Scootie Allan
July 4th 2026
According to the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL), Scootie Allan is the name given in Shetland and Orkney to the Arctic Skua. The term has many variant spellings.
The earliest example in DSL comes from John Brand’s A Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland, etc. (1701): “[There is] a Fowl there called Scutiallan, of a black colour, and as big as a Wild Duck”.
Patrick Neill’s A Tour through some of the Islands of Orkney and Shetland (1806) explains the rather unpleasant origin of the bird’s name: “Scoutiallan, or Scoutiaulan. . . . They pursue and harass all the small gulls, till these last disgorge or vomit; they then dexterously catch what is dropped, ere it reach the water. The common names are derived from the vulgar opinion that the small gulls are muting [defecating], when they are only disgorging fish newly caught”. That’s enough said about that.
An example from the Shetland Times in May 1899 reminds us that the protection of rare species is not just a modern phenomenon: “Egg collectors and dealers should bear in mind that the eggs of the eider duck, lark, snipe, lapwing, bonxie and scootie allan are protected and persons found in possession of them are liable to be prosecuted”.
More recently, in February 2011 the Inverness Courier charmingly depicted the presence of these birds within the Shetland landscape: “Scootie Allan, the Shetland name for Arctic skua watch haughtily from sphagnum tussocks; the song of the wind tugs persistently at your clothes, urging you on”.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language would like to thank Bob Dewar for illustrating our Scots Word of the Week feature.
