rare lampreys and endangered freshwater pearl mussels. These straths (river valleys) also provide livelihoods for local communities.
The National Park is home to around 18,000 people and tourism is an important part of the economy with at least 1.8 million people visiting the Cairngorms each year.
Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park encompasses around 720 sq miles (1,865 sq km) of some of the finest scenery in Scotland. The National Park is also home to over 15,000 people and attracts around 4million visitors each year.
It is a place of contrasts, from rolling lowland landscapes in the south to high mountains in the north, and has many lochs and rivers, forests and woodlands. It is also a living, working landscape which has been influenced by people for generations and is visited and enjoyed by many for its recreational value.
The National Park includes Loch Lomond, the largest freshwater loch in Scotland, as well as nearly 40 miles of coastline around three sea lochs — Loch Long, Loch Goil and the Holy Loch. It also contains The Great Trossachs Forest National Nature Reserve (NNR) which will be the largest area of native broadleaved woodland in the UK.
The National Park is home to a rich variety of important wildlife including red squirrels, black grouse, otters, deer, eagles and powan rare freshwater fish native to only Loch Lomond and Loch Eck.
For more information visit their websites: a www.cairngorms.co.uk www.lochlomond-trossachs.org www.lochlomond-trossachs.org 05 Introduction
PLACE NAMES MAP
Accompanying this resource is an online mapping application. Accessed via the National Park websites, the map helps you to explore and record the rich heritage of Scotland’s place names.
Explore Take the time to explore the map. Click on the icons to see place name entries. Read the stories, study the images, listen to pronunciations and learn about place name heritage.
The information on the map is provided by users of the Literary Landscapes resource. Each place name entry is logged by school groups and individuals.
Record Once you have familiarised yourself with the map, we need you to log a place name!
You are encouraged to go out in the field to research a place name. Go to the place, explore the landscape and environment. Try to find out how the place got its name.
When you get back to the classroom, log your findings on our map!
To make a report, you will need to click a button that will take you to a simple data entry form.
Here you will need to select one theme for your place name: • Folklore, songs and stories • Traditional routes • Castles and ruins • Battlefields • Elrigs • Towns and villages • Shielings • Animals and birds • Plants • Woodland and forests • Hills • Water, rivers and lochs • Cateran
Tell us the place name in Scots, Gaelic or Doric.
Then tell us the name in English.
Drop a pin on the map to show where your place name is. You can use the ‘Search’ box to find the site. Zoom in to make sure your pin is precise!
Add a photograph or a drawing to illustrate that place.
Add a sound file to demonstrate how the place name is pronounced.
Tell us a story about the place name. This might be some factual history about how the place got its name, or you might use your imagination to produce something more creative! Place Names Map 06 www.cairngorms.co.uk
Literary Landscapes The data entry form Welcome What would you like to tell us about? Complete
What would you like to tell us about? Please answer the questions below
- What is the main theme of your report? Folklore, songs and stories Traditional routes Castles and ruins Battlefields Elrigs Towns and villages Shielings Animals and birds Plants Woodland and forests Hills Water, rivers and lochs Cateran
- What is the place name in Gaelic, Scots or Doric? *…and the place name in English?
- Please explain the meaning, origin or a story of the place name (500 characters maximum
Little Pap Glas Alt The Stulan Burm Monelpie Moss An t‑Sròn Alt an Dearg
。 Loch Muick loch muick X Search Cross Stripe All Darrarie Allt a Chlaiginn Kate’s Stripe Black Hill Crown copyright and database rights 2018 Ordnance Survey 100031883 and 100… esri
Map zoomed in showing Loch Muick www.lochlomond-trossachs.org Place Name Map 07
Setting the Scene
08 SETTING THE SCENE
Linguistic Heritage Some of the earliest place names derive from the language spoken by the Picts, who once ruled large areas of land north of the Forth. The principal language of the Picts seems to have been distantly related to Welsh, Cornish and Breton (P‑Celtic). Naming elements that are probably Pictish in origin include Pit a portion of land; Càrdainn or Cardine – copse; Aber — mouth of a river (as seen in Aberystwyth and Aberdeen); Monadh or Mounth a mountain range (related to Welsh Myndd); Easg or Esk a bog stream; Dobhar or Dour – water.
