p.39 Blawearie. The Guthrie farm-croft in Kinraddie, whose lease was continued by Chris after her father’s death and on which she lived after her first marriage to Ewan senior.
Stonehyve. The traditional pronunciation of Stonehaven.

p.40 Echt. A village in SE Aberdeenshire, twelve miles w of Aberdeen and two miles s of Dunecht.
The Hill of Fare. A broad-based hill on the border of Aberdeen and Kincardine shires,1545 ft at the summit and some five miles NNW of Banchory.
The Barmekin. A conical hill (800 ft) near Echt.

p.41 Cairndhu. The farm-croft near Echt tenanted by John Guthrie before the family moved to Blawearie. See Sunset Song, pp.27–39, Canongate Classics edn.

p.42 Excelsior. The title of a poem by Longfellow which most children once learned by heart. It has an onward-and-upward theme, with lines such as: A youth, who bore, ’mid snow and ice/A banner with a strange device,/Excelsior! and Beware the pine-tree’s withered branch!/Beware the awful avalanche!/

p.44 Bennachie. A rather sprawling hill with six summits (highest, 1698 ft) near Alford and Inverurie in Aberdeenshire. The song mentions a stream in the area: O! gin I were where Gadie rins/Where Gadie rins, where Gadie rins./O! gin I were where Gadie rins,/At the back o’ Bennachie!

p.46 gotten out his rag. Made him lose his temper.

p.51 Douglas Scheme. The theory of social credit, which proposed that the government should distribute national dividends in order to spread purchasing power and thus increase consumption. Its leading proponent was Major Clifford Hugh Douglas (1879–1952). An attempt was made to put the scheme into operation in Alberta, and Douglas was made ‘Chief of Reconstruction’ to the state government there in 1935.

p. 53 PAC Public Assistance Committees, which eked out unemployment and other benefits.

p.54 plates of meat. Rhyming slang for ‘feet’.
Up wi’ the gentry, that’s for me. A parody of the Burns song ‘Up in the morning’s no for me/Up in the morning early’.

p.55 Arise, ye outcasts. The beginning of one translation of The Internationale.

p.67 Trusta. A hill (1052 ft) in Fetteresso Forest, some six miles w of Stonehaven.

p.68 rattle in the lantern. Blow in the face.

p.72 Spartacus (d.71 BC). The leader of the slave revolt in Italy which began in 73 BC. He routed several Roman armies but was finally defeated and killed by Crassus. He is the hero of Gibbon’s novel of that name.

p.73 Parker. Richard Parker, English seaman, led thirteen ships of the line and a number of frigates in a mutiny at the Nore from 10 May to 13 June 1797. He was hanged on 30 June.

p.91 his Nannie was awa’. Another Burns song—‘My Nanie’s awa’.

p.108 presents on New Year’s Day. New Year was still the family festival in Scotland in the 1930s.

p.151 Hill of Βarras. About three miles inland from the coastal village of Catterline.

The Pitforthies. Three upland farms (Hillhead of Pitforthie, Nether Pitforthie, and Upper Pitforthie), some three miles NNE of Arbuthnott.
Meikle Fiddes. A farm by the main Aberdeen road about one mile e of Drumlithie.