Rowan

The Rowan Tree – Caoruinn in Gaelic, or Craobh (Gaelic for ‘tree’) caoruinn – is representative of Scotland, especially the Highlands, the little tree covered in Scarlet Berries by loch or on crag. Its Gaelic name, in many different spellings, is common on maps of the Highlands – Loch na Craoibhe-caoruinn, Beinn a’ chaorun, and many others. It is a very hardy tree, able to grow high up on mountains, growing out of rock, and even growing in the forks of larger trees, where birds have dropped the seed after eating the fruit. Its trunk and branches are mottled grey, smooth on young trees, and coarse on old ones, with outreaching twigs – in Gaelic ‘meanglann’ - and furry brown buds. It is sometimes called the Mountain Ash, because of the places it grows and also the form of its leaves, like Ash leaves – spear-shaped and in pairs along a stalk, with single tip-leaf. The leaves of Rowan are in six to eight pairs, deep green with silvery underside. In May and June the large white domed clusters of tiny blossoms burst open, scenting the Summer evening with perfume. It has been believed that the scent and the colours of blossom and silvery leaf accompany the coming of a being from the Celtic Paradise, and there has remained a belief that this tree of magic and high places should not be harmed. People would not use its stems or timber in any way, except for some special ritual occasions - a tool for threshing a sacred harvest of grain, called in Gaelic the ‘buaitean’, or for burning on a funeral pyre. The freshly cut or broken wood has a strange musty smell. The wide clusters of Scarlet Berries have commonly been used for making jelly – a sweet and bitter jelly – and are eaten by many birds and creatures in late Autumn, including the Capercaille and Scottish Crossbill.