In the Cairngorms, Gaelic became the dominant language over 1000 years ago. This is why the majority of the current place names in the National Park are Gaelic in origin. Examples include Allt – a large stream; Coille a forest; Beinn or Ben a mountain; Druim ridge; Meall a conical hill; Tom a small hillock.
a small However, by the 18th and 19th centuries many people could speak both Scots and Gaelic, resulting in the appearance of some Scots place names. For example, Shank – a long ridge; Birk a birch tree; Bigging a building; Brig – a bridge; Haugh a river-meadow; Straucht — a straight stretch of road; Kirk – a church; Burn a stream; Meikle – big.
The Gaelic dialects of Badenoch and Strathspey survived into the 21st Century, while in Aberdeenshire the last native Gaelic speaker died as recently as 1984. Today, rich dialects of Scots are still spoken in the eastern and southern areas of the National Park (often called Doric in the east), and there is a revival of Gaelic in the north and west.
Loch Lomond & The Trossachs is at the southern edge of the Gàidhealtachd (or ‘Highlands’), the largely mountainous part of Scotland in which Gaelic was the dominant tongue following its forced retreat from the Lowland regions of the south and east. For hundreds of years, up until the 19th Century, Gaelic was the language of most of the inhabitants of the Park area. We are told, for example, that in around 1724, Gaelic was the sole language in Balquhidder, Callander, Aberfoyle, Luss and Arrochar, and the majority tongue in Buchanan and Port of Menteith. As late as the 1950s, native Gaelic speakers were still to be found in places like Balquhidder, Brig O’Turk and Killin. Because of this, Gaelic names for villages, mountains and lochs can still be seen today. www.cairngorms.co.uk
Theme I Cultural Heritage and History Past ways of life are written into the landscape through place names and features on the ground. Before the Clearances in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Highlands were inhabited in a very different way. People lived as clans, based in particular areas. They lived in townships in glens all over the Highlands. They were subsistence farmers, and kept cattle, goats, sheep, chickens and geese.
TOPICS Shielings Old Townships Cattle Raiding / Cateran Deer Trapping / Elrigs
Highalnd cattle Terry Whittaker/2020VISION Theme I – Cultural Heritage and History www.lochlomond-trossachs.org 09
Vlad Turculet Shielings 不 Ruins of a shieling 이 Theme I — Cultural Heritage and History=> 10 In the summer months, people moved their sheep and cattle higher up the glens to graze on mountain pastures (upland common grazing) and keep livestock away from the crops growing around the village. In the winter, the people and livestock returned lower down the valley. This was a system of transhumance farming, also known as a ‘cattle-run’.
Townships would have a small summer village higher up the valley, made up of shielings. Shielings were temporary huts, built of stone and turf, thatched with rushes and heather. Shielings were built near freshwater for making cheese.
Peats were burnt for fuel. There also might be stone slabs where a butter churn could rest.
Not everyone stayed in the shielings in the summer. Women and children often went up to work in the shielings as a large part of the work was processing milk to make cheese and butter.
For many people, the movement up to the shielings was the highlight of the year. The summer months spent in the shielings was a time of freedom and pleasure. Young people courted and marriages started here.
The shieling huts grouped in the hills belonged to the houses in the farming villages sited on the low ground by the coast or in the straths or valleys. So tightly were the units bound together that the shieling huts could be called the ‘summertown’ and the parent village ‘wintertown’, as if they were elements of one and the same village. The use of hill grazings was so much part of a long-perfected subsistence economy, little if at all based on money, that the separation of the two was almost unthinkable. Alexander Fenton, Country Life in Scotland, In Gaelic Landscape, p. 136 www.cairngorms.co.uk
Shielings Look out for Activities ‘Shielings’ or ‘Old Shielings’ on OS maps. The sites are often far up a glen, and can be identified by a cluster of stone mounds.
Mountain bothies common in remote areas across the Highlands – may be built on sites where there was once a shieling. Ryvoan Bothy is a good example of this.
Draw a map with pictures showing the different activities that people might be engaged in during summer at the shielings or back in the village.
Discuss how you would prepare for living at the shieling for the summer what would you take with you, what would you miss the most from the ‘wintertown’?
Wild camp at a shieling.
Make butter using a jam jar and milk. While you work, sing a butter churning song such as ‘Thig, a’ Chuinneag, Thig’ (‘Come, Butter, Come’) www.gaolnaofa.org/library/music/ thig-a-chuinneag-thig-come-butter-come/
Reasearch and create your own shieling songs and poems How does this form of ‘entertainment’ differ from today?
Make small scale models of shielings from twigs, stones and other natural materials.
