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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

LUNKART, n. Also luncart, lonchard, lounkart, lonquhard; lunker, lonker, -or, -et, and in reduced form lunkie, -y, lonky. [′lʌŋkər(t)]

1. A hunting lodge, a temporary dwelling in a deer forest. Hist.Sc. 1771 T. Pennant Tour 1769 103:
Their huntings resembled campaigns; they lived in temporary cottages, called Lonquhards.Ags. 1958 C. Gibson Highl. Deer Stalker 114:
There were the remains of a shieling (or lonchard) where Jock must have often rested on his way over.

†2. An open-air fireplace made of sods with an iron bar across the top from which to hang a pot, freq. used on washing day in the country (Mry.² 1920).Abd. 1867 A. Allardyce Goodwife 14:
Haud by the luncart, at the strype.n.Sc. 1901 Invercauld Rec. (S.C.) 44:
A lounkart was a structure of stones or sods erected to support cooking utensils in the field or forest.Abd. 1901 Sc. N. & Q. (Ser. 2) III. 45:
In high blanket washings at spring cleanings when a fire was kindled outside at a place called a luncart, near a burn or well.

3. From the rough similarity of construction: a hole with a lintel stone made in a wall to allow sheep to pass through or a stream to flow under (Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 320, lonkor; Ayr., Slk. 1825 Jam., lunkie; Bte., sm.Sc. 1961, lunker, lunkie). Also comb. lunkie-hole, id. (Jam.; Wgt., Kcb., Dmf. 1961); any sim. structure, as the mouth of a sewage-conduit (Kcb. 1827 Curriehill, lonket).Dmf. 1894 Trans. Dmf. & Gall. Antiq. Soc. 151:
Lunkie, a hole in a dyke for the passage of sheep, filled up with thorns when inconvenient.Kcb. 1897 T. Murray Frae the Heather 42:
[A ewe] wad crept water lunkies, wire fences pushed through.Kcb. 1901 Gallovidian VIII. 122:
Pussy made for a lonky hole and the dog wad never hae played touch at her.Dmf. 1957 Trans. Dmf. & Gall. Antiq. Soc. 99:
The “lunkie hole” should be made narrower at the bottom than at the middle and top.Sc. 1997 Scotsman 21 Jul 33:
Sad to see the old stone dykes, the lunkie holes where Blackfaces once passed. Where now the shepherds who walked the hills before the trees came?

4. From the notion of a gap in a longitudinal surface: a large lenticular mass or nodule of one mineral in the layers of another (Sc. 1840 Civil Eng. and Architect. Jnl. III. 415).Fif. 1845 Stat. Acc.² IX. 658:
In many instances, it is found in what the quarrymen term lunearts [sic], that is, in solid cone-shaped masses of immense dimensions, unstratified, and without cleavage in any direction.Slg. 1917 Econ. Geol. Cent. Coalfield, II. 65:
This coal is overlain by from 0 to 6 in. of blackband ironstone, occasionally rising to 18 in. in “lunkers.”