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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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

MACHAIR, n. Also machar, ma(c)her; maker. A stretch of low-lying land adjacent to the sand of the sea shore, covered with bent or natural grasses and used for rough grazing, common in Hebrides. In Galloway applied specif. in pl. to the lands bordering the Solway Firth or Luce Bay. Also attrib. [′mɑxər]Wgt. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XVII. 560:
On this beach, the road which opens the communication between what are called the Makers and Reins of Galloway . . . has, of late, been completely repaired.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 336:
Mahers — A tract of low, wet lying land, of a marshy and moory nature; Mahermore or Mahermere, is a specimen.Wgt. 1875 W. McIlwraith Guide Wgtsh. 59:
The many chapels, in connection with the monastery at Whithorn, that at one time studded the Machars.Hebr. 1884 Crofters' Comm. Evid. App. A. XLVII. 215:
Every townland has a cattle fold on the machair and another on the gearry. The machair is the irregularly broad plain of sandy soil on the edge of the Atlantic, and the gearry is the irregularly wide grazing ground between the machair and the moor.Arg. 1898 N. Munro John Splendid xxi.:
On the side of the loch, when we emerged from the hills, there was a cluster of whin-bushes spread out upon a machar of land that in a less rigorous season of the year, by the feel of the shoe sole, must be velvet-piled with salty grass.Hebr. 1915 Chambers's Jnl. (4 Dec.) 14:
The weed is carted from the shore to the machairs of the farm and laid out to dry.Sc. 1928 Scots Mag. (May) 134:
I lost my love by the machar dyke Where the land lies flat to the sea.Hebr. 1958 Scotsman (4 Sept.):
The compensation awarded by the Scottish Land Court averages £2 an acre for resumed land on the machair — the common grazing ground where corn is grown.sm.Sc. 1979 Alan Temperley Tales of Galloway (1986) 1:
Darkness spread over the land, the last traces of sunset faded over the Machars. It was All Hallows Eve. Fif. 1983 Hamish Brown Time Gentlemen 12:
They add their colours to the machair lawns
These plain worker-flowers, these forgotten pawns
That front chequered boards ... Hebr. 1988 Scotsman (31 Dec.) 12:
There were black clouds over the sea and the gulls had gathered on the machair. wm.Sc. 1989 Anna Blair The Goose Girl of Eriska 13:
She tended her father's geese on the machair by the flat shore near their simple home, which stood by itself some way from any of the other cottages.