Rush dip candles Children gathered rushes to use as wicks for rush dip candles or cruisie lamps. The rushes were soaked in water to soften the outer green skin. The skin was then peeled back to reveal the white pith. After drying, the ‘wicks’ were dipped in animal fat, or fish oil on the coast, dried again and could then be lit to provide light in the sheiling. They burned best when held at 45 degrees.
Have a go stripping back the skin to reveal the pith. It was a very fiddly job so best done with little fingers! www.lochlomond-trossachs.org Theme I – Cultural Heritage and History
Shielings 不 Visit The Shieling Project, Beauly www.theshielingproject.org/ ” Further Visit Am Baile website, search for ‘Shielings’ and Reading look at old photographs. www.ambaile.org.uk 不 àirigh (AH-ree) shieling bainne (BUN-yeh) milk buachaille (BOO-ach-ull-yeh) herdsman/shepherd buaile (BOO-ull-uh) fold for sheep or cattle càise (CASH-eh) Theme I – Cultural Heritage and History cluain (CLUE-eye‑n) dròbhair (DROH-ver) ìm (EEM) imrich (IM-uh-reeh) ruighe (RUY-uh) oire Laogh 650- cheese meadow drover butter flitting (to and from the sheiling) shieling Carn Macoul 780 720 Cairn ‑805 65 Ford 570 520 610 Leathad Phoil Allt an Lochain Duibh Shielings Glac nam Muidheachan 600 550 500 470 Gleann Lochain 099 12 009 Shielings above Glen Banchor, Newtonmore www.cairngorms.co.uk ‑450 Ruigh Glea Ballach 420 40
Old Townships Highland Folk Museum, Cairngorms Before the Clearances, the Highland glens were much more populated than they are today. People lived in bailtean or townships of communal farms which had common grazing and shared arable fields. These were worked using the run-rig (roinn- ruithe) open field system of land allocation. Where the soil was thin, it was heaped up to grow crops in lazy-beds (feannagan). These communal farms were cleared by landlords and divided into crofts or more profitable sheep pastures. Homes were built using local materials, including stone, wood, turf, reeds and heather.
Look out for Township on OS maps Ruined houses and old stone walls. A pattern of raised ridges (lazy beds) where potatoes were grown.
Visit Highland Folk Museum to see a reconstruction of a seventeenth century township.
Place name detectives: Choose a town or village in the Activities National Park and try to work out how it got its name. For help, look at old maps and a Gaelic dictionary! www.lochlomond-trossachs.org 13 = Theme I – Cultural Heritage and History Sebastian Ruff
Cattle Raiding / Cateran 不 ” Warriors were important figures within Scottish Highland clans. Caterans were bands of armed men who stole cattle. Cattle raiding was part of inter-tribal activity for centuries. Raiding another clan’s cattle was a way for young men to prove their valour.
Raids often took place on distant clans. This was so as to avoid retribution and being in a constant feud with your neighbours.
Cattle were important because they were the main form of moveable wealth in Scotland for centuries. 不 Theme I – Cultural Heritage and History The general plan and procedure of the raid or creach was to come into your victim’s land stealthily before dawn and gather up the livestock with as little noise as possible, leading them off on the chosen path before the locals were awake. […] An extensive survey was required in order that the cateran might know both the whereabouts of the cattle and the route by which they intended moving them. A great deal of skill in dealing with the animals was essential, and the most successful creach would be one where the cattle were gathered, taken away and brought back home with no interference from the clan that had been raided. Fighting was an expected part of the raiding process but it does not seem to have been the reason for it. The underlying idea seems to have been to show the skill and bravery of the cateran involved. […] such cattle-raiding was generally undertaken a good distance away from the clan’s homelands. Raiding nearby clans would make little sense as it would probably lead to continuing warfare, and though there were […] established rules of combat amongst Highland clans, there was always the possibility of a blood feud when one act of revenge would provoke another in an ongoing cycle of killing. Because the raids were undertaken at a distance, this meant that the raiders had to cross the territory of other clans between their home and that of their victims. It was standard practice for raiders to give up some of their booty to the clan whose lands they crossed, and this was known as ‘a road-collop’. Stuart McHardy School of the Moon: The Highland Cattle-Raiding Tradition, p. 8 14 www.cairngorms.co.uk
Cattle Raiding / Cateran Find or create a Cateran trail. Use maps to identify a route for cattle droving. Think about the route. What land would be easy to drive hundreds of cattle through? Where might you struggle? Where could you hide a Activities hundred cattle? What would you eat? Where would you sleep? You can do this activity in a National Park or using more familiar land near to you at home.
