The Midnight Secret (The Wild Isle #4)

Glossary

St Kildan Families

JAYNE FERGUSON

Husband: Norman

Sister-in-law: Molly

EFFIE GILLIES (‘Wee Gillies’)

Father: Robert

Late brother: John, died in a climbing accident

MHAIRI M C KINNON (pronounced Vah-ree)

Parents: Ian (postmaster) and Rachel

Elder brothers: Angus and Fin

Six younger siblings, including Christina, Red Annie, Wee Murran

FLORA M AC QUEEN

Parents: Archibald and Christina

Elder brother: David

Four younger siblings

M C KINNONS (no relation to Mhairi’s family)

Donald and Crabbit Mary

Baby Struan

BIG GILLIES

Hamish (brother of Robert) and Big Mary

Five children

VILLAGE ELDERS

Ma Peg

Mad Annie

Old Fin

LORNA M AC DONALD

Nurse from the mainland, now settled in St Kilda

Dialect

ARCHIPELAGO OF ST KILDA : Hirta (principal isle), Boreray, Soay, Dùn

BLACKHOUSE : a traditional, single-storey, grass-roofed dwelling

BLUFF: a cliff, headland or hill with a broad, steep face

CEILIDH: traditional Scottish dance event

CLEIT : a stone storage hut or bothy, only found on St Kilda

CRAGGING : climbing a cliff or crag; a CRAGGER is a climber

CROTAL : a lichen used for making dye

DINNER: taken at lunchtime

EIGHTSOME: a Scottish reel

EVENING NEWS: daily walk down the street sharing news

FANK: a walled enclosure for sheep, a sheepfold

HOGGET : an older lamb, but one that is not yet old enough to be mutton

LAZYBEDS : parallel banks of ridges with drainage ditches between them; a traditional, now mostly extinct method of arable cultivation

PARLIAMENT : the daily morning meetings on St Kilda, outside crofts five and six, where chores were divvied up for the day

ROUP : a livestock sale

SECOND SIGHT : traditional Celtic term for clairvoyance

SMACK: boat

STAC : a sea stack (a column of rock standing in the sea) usually created as a leftover after cliff erosion

STAC LEE : a sea stack outside Village Bay, where villagers would hunt for gannets

WAULKING : a technique to finish newly woven tweed, soaking and beating it