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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

LOCHABER, prop. n. The name of a district in the South of Inverness-shire; in comb. Lochaber axe, a kind of pole-axe or halberd, gen. described by authorities as having a hook on the other side of the head to grasp the object attacked or to help in scaling walls or the like, used essentially by infantry to deal with mounted opponents and still carried as ceremonial arms by the Lord Provost's attendants in Edinburgh. [lɔx′a:bər]Sc. 1703 J. M. Thomson Public Rec. 52:
Paid a porter for carying to the Parliament House 15 Lochaber axes borrowed from John Ross … , storekeeper of the Castle, to be made use of the first day of the Parliament.Dmf. 1704 R. Edgar Hist. Dmf. (1915) 79:
To Lochaber axes, partisans (or halberts) and drums … £150. 0. 0.Sc. 1736 Caled. Mercury (9 Sept.):
They threw stones in so violent a manner, and wounded several of those that attended the magistrates with Lochaber-axes and butts of muskets.Edb. 1773 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 92:
For frae a stark Lochaber aix He gat a clamihewit.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian iii.:
A long pole, namely, with an axe at the extremity, and a hook at the back of the hatchet. . . . [note] The hook was to enable the bearer of the Lochaber axe to scale a gate-way, by grappling the top of the door, and swinging himself up by the staff of his weapon.Sc. 1834 G. R. Gleig Allan Breck I. vii.:
A town's officer, or member of the burgher guard, paced backwards and forwards, formidable alike from the cock of his three-cornered hat, and the enormous lochaber axe that graced his shoulder.Sc. 1896 A. Cheviot Proverbs 139:
He looks like a Lochaber axe fresh frae the grindstane.Sc. 1902 Sc. History and Life 242:
The Lochaber axe … had a heavy broad blade, resembling the German and Swiss “Voulge” of the 14th–16th centuries, but differing in usually having a hook on the top of the shaft.