BROCH

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 nem o a 'cock's ee', whiles in Ayrshire ye micht leuk for a 'fauld'. Whitivver ye cry it, it is a sign o violent weather, an the farder 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 an the adjacent Scottish mainland, consistin o a roon toor wi inner an 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 tae a circle roon the tee in a curlin rink (a brocher is a stane atween the rings) or a ring drawn on the groond for a gemm o bools.