Waulking with Oomph! *** 12 Weeks

For hundreds of years in the highlands and islands of Scotland, after weaving a piece of cloth, the women would get together to full the cloth. They would get it wet and either with their feet or their hands pound and work it until it shrunk the desired amount.

Last night I had an opportunity to lead a simulated waulking. Heather's friend Amy (I mentioned her earlier as her sheep had lambs recently) was contacted by a local Scottish society to give a presentation about Scottish methods of using wool, spinning, weaving, etc. And Amy called on us to help her with the Scottish side of things.

Amy brought several blankets that she had woven, as well as her spinning wheel, wool, even some sheep skins. She gave a wonderful presentation on all the steps involved: washing the wool, dying it, carding or combing it, then spinning it. And she spoke of the warmth and protection that wool provides, even if it gets wet. Our small audience of five of the members of this Scottish society were a very excited and attentive group. And while Amy spoke, Katie sat at her wheel spinning (Katie is a beautiful spinner!).

Then Heather spoke about the waulking. Donald had sent us an excellent article he had written about it and about the Harris Tweed. Then we took one of Amy's blankets and we all gathered around a small table to simulate the waulking, by beating the cloth and singing to the rhythm of the beat. To prepare for this I had listened to recordings of several waulking songs, and the one I finally chose was from a recording called "Waulking Songs from Barra" recorded back in the late 1960's. I liked this recording because it wasn't polished up and recorded nicely, it was just a group of older women recreating a waulking from their younger days. I had my lesson with Donald earlier in the day and he had me sing it for him. "Well..." he said, "That's fine, but you need to put more oomph into it." He further explained that it was like a party - that there was much laughter and much energy as they sang and pounded the cloth. He had me sing it for him about four times more!

Waulking on Eriskay, 1899

The waulking songs are a sort-of call and response. The leader sings a line, then everyone sings a line together, and so on. So I taught everyone the response phrase, and we began. It was very energetic and exhilarating. Everyone enjoyed the experience. I certainly did, and I think I managed it with enough oomph!

Here is the song we sang:



Eile le ho rò ho hù o

Eile le ho rò ho hù o

Robh thu ‘sa ‘bheinn o ho hù o

Eile le ho rò ho hù o

An diugh n’ an dè o ho hù o

Nan d’fhuair thu sprèidh?

Cha d’fhuair an leth

Cò tha bhuat dhiubh?

Ogha Buidheig

Ogha Ruadhain

Ogha na bà

Maoile ruaidheadh

Gura h-e mo

Run an t-uasal

Chunna mi’n dè

Seachad suas thu

Air each glas na

Nan ceum luatha

Le d’bhiodagan

Ortho chruachain

Le d’ghunna snaip

Ortho ghualainn

Dol a shealg na

h-èilde ruaidheadh

eala cha dig

slàn o d’luaidhe.

(the ho hu o is sung at the end of each line, and the "Eile le ho ro ho hu o" is sung between each line.)