shieling, shealing Sc.
(ˈʃiːlɪŋ)
Forms: 6 schæling, schealling, schilling, (scheilding), 6–7 scheilling, 6, 9 scheeling, 7 schel(l)ing, 7–8 shealling, 8 sheelin, 9 sheeling, sheilin(g, shielin, shilling, 7– shealing, 8– shieling.
[f. shiel + -ing1.
In the vernacular form the word has not been found earlier than the latter half of the 16th c.; but 13th c. documents show a latinized scalinga, which represents either this word (cf. schale early var. of shiel) or an etymologically equivalent *skāling (f. scale n.4, ON. skále).
1225 Registrum Monast. Passelet (Maitland Club) 212 Cum libertate siccandi retia sua et faciendi domos et scalingas piscatoribus suis. c 1230–68 Cockersand Chartul. (Chetham Soc.) I. 259 Versus aquilonem infra scalingam quæ fuit Candelani et scalingam quam Ricardus..tenuit.]
1. A piece of pasture to which cattle may be driven for grazing.
| 1568 in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1575, 628/1 Lie schaelingis, in baroniis de Drumcardny et Bewfort. 1590 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 611/1 Cum communi pasturagio lie scheilding infra lie Glen de Glengorf. 1594 Ibid. 48/1 Lie outseattis et scheallingis. 1596 Ibid. 132/1 Cum communiae et communi pastura ac lie schilling in Glenalmond consueta. 1602 Ibid. 481/1 Cum..lacubus, lie scheillingis, montibus [etc.]. 1711 in Nairne Peerage Evid. (1874) 138 Shellings grasings woods pasturages. 1806 Gazetteer Scot. (ed. 2) 288 The parish..has been twice inundated by water-spouts, one of which carried off a whole shealing or grazing, with the family and cattle. 1843 Hardy in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. 59 note, A shiel or shieling is..a summer pasturage for flocks. 1884 Queen Victoria More Leaves 62 Opposite to this, on a place called Ruidh Reinnich, or the ‘ferny shieling’, a fire was kindled. |
2. A hut of rough construction erected on or near such a piece of pasture: = shiel n. 1.
| a 1585 Polwart Flyting w. Montgomerie (Tullib.) 201 In stoir of lambes and lang taillit wedders..In scheilling, tyit fast in tedderis. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 806 Little cottages here and there, which they call Sheales or Shealings. 1673 Rec. Dingwall Presbyt. (S.H.S.) 330 [The] Popishe Dishaunters were not cited in reguard that they were dwelling at their sheallings, and therefore [etc.]. 1771 Pennant Tour Scot. i. (1774) 109 We refreshed ourselves with some goats' whey, at a Sheelin. 1791 Boswell Johnson an. 1773 (1831) II. 373 Little summer huts, called shielings. c 1810 Tannahill Poems (1846) 100 So merrily we'll sing, As the storm rattles o'er us, 'Till the dear sheeling ring Wi' the light lilting chorus. 1815 Scott Guy M. viii, Ye may stable your stirks in the shealings at Derncleugh. 1819 ― Leg. Montrose xviii, Montrose..was laid down to sleep in a miserable shieling. 1860 G. H. Kingsley in Galton Vac. Tourists (1861) 163 The lassies used to live in sheilings. 1873 Black Pr. Thule xxiv. 405 Lonely sheilings perched far up on the hills. 1895 Crockett Men of Moss-Hags xlii. 298 It seemed a hundred miles to the shieling on the hill. |
3. attrib.
| 1607 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 710/1 Scheilinge-plaices. 1639 Ibid. 322/1 Sitting or eating of the scheilling grasse. 1849 Whittier Kathleen 19 And nightly round the shealing-fires Of her the gleeman sung. 1884 Spectator 17 May 642 The shealing feast is a very simple one, each housewife producing a cheese of last year's produce. 1901 Scotsman 12 Nov. 8/2 Little has been recorded of shieling life in historical books. |