Skip to main content
University Collections

Encyclopaedia of the North East

Q - Quaich to quernie

Line
A large printed capital letter Q inside a square with foliage and a bird, with wooden and silver cups and large stones.
Line

quaich 18-, quhaich em>e16 
1 n A drinking cup, usually wooden staved but also made from silver. 
2 n A bowl-shaped depression in the landscape. 

The quaich is of highland origin, the name being a corruption of the Gaelic cuach, a cup. The shape is familiar to most of us... wide and shallow, with wedge-shaped horizontal handles which to the convivially minded, seem to invite a hearty grasp, and which certainly facilitate its being passed from hand to hand when circulated as a loving cup. 
F Marian McNeill, 1956, The Scots Cellar

Quaich. A large bowl made of twelve curved triangular segments of wood, fastened together with a silver band. The quaich has three blocky handles which project from segments equidistant from each other.

Silver bound wooden quaich, made by M Rettie, Aberdeen (1847-1892).

ABDUA:18090

Quaichs. Two wooden quaichs with silver on the handles and rim, and the owner's initials. They are made of curved triangular segments of wood fastened together with bands on the outside.

Silver mounted wooden quaichs with couples' initials (18th cent.)

ABDUA:18089, 18088

Quaichs. Three silver quaichs, with the initials of their owners on the handles and simple line decorations. The cups are decoratively segmented in a manner reminiscent of wooden quaichs.

Silver quaichs marked with the initials of betrothed couples.

ABDUA:18091, 18086, 18093

Quaich. A small wooden bowl about the size of an egg cup, carved from a single piece of wood with a blocky handle on each side and a circular base with a scalloped edge which is carved with an interlace pattern on the underside.

Wooden quaich, Aberdeenshire (18th cent.)

ABDUA:18094

Line

quernie
1 n A stone hand mill for grinding grain. 
2 adj Full of grains or granules la18- 

The cronach stills the dowie heart, 
the jurram stills the bairnie; 
but the music fur a hungry wame's 
the grindin o' the quernie. 

And loes me o' ma little quernie! 
grind the gradden, grind it: 
we'll a get crowdie when its done, 
and bannocks steeve tae bind it.
'The Quern Lilt' traditional song

Saddle quern. A large oblong lump of dark granite, about half a metre long, with a deep carved oblong depression along the middle.

Saddle quern, the oldest type of quern, Newhills (c200BC-300AD).

ABDUA:17111

Rotary quern. Two fat discs of coarse grey stone almost half a metre wide, the upper disc having a hole in the centre around which is carved a raised ring. Carved grooves radiate from the centre.

Rotary quern, as used until the 19th century in the North East to grind the daily (oat) meal, New Machar (17th - 18th cent.)

ABDUA:17165

Pepper mill. Dark wooden cylinder with turned bands, with a knob at the top.

Pepper mill of a type used frequently in the North East until recently, Fyvie (late 19th cent.)

ABDUA:18446

Q - Quaich to quernie