Roddy Maclean considers the place of the humble limpet in Gaelic tradition.

Leugh ann an Gàidhlig / Read in Gaelic

It should perhaps not surprise us that there has been a degree of etymological confusion regarding the differentiation of the limpet – a shelled mollusc – from barnacles such as the acorn barnacle which, as a crustacean, is more closely related to crabs and lobsters. Thus, the common modern Gaelic term for a limpet – bàirneach (BAARN-yuch) – has also referred to barnacles. Both are shelled animals with a hard pyramidal carapace that seem to be ‘cemented’ to rocks on the seashore, although the limpet is more mobile than it might at first appear. The name has been derived by scholars as a loan from Middle English bernekke, itself derived from Medieval Latin bernaca. The fact that the Latin word refers originally to a species of goose, rather than an invertebrate creature, might work its way into a separate future blog!

Common limpets on a rock. They are covered with acorn barnacles and filamentous green alga. ©Lorne Gill/NatureScot

That our ancestors made considerable use of limpets in their diet is highlighted by the fact that we have a special word in Gaelic for a ‘roasted limpet’ – sgorag. However, the assessment by Skyeman Robert Alexander Forbes in ‘Gaelic Names of Beasts etc’ (published in 1905) of the species’ palatability is rather lacking in enthusiasm. ‘There are worse foods than limpets,’ he writes, ‘and when roasted are called sgoragan, though perhaps not “select” food.’ I have to confess that I concur with his lack of enthusiasm about the limpet’s culinary appeal! Lexicographer Edward Dwelly also recorded buarach as a word for the stomach of a limpet.

In Gaelic, if we want to emphasise the strength of a person’s grip, we might use the expression grèim na bàirnich ‘the grip of the limpet’. If a limpet is aware of activity in its vicinity, it creates a very strong, if temporary, bond to the rock and is nearly impossible to remove by hand. Traditionally, the Gaels would use a combination of surprise and an instrument known as an òrd-bàirneach (or òrd-bàirnich) ‘limpet hammer’ which would remove the mollusc from its substrate with a single blow. It was said that a limpet taken while it was in motion, and unsuspecting of danger, is ‘larger and better that that which is pulled off by force’.

Alexander Nicolson, in his publication of Gaelic Proverbs, gives us the following saying: B’ e sin cead iarraidh òrd a bhualadh air bàirnich ‘that was asking permission to detach limpets’ – referring to an unnecessary supplication. He explains it thus: ‘Limpets, which are much used as bait in the Highlands and Islands, are naturally considered free to all mankind.’ He goes on to tell the reader about a huge block that had fallen from a cliff on one of the islands in Loch Bracadale in Skye which is called Òrd-bàirnich Fhinn ‘Fionn’s limpet-hammer’, named for the mythical Fionn Mac Cumhail, leader of the Fianna.

Alexander Forbes tells us of a pillar of rock off the coast of Harris which stands in the sea, eleven feet high, and is called An t-Òrd-bàirneach. It was the possession of a witch ‘who was going to the shore for food or bait’ and who threw it at some person ‘with or at whom she was enraged’. And another expression which references limpet hammers is Chan fhaighte òrd air bàirnich an seo ‘one couldn’t get a hammer to limpets here’ i.e. ‘there’s nothing here for me.’

We have a saying Is lom an leac air nach buaineadh tu bàirneach, ‘it is a bare rock on which you would not find a limpet’. Dwelly tells us this is a commentary on a ‘mean exacting person’. And an amusing anecdote is told of a man from Heisker, a group of islands off the west of North Uist where the limpet clearly formed an important part of the diet. He is reputed to have said (in presumed sincerity): Is math an tàcar ìm is càise is buntàta; cha mhòr nach fheàrr e na ’m bàirneach fhèin – ‘butter, cheese and potatoes are good sustenance; they are almost better than the limpet itself’!

