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Enjoy this curated selection of theme-related dances for celebrations and holidays, or find a dance associated with a special calendar day, or EVEN your own birthday!
Jul 26
Bilberry Sunday
Whortleberry
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
“Will ye go, lassie, go to the braes of Balquhidder,
Whare the Blaeberries grow ’mong the bonny blooming Heather?”
~Traditional
MacLeods of Lewis, the whortleberry (and juniper) are your plant badge and part of a delicious tradition of berry-picking leading up to the festival of Lughnasadh on Bilberry Sunday!
This cheerful latesummer tradition celebrates the ripening of the wild bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), a close relative of the blueberry.
This little fruit boasts an astonishing collection of regional names, including bilberry, blaeberry, fraughan, whinberry, wimberry, winberry, windberry, hurtleberry, whortleberry, black-heart (famously mentioned in Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native), and myrtle berry. Generally speaking, the Welsh favour the name wimberry, the Irish fraughan, the English bilberry, and the Scots blaeberry, although local variations abound.
In the United States, the fruit is often called a huckleberry, a name thought to have evolved from hurtleberry, a term brought over by English settlers in the 17th century.
Bilberry Sunday is traditionally celebrated on the last Sunday in July, particularly in Ireland, although some regions of the United Kingdom observe it on the first Sunday in August. It marks the end of "Hungry July," the beginning of the harvest season, and the time when the hillsides are filled with ripe bilberries ready for picking.
Historically, it is a day for families and communities to gather berries, enjoy picnics, renew friendships, and—according to tradition—perhaps even indulge in a little courtship along the way.
This berry-ful 40 bar jig devised by Walt Metcalfe of Clan MacLeod provides plenty of opportunities for flirting as the dancers travel continuously to pick those berries and pass by all set members!
So ... grab your "huckleberry dancing friends" for berry picking or berry dancing! And perhaps a post-gathering or post-dance recipe for a "Huckleberry Hurtleberry Whortleberry or Bilberry" almond flour cobbler? Better grab your basket and your ghillies! 🕺💃 💙 💜 💙 🫐 🫐 🫐 🧺
Whortleberry
Both the juniper and the red whortleberry (Lus nam Braoileag) are associated with Clan MacLeod of Lewis as their plant badge.
The dance description contains this excerpt:
WHORTLEBERRY
The plant badge of the MacLeods of Lewis
Behind the choice of a plant emblem, which at first may appear essentially distinctive, may lurk the influence of magic. Originally the use of a plant-badge may have been as a charm or good luck fetish, and in ancient poetry specific plants have occasionally been associated with certain Highland Clans. However, in the Clan MacLeod, which has boasted so many bards and scholars, no evidence of such emblems has been discovered.
It could be argued that the MacLeods had enough magic and protection already, what with the Fairy Flag and the Cradle Spells that were sung over their chiefs, and the battle cry of the MacCrimmon Pipes. It was not until the nineteenth century, and the publication of the highly controversial Vestiarium Scoticum by John Sobieski Stuart, that a fairly comprehensive list of plant badges were assigned to the clans. Stuart himself admitted that only seven were actually based on any well-established tradition with a specific clan, and that none was formerly known for the MacLeods.
For a hundred and fifty years it has been generally agreed that the Juniper (Juniperus communis) is an appropriate plant badge for the Sìol Tormod. By similar convention the plant badge for the Sìol Torquil is the Red Whortleberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), a relative of the Cranberry. The bearing season is brief, and the risk of staining your bonnet high, which may account for the infrequency with which this badge is worn.
The dance "Whortleberry" is by Walt Metcalf, a Clan MacLeod dancer with the Los Angeles Troupe, and is another commemoration of the successful matriculation of the chiefship of the House of Lewis. The tune, "Jack's Prize Winner," was composed by Jack Rennie and took first prize in a contest for new Scottish music compositions at a festival in Scotland, and was performed in concert at the Elgin Fiddle Rally in September 1979.
References
Scottish Gaelic Studies, W. J. Watson (or W. A. Kermack edition), 1953, Vol. VII, Part 2, p. 192.
Vestiarium Scoticum, Edinburgh, 1842, p. 101 (formerly claimed to be the work of Sir Richard Urquhart, 1571).
One small historical note: modern scholarship generally considers the Vestiarium Scoticum to be a 19th-century fabrication rather than an authentic 16th-century manuscript. The author of this dance book hints at this by calling it "highly controversial." The association of Red Whortleberry (lingonberry, Vaccinium vitis-idaea) with the Sìol Torquil branch of Clan MacLeod is therefore based on later tradition rather than medieval evidence.
Check out cobbler recipe titled "HOW TO MAKE A WHORTLEBERRY HURTLEBERRY HUCKLEBERRY COBBLER" for a dish that is sure to be delicious, whatever you call it.
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
