Scottish Gaelic, Nature and Poetry

Scottish Gaelic, now one of the three official languages of Scotland, is very closely connected to the nature and landscapes of Scotland, and our Scottish Gaelic placenames are an incentive for many people to learn this language. It’s also a very poetic language, that deserves to be better appreciated.

If you’re interested in how Scottish Gaelic is embedded in the landscape, there’s a nice introduction from Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, which you can read here. While, if you want a deep dive into Scottish Gaelic and the environment of Scotland, there’s a lengthy report here from NatureScot.

Scottish Gaelic and Scots were recognised as official languages on St Andrew’s Day last year, thanks to the Scottish Languages Act, which was voted through in June 2025. (see this article on the BBC website).

I’ve seen a couple of recent examples of editors sharing translations ‘into Scottish Gaelic’ which were actually into Scots! However, the two languages are not to be confused! Scottish Gaelic is closely related to Irish and Manx, and one of the Celtic languages which also include Welsh, Cornish and Breton. It is very different to English and as such can be challenging to learn (as I know!). Scots is much more closely related to English and arguably these days feels more like a dialect than a language, as, though lots of people in Scotland use a good number of Scots words, few speak wholly in Scots or even using Scots grammar. But historically it really is a language and it’s great to see it being officially recognised as such in a modern Scotland. And annoying to see Scots and Scottish Gaelic getting confused by people who should know better.

Just to give an idea of how very, very different these languages are, here’s an example of translations of a recent haiku of mine. First, the Scottish Gaelic:

grian an fhoghair -
atharraicheas òran an roibin
iuchair

Now unless you speak Scottish Gaelic, Irish or Manx, this will feel different to any other language you’re aware of, but you may guess that roibin means the bird Robin and you’d be right.

Okay, so now here’s the Scots translation:

autumn sunlicht -
the robin’s sang
shifts key

Now that will feel much more familiar, sunlicht is obviously ‘sunlight’, sang is obviously related to ‘song’ and the rest of the words are familar to any English speaker. So, we can now look at my original haiku (which has changes rather than shifts, the latter which seems to be a better choice in Scots, but which I may, in future, use in the English language version of the haiku)

autumn sunshine -
the robin’s song
changes key

(Please note, that these translations aren’t intended to represent the most elegant translations possible, but to make a point about the differences between Scots and Scottish Gaelic).

Both Scots and Scottish Gaelic are vital parts of Scotland’s culture and their recognition as official languages of Scotland ensures that they can continue to play an important part on the country’s future. It’s also great that our current makar (the Scots word for poet laureate) is a Gaelic poet, Pàdraig MacAoidh.

Resources for Learning Scottish Gaelic and Scots

If you want to learn Scottish Gaelic, then the Speak Gaelic website is a good place to start. The website ties in with a programme on BBC Alba (the Scottish Gaelic channel of the BBC) which is now available on Youtube. Alternatively, you may be able to access face to face learning in a local community centre.

NatureScot (formerly known as Scottish Natural Heritage) have a blog in Gaelic (which is also available in English) - you can read the posts here.

Edinburgh Council has a very good adult education programme which includes classes in Scottish Gaelic and a class in Scots.

Online Scots language resources include:

The Scots Language online.

Dictionaries of the Scots Language.

Edited to add: Colin Gorrie of the Dead Language Society wrote an interesting post about Scots and English here:

Scots, English, and the linguistic uncanny valley

What I’ve Been Watching

A recent programme on BBC Alba that is particularly interesting is Caileag nan Eun (which can be translated as Bird Girl) in which Caitlin, a young birdwatcher, tours Scotland to meet other birdwatchers and to see lots of birds. Her enthusiasm is wonderful! The programme is in Scottish Gaelic (with English subtitles) and parts are in English (it’s often difficult to find interviewees that speak Gaelic!). The programme is available for the next few days.

Meanwhile, the legendary David Attenborough, at 99, has made another excellent programme - if you’re in the UK, you can watch Wild London on the BBC i-player here.

Bird Corner

Stealing an idea from James Murcock from The Mad Bird, I’m going to share a birding moment each week as part of this Substack. This will usually focus on birds that I’ve seen or heard, but given the topic of this week’s post, I’ll share some Scottish Gaelic language resources related to birds.

The Gaelic Society of Inverness has a pdf of an old document all about birds in Gaelic, with a list at the end with the names of all the British birds in Latin, English, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. The print in this document is very small, but it looks like a fascinating read.

The Multilingual European Bird Dictionary has a list of the Scottish Gaelic names for 344 birds, though a) it conflates Scottish Gaelic with Scots, heading the list with “Scots (Gaelic)” and b) it only includes the bird names in Latin and Scottish Gaelic, no English! So you need to know the scientific names of birds for it to be useful.

The Culture Heritage and Arts Assembly in Argyll and the Isles has a nice introductory list of Scottish Gaelic names for wildlife which you can read here.

It’s Worth Reading this Article

Having carried out wildlife surveys of Edinburgh’s council managed cemeteries a couple of years ago, I was very interested in this article on Noema about the prairie cemeteries of Iowa.