I need a Scottish town name

[rodlox]

I need the name of a town in Scotland (anywhere in Scotland)

has to be near a field that has peat in it.

ps: can you find peat on the ground surface, or does it always have to be dug up?

thank you.

Comments

[fififolle]

I'll get back to you on this one after work unless anyone else has it on the tip of their tongue.... must dash! Byeee!

[rodlox]

work comes first - I agree entirely.

(not that I object to multiple answers from multiple people, mind you) ;)

ps: did anyone establish what Grodin's first name is?

[fififolle]

Oh, it's definitely Peter. We love Peter Grodin! :D (Where's my Peter icon?) hehehe.

[fredbassett]

Peat is just under the grassy top layer. In Ireland it gets dug with special thin shovels. I guess Scotland is similar. I'll see if I can find a place name. I presume for plot reasons it needs to be Scotland?

[rodlox]

I suppose it can be Northern Ireland (Lester can owe a favor to a fellow Brit there)

the closest thing to a "plot reason" is that I only know of this fossil being found in Scotland...though I'm sure that it lived in Ireland, way back when, too.

[fredbassett]

The suggestion in a previous post of Oban sounded fine to me.

[fififolle]

Yeah, peat kind of *is* the ground. You use your thin shovel thing and cut down into the ground a foot or two at most, to get a long lump of the stuff . The you stack your 'peats' to dry before they are good for burning, and you're left with a large open hole in the ground.

Peat cutting goes on all over Scotland, really, but as a common fuel source it's really Western regions and islands, I reckon. Somewhere like the main town on Lewis, which is called Stornoway, would be one to use. If you want somewhere on the mainland, maybe Oban?

[fredbassett]

Not sure about Scotland, but in Ireland, they call it "turf", not "peat", when referring to the stuff you burn on fires, ie the words of the song "The Old Turf Fire".

[fififolle]

Well, I would say they called it 'peat fires' in Scotland. Nobody burns 'turf' in Scotland. Anywhere. Interesting, no?

[fredbassett]

Yes, definitely interesting. I haven't been up to Scotland for years, but visit Ireland very frequently. The cutting/stacking is clearly the same, but the terminology clearly different.

Out of interest, what do they call peat moors in Scotland? In Ireland the description would just be The Bog. Which can confuse visitors if someone has been turf cutting and remarks that they've spent all day "on the bog". Tends to evoke sympathy, but for the wrong reasons *grins*.