Guide: North Yorkshire Dialect Notes

Timeline 60BC – 138AD

This timeline is focussed on the British Celtic culture and those cultures which had influence on the British Celts. It Read more

Cartimandua

Yorkshire, and much of northern Britain was also ruled by a queen, the most powerful ruler in Britain in fact. Read more

Caratacus

Caratacus was highly influenced by the Druids, and both he and his brother Togodumnus were among the leading lights of Read more

Celtic Gods

Many Celtic deities seem to have been associated with aspects of nature and worshipped in sacred groves. Some appear in Read more

Baal

Baal, Baalim BAAL WORSHIP But the religious customs of the Covenant people became corrupted with the religion of the Phoenician Read more

Celtic Festivals

By celebrating the natural cycle of the year through ritual, Celts attune themselves to nature and the divine that is Read more

Celtic Religion and Beliefs

The Iron Age Celts, who flourished from around 700 BCE to 400 CE, held a polytheistic belief system with a Read more

The Druids and Druidism

The religion of Druidism was unlike any other belief either Celtic or Roman. The Druids were considered to be enigmatic, Read more

Thoughts on Celtic Religion – Raimund, Karl

To begin with, lets first look at the sources available to us: There are quite numerous sources available, contrary to Read more

The Goddess Brigantia – The ‘Exalted One’

The Goddess Brigantia Historical Background On The 'Exalted One' Tina Deegan Brigit was one of the Read more

Flora and Fauna associated with Brighid

An introduction to the plant and animal life associated with the Goddess Brigantia.

Brigantia votive inscriptions – Finds and Analysis

Votive inscriptions to the Goddess Brigantia have been found in the North of England using four names: Caelestis Brigantia, Nympha Read more

Short Glossary of North Yorkshire Terms

Every region in Brigantia has its own accent and ways of speaking. North Yorkshire, being such a large county, has quite a significant variance in its dialects and this glossary may not be universally applicable in the whole of the region.

• Airt – direction point of the compass.
• Aither – furrowed ground.
• Balk – A strip of land.
• Bargh, Barugh, Barf – A hill forming part of a low ridge.
• Beck, Gill – Small stream.
• Beeld, bield, beild – A shelter from weather.
• Bladdry – Soft splashy mud.
• Blashment – Melted snow or soft mud.
• Bleb – Air rising in water.
• Blue-flint – Whinstone from the Cleveland Dyke.
• Blutherment – Puddle or slush.
• Boddums – Lowest ground.
• Bounder-stoups – Upright boundary stones.
• Bow-bridge – A Packhorse bridge.
• Brigg – a natural promontory into the sea or bridge.
• Brae – The overhanging bank of a river.
• Brant – Steep. Cam – The sloping bank from a hedge bottom.
• Carr – Low-lying boggy ground.
• Causer, caus’ay – A paved footpath.
• Cinder Hills – Ancient slag heaps.
• Cleugh – A narrow ravine.
• Clum – Sodden, heavy clayey land.
• Coo-yat – Cow pasture.
• Coo-grip – a channel to carry off urine.
• Covin-scar – A low, flat expanse of rock.
• Cross gang/gate – A crossroads.
• Crow-ling – Heath.
• Dale – A valley.
• Dale-end The end or widest part of a dale.
• Dale-head – The upper and narrowest portion of a dale.
• Dike – A ditch. Dike-back – The bank forming one side of a ditch.
• Dub – A large pond.
• Dump – Deep hole in the bed of a river.
• Faugh – Fallow land.
• Fold Garth – Farmyard.
• Foss – A waterfall.
• Gain-way – A shorter path.
• Garth – A small enclosure of land.
• Gate – a way, road or street.
• Gessing-land – Grassland.
• Gill – A narrow valley or ravine.
• Gimmal – A narrow passage.
• Gote – A narrow natural ravine.
• Griff – A deep, narrow valley.
• Grip – A channel or small ditch.
• Hag – A broken, rugged bank.
• Hays – Enclosure fence acting as a boundary.
• Head rig – The part of a field where the horses and plough turn.
• Hipping steans – Stepping stones.
• Holl – A deep depression in the land.
• Holm – Land which is at times surrounded by water.
• Hoss trod – A bridle road.
• Hottery – A bumpy, uneven road.
• Houe, Howe – A Hill.
• Hossocks – Coarse tufts of grass.
• Ing. Ings – low-lying pasture.
• Intak – Enclosed land from a common for cultivation.
• Kansh – A hard ridge of gravel or a rock in a river, dangerous to navigation.
• Keld – A spring of water.
• Liberty – The parish or township.
• Lits – A spring or source of a stream.
• Loning, loaning, lonnin’, lo’nin – A narrow lane.
• Marrish – Low lying ground liable to flood.
• Mere, mere-stone – A boundary mark or stone.
• Moor stone – A large exposed stone embedded in the soil of the moor.
• Nab – A hill, rocky point, headland.
• Ness – A projecting headland.
• Neuk – a corner of a field.
• Out-end, out-gang, out-gaat – An exit, way out.
• Owergait – A gap in a hedge.
• Plother, plodder – Soft mud. Rack – a bend in a river.
• Ramper – The sloping side of a raised footpath.
• Rands, reeands – The unploughed edges of a field.
• Rein – The sides of a field overgrown with brushwood.
• Riding – An open space in a wood.
• Rigg – A long, narrow hill.
• Rook, ruck –A pile, a carefully made heap of stones/turf.
• Scau’p – Bare spots of rock and stones on a hillside.
• Skaff, skeeaf – A rough, steep, broken bank.
• Slack – The hollow part of an undulation in the ground.
• Sloke – The scum or slime on stagnant water.
• Smout-hole – An opening at the bottom of a wall to allow hares or sheep to pass through.
• Snake-stone – An Ammonite.
• Spout – A waterfall.
• Sprunt – A steep hill.
• Strand – The beach.
• Sump – A bog or marsh.
• Swang – A boggy stretch of land.
• Swarth – The quality and quantity of grass upon the land.
• Swidden – Part of the moor cleared by burning.
• Syke – A small stream. Toft – A small grove of trees.
• Trod – A footpath.
• Upgang – A pathway up a hill.
• Warp – Alluvium.
• Wath – A ford.
• White flint – A hard, sedimentary rock found on the moors and used for road stone.
• Wyke – A small bay on the coast.