Show Search Results Show Browse

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1976 (SND Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

YAIR, n.1 Also ya(i)re; ¶yaar (Mry. 1798 Grant and Leslie Survey Mry. 155); yaird by confusion with Yaird, n.1; †zeir. An enclosure, gen. built of stones or occas. of wattle-work in an estuary or in a bay on the sea-shore, to trap fish, esp. salmon, in nets or by hand, as the tide recedes (Gall. 1974). [je:r]Dmb. c.1710 Sheriffdom Lnk. & Rnf. (M.C.) 143:
Some of them [herring] coming to the freshes near Dumbarton, and are taken in the yairs.
Sc. 1723 W. Macfarlane Geog. Coll. (S.H.S.) I. 326:
There is good salmon fishing in Carron by Zeirs and Weirs and leisters for a great many miles.
Rs. 1732 N. Macrae Romance Royal Burgh 215:
The yair belonging to the town, near the Ness of Dingwall.
Clc., Dmb. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 VIII. 597, XVII. 217:
Upon the point of these inches, they erect what are called yares, a sort of scaffold projecting into the water; upon which they build little huts to protect them from the weather; from these scaffolds they let down, at certain times of the tide, their nets, and are often very successful in taking the smaller fish. . . . A yare is built of stones . . . about four feet in height, and of considerable length, and stretches out into the river in the form of a crescent, or of three sides of a square; but to give it a probability of succeeding, it must proceed from a point of land, so as to inclose a bay.
Sth., Rs. 1817 Scots Mag. (July) 488:
Myriads of fry are destroyed by yares, (a mode of fishing tolerated in the Frith of Cromarty, Beauly, and Dornoch).
Sc. 1864 P. F. Tytler Hist. Scot. I. 242:
We find in the Cartularies innumerable grants of yairs.
Inv. 1884 Crofters' Comm. Report Evid. I. 39:
There was a yair in the loch which was good for catching herring.
Dmb. 1957 Scotland's Mag. (June) 15:
The south-east corner of the Colgrain yair is still clearly marked by weed covered stones on the sand.

Combs.: yair-fishing, fishing by means of yairs; yair-net, a fish-net extended into the bed of a river and fixed by poles so as to form a yair (Gall. 1974).Dmb. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 XVII. 217:
Yair fishings, so productive in this parish [Cardross], seem to be almost peculiar to it.
Rs. 1819 Edb. Ev. Courant (11 Oct.) 1:
The Salmon Yair Fishings belonging to the estate of Ferrintosh.
Slg. 1835 Trans. Highl. Soc. 13:
All the principal stake, yare, and drag-net fishing stations, from Hopeton to Stirling.
Gall. 1969 Galloway News (11 April):
Fisherman for Yair Salmon Nets at Kirkcudbright.

[O.Sc. ihara (Latin), Id., 12th c., yare, 1424, O.E. -ȝear in mylenȝear, an enclosure on a millstream.]

You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.

"Yair n.1". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 29 Mar 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/yair_n1>

29826

snd

Hide Advanced Search

Browse SND:

    Loading...

Share: