Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1963 (DOST Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Lang reid, n. (Appar. repr. an ON. *langa-hríð, f. langr long and hríð fem. a (snow-) storm, spell of bad weather or pain, period of time (ODa. rid, red, Sw. dial. ri(d, Norw. ri, Shetl. ri, ree, in similar senses). In the later dial. of Orkney lang reed = the period of poverty in late winter or early spring when most of the winter stocks were consumed, and occurs also in a rhyme quoted in H. Marwick The Orkney Norn (1929) s.v. Long Reed, p. 230–1: In Lentryne an' the Lang Reid, Naething bit water kail an' bere breed. Marwick (p. 108) also compares ON. langa-fasta Lent. In 1450 Richard Holland was rector of Halkirk in Caithness, in 1457 a canon in Kirkwall, Orkney, and previous to 1467 vicar of Ronaldshay.) — c1450-2 Howlat 698.
Syne all the lentryne but leis, and the lang reid, And als in the adwent, The Soland stewart was sent; For he couth fro the firmament Fang the fische deid