Quicksand Fans

Recently I bought a book called 'Landmarks' by Robert Macfarlane. It's a detailed overview of how the peoples of the British Isles used to be connected to the land they farmed and worked by their language. Much of this intimate relationship has now been lost, thanks to the spread of our modern, technological society and industrialised methods of working the land.

Anyway, Macfarlane has compiled a glossary of old and ancient words that were used in previous centuries to describe the hills, vales, coastline and moorlands of Great Britain, Scotland and Ireland. Being a life-long and unrepentant quicksand fetishist I couldn't help but notice that the glossary listed a number of words to describe the things that we love best - marshes, bogs, quagmires and treacherous areas of sinking mud.

Here's what I've gleaned from the book. Please note that I have no idea how these should be pronounced.

BOTACH reedy bog Gaelic

BREUNLOCH dangerous sinking bog that may be bright green and grassy Gaelic

BROCHAN miry soft ground (literally ‘porridge’) Gaelic

CORRACH bog, marsh Irish

CURAGH-CRAAEE quagmire Manx

DUB very deep bog or mire Shetland

LEIG-CHRUTHAICH quivering bog with water trapped beneath it, and an intact surface Gaelic

MUIREASC low-lying marshy land Irish

POLDER area of marshy or boggy land Kent

QUOB quicksand ; shaking bog Herefordshire

SLUNK muddy or marshy place, a miry hollow Scots

SUIL-CHRUTHAICH bog with water trapped under an intact surface layer of turf, which trembles on approach Gaelic

YARF swamp Shetland

Thanks,

Redjak6t4.

Fen would be another I think. In Boston, Fenway Park is named for a adjacent area still referred to as "The Fens" Also the word "Moor". I don't that is as old as Fen however.

Fred588 wrote:Fen would be another I think. In Boston, Fenway Park is named for a adjacent area still referred to as "The Fens" Also the word "Moor". I don't that is as old as Fen however.

Just so, Fred. The Fens are a watery and swampy area of eastern England, including the county of Lincolnshire. An old town in this county is Boston.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston,_Lincolnshire

So, English settlers in the new world probably brought their local dialect with them. Perhaps the Fenway Park area was boggy ground before it was drained and built upon? If so, then there's your connection to the Fens in Lincolnshire.

Moor is another English that is associated with bogs and swamps. For instance...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hound ... illes#Plot

The fictional Grimpen Mire was supposed to be located on Dartmmor.

Here are some more 'quicksandy' words from Macfarlane's glossary.

Glaur muddy mess Galloway, Scotland

Gullion stinking mud-hole Galloway

Mizzy quagmire North Sea coast

Muxy miry and muddy Exmoor

Ees boggy floodplain Lancashire

Fachlach cracked surface of a dry bog Irish

Flash piece of low swampy ground Caithness, Scotland

Fluther soft ground, bog Caithness

Quaker boggy land that looks solid enough to walk on, but quakes beneath your feet Somerset

Slograch sinkhole or sump in a bog Irish

Melgreaves quicksands South Cumbria

This last one is significant. For two reasons. This is the first. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_More ... g_disaster

The second is that on a BBC documentary series called 'Coast' I recall seeing a Morecambe Bay guide interviewed about the treacherous sands.
He said that he had seen tractors disappear in seconds into one of the Melgreaves. But he made the word sound more like Mel-graves, stressing their association with death.

Thanks,

Redjak6t4.

Its a common enough name and also spelled differently, but I have people with the name Moore in my family tree. Not sure what that means but it sounds cool.