nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Gorse? What's gorse?

[Deleted User]

I notice a tendency in recent reports of fires in Killarney National Park to refer to them as gorse fires?

When did this word appear in Ireland? I remember it from Enid Blyton books, but never remember it being used here. The word used in this part of the country was always "furze".

Yes, it's real first world problems stuff. But I just would prefer our furze, briars and sallies to gorse, brambles and copses.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

RobertKK

Furze, gorse, whin, are all Ulex europaeus.

sbsquarepants

Never heard of furze or whins, gorse it is!

fatknacker

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Never heard of furze or whins, gorse it is!

Of gorse it is!

josip

Furze

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen%27s_Day

The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze,
Although he was little his honour was great,
Jump up me lads and give us a treat.

Fratton Fred

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It just struck me as the creeping anglicisation where we have words that suffice.

Furze is used in England as well, although gorse is more common.

catallus

Well what's fen then?

Guy:Incognito

Is it not something to do with big houses in Killiney?:)

FunLover18

RobertKK wrote:

Furze, gorse, whin, are all Ulex europaeus.

Yeh but ulex europaeus fires sounds completely daft!!

topper75

ThisRegard wrote: »

Fraughans are bilberries though.

Our bilberries and the N. American blueberries are cousins.
Not sure how a smallish blueberry or fat bilberry could be distinguished to be honest.

For the record, Limerick/Clare has gorse and sallies. I've heard briars and brambles referred to here.

ThisRegard

catallus wrote: »

Well what's fen then?

The number after 9 for someone with a lisp.

catallus

Bilberries are sloes, right?

ThisRegard

topper75 wrote: »

Not sure how a smallish blueberry or fat bilberry could be distinguished to be honest.

Either do I in fairness. I only know they're different because it came up in a conversation some time ago and I never knew what a fraughen was, someone said they were blueberries but a google resolved that argument quick enough.

Rubberchikken

gorse , here in cork. furze too, maybe. never heard the term 'whins'. learn something new everyday:)

The Backwards Man

catallus wrote: »

Well what's fen then?

Called slunks around here, fen is type of bogland, it's not a plant.

Alun

catallus wrote: »

Bilberries are sloes, right?

Absolutely not, not even remotely. Sloes are the fruit of the blackthorn tree.

[Deleted User]

catallus wrote: »

Bilberries are sloes, right?

No sloes grown on trees, fraughen are small blue/ black berries that grown on poor mountain soil they grow on a shrub near the ground.

Sloes are the ancestor of Damsons.

catallus

Well I've walked on fen but I've never seen me a bilberry.

biko

In Galway we say gorse, never heard them called anything else.

The Backwards Man

Is a fraughen not a cranberry? We don't have them up here, only heard of them.

ThisRegard

catallus wrote: »

Well I've walked on fen but I've never seen me a bilberry.

End of July, start of August is harvesting time for them, there's even a specific Sunday set by, Fraughan Sunday naturally enough, last week in July.

There's a place named after them in Wickow, Fraughan Rock Glen, just off Lugnaquilla.

petrolcan

Like a cat dragged backwards through a whinbush.

fatknacker

Ah you're all making up these words now, come on.

Which is the one with the fuzzy stickyballs, though? Plant, that is.

Alun

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Is a fraughen not a cranberry? We don't have them up here, only heard of them.

A fraughan is a bilberry or whortleberry, a relative of the North American blueberry. A small purplish dark blue fruit.

Cranberries are a cultivated form of cowberries, lingonberries (Scandinavia) or Preiselbeeren (Germany), something that doesn't grow here at all AFAIK. They're small and red in colour.

They are however related as they're both of the same genus, Vaccinium.

[Deleted User]

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Is a fraughen not a cranberry? We don't have them up here, only heard of them.

Are you sure they don't grow in Donegal?

RobertKK

Where I live in Kilkenny. We say furze.

In my location you can find wild fruit like Fraughens (bilberries, a cousin of the bigger blueberry) wild strawberries (again minature fruit), wild cherries, wild gooseberries, wild raspberries, crab apples, elderberries, sloes, not to mention the blackberries.
You can go for a walk in the summer and get your five a day...

There is also red berry holly trees and yellow berry holly trees.
Wild primrose, cowslips, orchids and so on.

The Backwards Man

mariaalice wrote: »

Are you sure they don't grow in Donegal?

Never seen them if they do. Cowberrys have a berry like a haw don't they? Seen them alright

uch

Where I grew up it was called Concrete and it didn't burn !

Alun

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Never seen them if they do. Cowberrys have a berry like a haw don't they? Seen them alright

That's odd. I've come across fraughan in the Mournes and Cooleys, so I'd expect them up in Donegal.

As regards cowberries/lingonberries I've never seen them down here in Wicklow. They're common enough in more northerly climes like Scotland though, so could well be at home in the north of Ireland I suppose.

whomitconcerns

furze in wicklow too

but seemingly its actually called Ulex....who knew?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulex

Alun

Just to confuse the matter there's broom as well. Similar looking from a distance with bright yellow flowers but not at all prickly.