Watch videos of cattle droving on Youtube. What skills are needed to drive cattle? Why does cattle droving no longer take place in Scotland? Why do people still drove in America and Australia?
Rob Roy the most famous of the Clan Gregor Rob Roy Macgregor was born in 1671 in Glengyle, on the western shores of Loch Katrine. This was a drove route allowing the movement of cattle from Loch Lomond. He is best known as a cattle raider but was also a soldier. He looked after other people’s cattle in return for a payment, but ended up an outlaw. In 1693, he married Mary Helen MacGregor of Comar. She came from a farm that is still marked on OS maps today, between Ben Lomond and Loch Arklet. Rob Roy’s gravestone is in the burial ground of Balquidder Church.
Can you find all the map references to Rob Roy’s life? Walk along the Rob Roy Way www.lochlomond-trossachs.org/things-to-do/walking/long- distance-routes/rob-roy-way/ Theme I – Cultural Heritage and History www.lochlomond-trossachs.org 15
不 Deer Trapping / Elrigs 不 Theme I – Cultural Heritage and History 16 Hunting was another important aspect of the Highland way of life. Deer were often hunted using traps called an elrig. These were v‑shaped structures that were wide at one end and narrow at the other. Deer were driven into the V and shot with arrows when they came out of the narrow end.
To drive the deer into the elrig, men and dogs would gather deer and drive them up the glens and over the hills towards the destined trap. In 1563, a big drive took place near Blair Atholl. Mary Queen of Scots was apparently present. Two thousand men worked the drive, and altogether they caught 360 red and roe deer as well as five wolves.
the natives hunted them […] by making large inclosures of such a height as the deer could not overleap, fenced with stakes and entwined with brushwood.Vast multitudes of men were collected on hunting days, who forming a ring around the deer, drove them into these inclosures, which were open on one side. From some eminence, which overlooked the inclosure, the principle personages and others, who did not choose to engage in the chace, were spectators of the whole diversion […] One of the farms in Glenlochay of Bredalbane is called Cragan an Elerig, a small rock which overhangs a beautiful field resembling an amphitheatre […] and admirably adapted for this purpose, by the natural situation of the adjacent ground. James Robertson, minister of Callander in late 18th century, John Murray, Literature of the Gaelic Landscape, pp. 42 – 3
There are many places of this name [Elrig] amongst our hills. Their situation is, rising ground, an open and pretty, plain hill around it. On this rising ground, the king, the chieftain, or principal person, with his friends, arms, and hounds, took his station; while his people, also armed, gathering the deer, into his sight, and the men, who formed the circle, around them. Then the hounds were let loose, the arrows let fly, and the man, who formed the circle, wounded and killed many of the deer, with their swords, when attempting to make their escape. Late 18th century, Reverend James Maclagan of Blair Atholl John Murray, Literature of the Gaelic Landscape, pp. 42 – 3 www.cairngorms.co.uk
Deer Trapping / Elrigs Activities Make an elrig and re-enact a hunt. How will you organise yourselves as a group? How can you stop the deer escaping?
Look out for Elrig on OS maps. Sometimes also spelt Elrick, Eileirig or lolairig.
Red Deer stag © CNPA Tom Eas Coille Mhôr Hill 234 Aonaich Sron 38 Caol Ghleann Moin Eich Tom Mor Elrig 40 Beinn Uird 597 Bruach Theme I – Cultural Heritage and History www.lochlomond-trossachs.org 17
” Notes 不 Cultural heritage and history = Theme I – Cultural Heritage and History ===== ” 不 ” 18 www.cairngorms.co.uk
Theme 2 Wildlife and Biodiversity As subsistence farmers and crofters, people lived in a very close relationship with the land. This informs how language is learned: each letter of the Gaelic alphabet relates to a tree name and this system was used to teach children the alphabet. For subsistence farmers, it is important to know where you might find certain species of plant or animal. Place names provide a useful indication of where these creatures could be found.
In Abernethy there is a hill called Carn Bheadhair and a burn named Allt Bheadhair. This means hill and burn of the serpents. To this day, there are still many adder sightings in that area, suggesting it has been a home for adders for many centuries.