Eilean nam Bàirneach ‘the island of the limpets’ (also known locally as ‘An t-Eilean Dubh’) is on Loch Ailort in West Lochaber, with Camas an Fhiasgain ‘the bay of the mussels’ to its north-east – both toponyms indicating a history of shellfish foraging in this locality. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

The limpet is to be found in a few Gaelic place names, indicating their abundance and likely foraging in those localities, whether for food or fishing bait. Examples are Rubha nam Bàirneach ‘the promontory of the limpets’ in Point on the Isle of Lewis, Eilean nam Bàirneach ‘the island of the limpets’ in Loch Ailort in West Lochaber and Creagan na Bàirnich ‘the rocks of the limpet’ on Loch Fyne, Argyll.

As with other shellfish, it is not recommended that the limpet be consumed over the summer months. It was recorded in the Gàidhealtachd that they could cause sickness, which might lead to jaundice, if collected and eaten in June. Folklorist John Gregorson Campbell, Church of Scotland minister on Tiree, however, wrote that after St Patrick’s day, the limpet is ‘better than the whelk and is said in consequence to treat it with great indignity.’ The less delicate natives would use the expression Mùinidh a’ bhairneach air an fhaochaig ‘the limpet pees on the whelk’. This was said to remind people that from mid-March onwards faochagan ‘whelks’ are best avoided in the diet.

Creagan na Bàirnich ‘the rocks of the limpet’ are to the immediate west of Furnace on Loch Fyne, Argyll. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

A good early source of information about traditional usage of the limpet, and its nutritional value, is Martin Martin’s A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland (1703). With reference to Skye (to which island he was native), he writes, ‘The limpet being parboiled with a very little quantity of water, the broth is [drunk] to increase milk in nurses, and likewise when the milk proves astringent to the infants.’ He also says that ‘the tender yellow part of the limpet which is next to the shell is reckoned good nourishment and very easy of digestion.’ The biggest limpets that Martin saw in his travels through the islands were in St Kilda.

Closer to the mainland, he gives a fascinating second-hand account of a ‘poor woman who was a native of the Isle of Jura’. The poverty during the reign of King Charles I (1625-1649) almost reduced her ‘to a starving condition, so that she lost her milk quite, by which her infant had nothing proper for its sustenance; upon this she boiled some of the tender fat of the limpets, and gave it to her infant, to whom it became so agreeable that it had no other food for several months together; and yet there was not a child in Jura or any of the adjacent isles wholesomer than this poor infant, which was exposed to so great a strait.’

The 18^th century naturalist John Lightfoot wrote of an interesting means of raising blisters by using the Lesser Spearwort (Ranunculus flammula), a native buttercup that has ‘an acrid and caustic quality’ and for which Lightfoot supplied two Gaelic names – An Lus-mòr and a’ Ghlais-leun. The leaves were well bruised in a mortar and applied to the part where the blisters were to be raised in ‘one or more limpet shells’. Was this simply for ease of application or was there a deeper meaning to employing the limpet shell?

While the accounts in the Gaelic literature refer to the Common Limpet (Bàirneach Chumanta, Patella vulgata), it is not the only limpet species to be found on our shores. In a taxonomic project for Scottish Natural Heritage (the predecessor to NatureScot) I was involved in recommending standard Gaelic terms for several species. The Slit Limpet (Emarginula fissura) is the Bàirneach Eagach ‘notched limpet’; the Keyhole Limpet (Diodora graeca) is the Bàirneach Thollta ‘holed limpet’; the China Limpet (Patella ulyssiponensis) is the Bàirneach Dhromanach ‘ridged limpet’; the Tortoiseshell Limpet (Testudinalia testudinalis) is the Bàirneach Riabhach ‘brindled limpet’ and the White Tortoiseshell Limpet (Tectura virginea) is the Bàirneach Bhàn ‘fair or white limpet’.

Blue-rayed limpets on a kelp blade. ©NatureScotThe gathering of hills at the mouth of Loch Sligachan/Sligeachan, Skye, as seen from sea beyond the Isle of Scalpay. Might the Gaelic place name Sligeachan refer, not to shellfish on the shore, but to the hills which are reminiscent of a group of sligeachan ‘shells’, the limpet being an ‘archetypal’ seashell? © R Maclean

This blog was written by Inverness-based writer and broadcaster Roddy (Ruairidh) Maclean, whose work highlights the connections between the Gaelic language and Scotland’s environment.

Please see our important advice on the basic principles that you should follow when foraging for wild food.