Knowe
Knowe is defined in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) as:
“a hillock, mound, in folklore often associated with fairies ...”
There are many romantic associations with knowes too, though, even in industrial settings like the one recalled here:
“I see oor trystin’-place among the silver birks on the auld quarry knowe.”
(Cracks wi’ Robbie Doo, 1913, Joseph L Waugh).
An earlier example comes from William Nicholson’s Tales in Verse (1814):
“E’en Nature’s knows that now are fled, Where love in youthfu’ days has play’d…”
And, of course, many of you probably already know (and can sing) these lovely lines from Burns (1794):
“Ca’ the yowes to the knowes, Ca’ them where the heather grows, Ca’ them where the burnie rows, My bonie dearie.”
A later, more contemplative experience was recorded by Sir Walter Scott in The Black Dwarf (1816):
“The bonny broomy know, where he liked sae weel to sit at e’en.”
As well as being fixed in place names, knowe is still in current use. In 2021, Ross Crawford wrote about a more ethereal knowe-top experience in Awa in a Dwam:
“Wan nicht, she dreamt she wis staunin oan a grassy knowe surroondit by wispy figures, whose claithes wur spun fae cobwebs. A weird whistle emanated fae them, like a chant. Wan ae the figures stood in the centre ae the knowe, its shadowy hauns clasped thegither. It nodded at Ailsa, beckonin fur her tae come closer. She took a few tentative steps forward and when it reached oot tae touch her, she woke up.”
This Scots Word of the Week was written by Pauline Graham, Dictionaries of the Scots Language https://dsl.ac.uk