HEATHER ROPE.

“When we were young boys we used to live over at Strom and our father had a croft with haystacks and cornstacks. In order to prevent them being blown away by the wind, he used to make rope, not the ordinary rope, but rope made from heather.

“He used to go over to the hill to get the long heather as there was no such heather growing nearby. He used to bring it back in big bundles on his back and then he would strip down the heather to give a single stem for each one and then he used to braid it into a rope. It was a highly skilled job and he would make the rope just as long as he needed it.

“Some people used it for the roofs of their houses as well. They had thatched houses and, although later on they used wire netting, in the earlier days the heather rope was very good at preventing the thatch getting blown away.

“I remember seeing great coils of the rope at the coft ready to be used.”

Ian MacKinnon, South Uist MEADOWSWEET MEDICINE.

“One of the best herbs I use and gather around here is meadowsweet, because - especially the flowers - if you infuse them, it’s a great way of getting a good night’s sleep, and it does bring down fever. It works nicely.

“To me there are things, like meadowsweet, growing down in Harris which are just going to waste every summer. There are huge stands of it and it is just going to waste and it breaks my heart to see that.”

Ian Law, Isle of Lewis TANSY DEODORISER.

“The tansy was imported by soldiers. It’s not a complete native of these parts but it’s been with us for hundreds of years. But it’s been used - you’ll never believe why - it still grows outside every church across the islands to counteract BO. This originates from a long time ago. When the ladies would reach church they would be wearing many clothes and sweating a lot - and the old men too - and they would take a bunch of this and crush it in their hands, and there would be the beautiful aroma of tansy in the church.”

Canon Angus MacQueen, Barra