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OCTOBER BROCH
Wi the nichts fair drawin in, we will suin be seein a broch aroond the muin. This is a gey reliable indication that the weather is aboot tae tak a turn for the waur. In Caithness or Banff this weather sign gaes by the descriptive name o a 'cock's ee', while in Ayrshire you micht luik for a 'fauld'. Whitivver ye cry it, it is a sign o violent weather, and the further oot the broch is fae the muin, the closer the storm: 'The further the broch, the nearer the rauch.'
Broch is the same wird that is yaised for the structures in Orkney,
Shetland and the adjacent Scottish mainland, consistin o a roond tower
wi inner and ooter was o stane. In fact, a broch can describe ony
circle or halo as in J. Stewart's lines (1857): 'Wi draps o drink on
Saturdays, there's some gets roarin fou; There's quarrelin, an
crakit croons, an een wi brochs o blue.' Broch can refer to a circle
roond the tee in a curlin rink (a brocher is a stane atween the rings)
or a ring drawn on the grund for a game of bools.
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