Historically, what's the uses for heather?

[demographic]

Just been working in South Lanarkshire today and at bait time (lunch time to the posh people ) I went for a bit of a drive to get off the site.

The surrounding fells are covered in heather but by the looks of them there are areas that look like they have been stripped off in great lines, leaving only grass.

Doesn't look like there's enough peat to be worth digging so what was the score with that then?


Its actualy on the fells and not the enclosed land either.

 

[Snufkin]

They use the flowers to make an ale.

 

[Cap'n Badger]

Aye....an' a fine brew it makes an' all!!

 

[Harmonica]

According to Richard Mabey in his wonderful book 'Food for Free' heather can be used for fuel, thaching, basketwork and brooms. Sheep and Grouse eat it and it yeilds an orange dye. My godfather makes heather honey (the bees help a little).

It can also be made into tea and ale

 

[Harmonica]

Just beaten to it

 

[Spacemonkey]

As a lucky financial mainstay for gypsies??

 

[Draven]

I believe that pigments were taken from the flowers... may be mistaken though

 

[demographic]

According to Richard Mabey in his wonderful book 'Food for Free' heather can be used for fuel, thaching, basketwork and brooms. Sheep and Grouse eat it and it yeilds an orange dye. My godfather makes heather honey (the bees help a little).

It can also be made into tea and ale

And which book is about two foot six away from me?

Did I look at it before posting a gormless question? nope

I knew about the bees as one of my brothers used to keep bees and theres a load of hives near where I was working today.

 

[Doc]

Heather ale comes up in Pictish legend. You can buy a bottled heather ale called 'Fraoch' -Gaelic for heather. It is actually very good and I urge you all to try it.

The bus stop in Edderton, Ross-shire is thatched with heather. Seems to work as a roofing material.

Gamekeepers burn patches of heather on the hills. Grouse like young heather to eat, and old heather to lurk in. So burning patches encourages new growth .

 

[ilan]

As i doubt it a commercial crop perhaps its had those strips taken out to serve as fire breaks ? ilan

 

[Toddy]

It's most likely as Doc says, burning in rotations of patches for grouse. It looks like strips because they start at one end and the wind carries the fire forward, and if it doesn't slow and go out naturally, the keepers beat the flames out. The Lanarkshire moors are used for sheep too though and they help keep the grassy bits open.
Sometimes the moors have been stripped for peat in the past and the heather is growing on the banks of the haggs.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[gregorach]

Another traditional use for heather is for bedding.

 

[EdS]

sweeping brushes - Ling is the old Norse word for a broom.

 

[sabre iom]

Stripped for fire breaks here in notorious areas, used up until the early part of the last century for bedding here too. I've tried it in a rolled up jumper for a pillow nice and springy and smells good to.

 

[Ben_Hillwalker]

Heather has a life-span of about 30-40 years, and towards its end it looks distinctly ropey and sad. At this point it loses a lot of its value for both grouse and conservation generally. You have to cut it to promote regeneration of new heather and this is what has probably happened here.

The traditional way to manage heather that has passed its peak is to burn it off and then graze the ground hard to stop grass taking over. Burning heather can be well dodgey if the wind isn't just right so on a lot of lowland heaths it is cut with a tractor-mounted flail.

I'm worried but not entirely supprised that they've let the strip go to grass. There has been a bit of controversey since the glorious 12th about poor management of grouse moors.

 

[benjamin.oneill]

Heather has a life-span of about 30-40 years, and towards its end it looks distinctly ropey and sad. At this point it loses a lot of its value for both grouse and conservation generally. You have to cut it to promote regeneration of new heather and this is what has probably happened here.

The traditional way to manage heather that has passed its peak is to burn it off and then graze the ground hard to stop grass taking over. Burning heather can be well dodgey if the wind isn't just right so on a lot of lowland heaths it is cut with a tractor-mounted flail.

I'm worried but not entirely supprised that they've let the strip go to grass. There has been a bit of controversey since the glorious 12th about poor management of grouse moors.

here here, a great deal of controversy. however, i would add that grouse moor managment and shooting greatly benefits the grouse and biodiversity (just a bit less when poorly done). The president of the Game Conservancy Trust wrote an interesting article in the telegraph for the 12th which i'll find later.

 

[demographic]

Heather ale comes up in Pictish legend. You can buy a bottled heather ale called 'Fraoch' -Gaelic for heather. It is actually very good and I urge you all to try it.

The bus stop in Edderton, Ross-shire is thatched with heather. Seems to work as a roofing material.

Gamekeepers burn patches of heather on the hills. Grouse like young heather to eat, and old heather to lurk in. So burning patches encourages new growth .

Ahhhh, come to think of it I have heard something on radio four about the life stages of the grouse.

Something about needing a different depth of heather to nest in, then another to mate in and so on.

Although heathers aparently used to thatching I really can't think of much worse to do with it
Must have been fairly hard up to use heather I would have thought.

I could see it being good for bedding though.

 

[gregorach]

Although heathers aparently used to thatching I really can't think of much worse to do with it
Must have been fairly hard up to use heather I would have thought.

I can see that - there's a heck of a lot of it, and some places there's not really much else.

 

[fred gordon]

When I was on the Isle of Lewis a couple of years ago we went to visit a blackhouse. There the warden showed of rope made from heather. He said it was widely used before hemp, to hold down the thatch for the roof, the corn ricks etc. These ropes were apparently also used on the Islands of St Kilda to lower the 'birdmen' down 1000ft cliffs to gather eggs and young birds. Think I prefer kernmantle myself!

 

[Doc]

Good thread, folks, with lots of good info. Thanks. (especially to demographic for starting it).

A gamekeeper friend tells me that grouse moor is a fairly rare habitat in worldwide terms. He kind of despairs when poor management lets it turn to grass.


I often wish that highland Scotland was more forest and less moor. But I guess that boreal forest is common, and grouse moor is rare, so perhaps I need to rethink this.

I am also told that the Scots pine Caledonian forest was preceeded by broadleafed forest. Of course, in evolutionary terms, conifers preceeded the broadleafed trees so maybe before that it was pine.