Any mistakes are my own and any accuracies are because of the marvellous works and research of the clever and talented people mentioned above. Thank you.

Slàinte.

GLOSSARY

Bannocks: a round, flat cake made on a griddle

Braes: hillside; slopes

Betrump: deceive

Bloothered: noisy fools

Brazen besom: a local expression for a shameless woman

Brooks: heavy cotton over-pants worn by fishermen

Clash-bag: gossip; a tell-tale

Clecking: chatting; gossiping

Cleckin’ o’ women: a group of women gossiping

Contermashus: argumentative

Coocher: coward

Cowking: vomiting

Creel: woven basket the fishwives owned and which, when they walked about the countryside, were held to their bodies with a strap around the shoulders or even across the forehead

Drackie: damp, wet and misty

Drave: the name once given to the herring season; also used here to signify the potential for a good haul of fish or to exaggerate

Drookin’: drenching; drookit: drenched

Dwamish: dreamy

Eldren: older (as in an old person)

Fakin’ the nets: folding them properly so they will run cleanly from the boats

Gairnsey: a fisherman’s hand-knitted jumper created on four needles with no seams; the pattern denoted the wearer (often a way of identifying a body when washed ashore); sometimes called a gansey in other parts of Scotland

Gennick: genuine

Gowk: fool; simpleton

G’nirl’t: half-frozen

Grauvit: scarf

Haar: cold mist or fog

Hawkit: stupid

Hirple: limp

Hizzie: disparaging term for a woman

Knabbie: having means or position

Maucht: physical strength; mightiness

Muckle sumph: fool, idiot

Neeps: turnips

Neepyin: scarf a fishwife would tie over her hair

Nithered: pinched or stunted with cold

Nyaff: someone of no account

Peely-wally: drawn

Pintle: slang term for penis

Plout (o’ rain): very heavy shower

Quaich: bowl-shaped drinking cup

Quhillylillie: slang term for a penis

Ragabash: riff-raff; a motley crew

Shieled (mussels or oysters): local word for ‘shelled’

Skerries: rocky ridges that jut out to the south-west of the town into the Firth of Forth like skeletal hands

Souff: a lazy person, a drunk

Speet: very thin (local expression)

Splewing: local word for vomiting

Sprauchle: feeble, weak

Sprouse: to exaggerate or brag

Tawpie: foolish

Tirl: kiss

Tossel: slang for penis

Whillywha: a flatterer

Widdie: a wicked person

Wuidwoman: mad woman

LIST OF CHARACTERS

*Denotes a real person

Sorcha McIntyre: widow and fishwife

*Reverend Patrick Cowper: in charge of the Presbyterian kirk in Pittenweem and member of town council

*Nettie Horseburgh (Janet Horseburgh/White): fishwife and friend of Sorcha’s. Wife of Thomas White

*Janet Cornfoot: fishwife

*Nicolas Lawson: fishwife and healer

*Beatrix Laing: married to Thomas Brown; friend of the fishwives

*Mr Thomas Brown: fisherman and accused witch

Captain Aidan Ross: officer in Queen’s army, in charge of troops in Pittenweem, originally from Skye

Sergeant Stephen Thatcher: Captain Ross’s second-in-command in Pittenweem

Jamie Dyson: young soldier from Anster

Private Burne: soldier

*Isobel Adam: young seamstress and accused witch; friend to the fishwives

*Alexander McGregor: fisherman, known for his love of whisky and ale