In other places, there are names that signal the former presence of species that are now extinct, such as the wolf. For example, ‘Clais Mhadaidh’ (found in Glen Dee and Glen Lui) means the hollow of the wolf or dog. 이 Theme 2 –Wildlife and Biodiversity Scottish wildcat lauriecampbell.com www.lochlomond-trossachs.org 19
20 ຮ Theme 2 – Wildlife and Biodiversity Mark Hamblin Wildlife and Biodiversity White-tailed eagle An ecologist’s perspective “Centuries-old place names can be a very useful window into the landscape’s past. There are clues as to how people would have used the land, eg through place names referring to livestock such as sheep, goats and cattle in areas where farming no longer takes place. Some place names tell us that the land would also have been used for hunting deer, as it still is today in many areas, although the methods would have been different. In some cases there are clues to how the vegetation differs from today, with tree and shrubs being used to name now-treeless streams, hills, and glens. Wildlife was also often used to name geographical features, with eagle, wildcat, fox and deer names being quite widespread. We can even find old names relating to species that we have not had to share the landscape with for centuries, such as the wild boar and wolf. I’ve found old tree place names particularly useful for demonstrating that trees used to grow much higher up our mountainsides than they currently do – just like in south west Norway today where the climate and geology is very similar to ours. I think it also helps give new woodland a sense of legitimacy in a currently-treeless landscape if you can show trees were previously part of that landscape and that our ancestors not only observed them but used them to describe the world around them.” David Hetherington, Woodland Advisor, Cairngorms National Park Authority www.cairngorms.co.uk
Wildlife and Biodiversity Wild animals broc (BRUH-ck) brock (Scots) capall-coille (meaning forest-pony) (CAH-pull COY-yuh) cat (CAH‑t) coileach-dubh (male) (COY-luch DOO) liath-chearc (female) (LEE-yuh HYUR-ck) coileach-fraoich (male) (COY-luch FROO-yich) cearc-fhraoich (female) (CYAR-ck ROO-yich) damh (DAF) earb (UH-rub) eilid (EH-lidge) fiadh (FEE-yug) badger capercaillie cat, wildcat black grouse red grouse stag roe deer red deer hind deer iolair (YO-lur) fior-eun (FEE-yur EE-yun) iolair-iasgaich (fisher-eagle) (YO-lur EE-yusg-eech) iolair-uisge (water-eagle) (YO-lur OOSH-guh) madadh-allaidh (MAH-dug AH-lee) nathair (NAH-hur) seabhag (SHEH-vack) sionnach (SHUN-nach), madadh-ruadh (MAH-dug ROO-uh) tàrmachan (TAAR-mach-an) tod (Scots) torc (TORCK) yearn (Scots) eagle osprey wolf snake, adder hawk/falcon fox ptarmigan fox boar eagle ≃ Theme 2 –Wildlife and Biodiversity www.lochlomond-trossachs.org 21
Wildlife and Biodiversity Domestic animals bò (BOW) bow (Scots) caora (COO-ruh) crodh (CROH), sprèidh (SPRAAY) cù (COO) each (E‑ach) gobhar (GO-wur) muc (MOO-ck) tarbh (TAR-iv) COW sheep oxen / cattle dog horse goat pig bull Plants giuthas (GYOO-us) Scots pine aiteann (AH-ch-yun) juniper bad (BUD) clump of trees or shrubs beithe (BAE-huh) birk (Scots) birch calltainn (CAUL-tuyn) hazel caorann (COO-run) rowan coille (COY-yuh) frith (Scots) wood craobh (CROOV) tree critheann (CREE-yun) aspen darach (DAR-uch) oak doire (DOR-uh) 22 ដ Theme 2 –Wildlife and Biodiversity feàrna (FYAR-nuh) fraoch (FROOCH) seileach (SHAY-luch) grove / copse alder heather willow www.cairngorms.co.uk
Wildlife and Biodiversity Endangered animals Find a place name for an animal that is endangered or extinct, eg wolf, eagle, capercaillie, crane, Scottish wildcat. Activities Write a poem or story about that animal and the place where its name is found. Think about the habitats around the place name: are there rocks, mountains, rivers, forests or towns? Why might the animal have been found there? How has the place has changed over the past hundred or thousand years? Why might the animal have become rare, endangered, or extinct?
Map your playground Walk around your playground paying very close attention to all the plants and animals you find there.
Focus on particular species. How many Scots pines, oak, ash, or other trees do you have? What types of bird visit your playground? Are there any nests? What flower species do you have? Where do they grow? Where are you most likely to find woodlice, centipedes, ladybirds or other wee beasties?
Draw a map of your playground and label it to show where you find these plants and