Traditional dyes of the Scottish Highlands

Recipes

Claret

• Claret – "corcar" – the cudbear lichen, Lecanora tartarea, scraped off rocks and steeped in urine for three months, then taken out, made into cakes, and hung in bags to dry. When used these cakes are reduced to powder, and the colour fixed with alum.

  Black – ''Dubh''

• Black –
• * Common dock root with copperas.
• * "Darach" – oak bark and copperas
• *, "seileastair", iris root
• * "Sgìtheach", hawthorn bark with copperas
• * Alder bark with copperas
• Blue-black
• * Common sloe – Prunus spinosa – "preas nan àirneag"
• * Red bearberry – Arbutus uva ursi, "grainnseag"

  Blue – ''Gorm''

• Blue
• * Blaeberry with alum or copperas
• * Elderberry with alum
• * "Ailleann" elecampane

  Brown – ''Donn''

• Brown
• * Common yellow wall lichen – Xanthoria parietina
• * Dark "crotal" – Parmelia cetarophilia
• * "Duileasg", a kind of seaweed.
• * Currant with alum
• Dark chestnut-brown
• * Roots of "rabhagach", the white waterlily
• Dark brown
• * Blaeberry with nut-galls
• Reddish brown - Ruadh
• * The dark purple lichen ‘cen cerig cen du' treated in the same way as the lichen for the claret dye.
• Philamot
• * Yellowish "crotal", the colour of dead leaves – Parmelia saxatilis
• Drab or fawn
• * Birch bark, Betula pubescens

  Green – ''Uaine''

• Green
• * Ripe privet berries with salt
• * Wild Mignonette, reseda luteola, "lus buidhe mòr", with indigo
• * "Rùsg conaisg", whin bark
• * Cow weed
• "Lively" green
• * Common broom
• Dark green
• * Heather, Erica cinerea, "fraoch-bhadain" with alum. The heather must be pulled before flowering and from a dark, shady place.
• * Iris leaf

  Magenta

• Magenta
• * Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, "beàrnan-Brìde"

  Orange – ''Orains/Dearg-buidhe''

• Orange
• * Ragweed – Senecio jacobaea, "buaghallan"
• * Barberry root –Berberis vulgaris, "barbrag"
• Dark orange
• * Bramble –Rubus fruticosus, "preas smeur"

  Purple – ''Corcar/Purpaidh''

• Purple
• * Euonymus, with sal-ammoniac
• * Sundew – Drosera rotundifolia, "lus na feàrnaich"
• * Blaeberry – Vaccinium myrtillus, with alum

  Red – ''Dearg''

• Red
• * Tormentil – Potentilla tormentilla, "leanartach"
• * Rock lichen – Ramalina scopulorum, "crotal"
• * White crottle – Lecanora pallescens, "crotal-geal"
• Fine red
• * Rue – Galium verum, "ladies' bedstraw". A very fine red is obtained from this. Strip the bark off the roots, then boil them in water to extract the remainder of the virtue, then take the roots out and put the bark in, and boil that and the yarn together, adding alum to fix the colour.
• * Galium boreale – treated in the same way as gallium virum above.
• Purple-red
• * Blaeberry – Vaccinium myrtillus, lus nan dearc, with alum, verdigris and sal-ammoniac
• Crimson
• * "Crotal-corcar" – Lecanora tartarea, white and ground with urine. This was once in favour for producing a bright crimson dye.
• Scarlet
• * Limestone lichen – Urceolaria calcaria, "Crotal cloich-aoil" – used by the peasantry in limestone districts, such as Shetland.
• * Ripe privet berries with salt.

  Violet

• Violet
• * Wild cress – Nasturtium officinalis "biolair"
• * Bitter vetch – Lathyrus tuberosus — cairmeal
• * Bilberries fixed with alum

  Yellow – ''Buidhe''

• Yellow
• * Apple-tree, ash and buckthorn
• * Poplar and elm
• * Bog myrtle, Roid
• * Ash roots
• * Teazle – Dipsacus fullonum – lùs an fhùcadair/leadan
• * Bracken roots – Raineach mhòr
• * Cow weed
• * Tops and flowers of heather, Erica, fraoch
• * Wild mignonette, Reseda luteola, "lus-buidhe mòr", dried, reduced to powder and boiled.
• * Leaves and twigs of dwarf birch, beithe-bheag
• Bright yellow
• * Sundew – Drosera rotundifolia, "lus na feàrnaich" with ammonia
• Rich Yellow
• * St John's Wort, achlasan Chalum cille, fixed with alum
• Dirty yellow
• * Peat soot. Obviously this ingredient on its own will not produce yellow
• * Rhubarb, – Rumex alpinus – lus na purgaid