The River Tweed

The River Tweed near Norham

(© Copyright David Chatterton and licensed for 

reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)

•  At 97 miles, it is the fourth longest river in Scotland (behind the Tay, Spey & Clyde);
• Its name comes from the Gaelic for ‘north’;
• Otherwise known as Tweed Water;
• Its source is at Tweed’s Well in the Lowther Hills;
• Its upper 74 miles are in Scotland, it then forms the border between England and Scotland for 19 miles, and its final 4 miles flow through England;
• Has a catchment area estimated at 1,500-1,800 square miles;
• It is the UK’s premier river for salmon fishing, catching more Atlantic salmon than anywhere else in the EU;
• Produces more fish caught to the fly than anywhere else in Britain;
• The Tweed’s famous autumn salmon run can produce catches approaching 30lb;
• At certain times of the year and in certain places, it can cost several thousand pounds per rod per week to fish the Tweed;
• Fishing for salmon (and sea trout) is strictly prohibited on Sundays;
• And, yes, Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the river.

Kips, Kippers and Kippering (NU258198)

Craster (and Seahouses, for that matter) is famous for its kippers – herring (or salmon) fish cured by splitting open, salting, and drying in the open air or smoke. This process of preservation means that the fishy results can be transported long distances before consumption, this usually being via a short grilling for breakfast. The etymology of the word is a curious one, with a connection, it seems, to the modern-day slang for a short sleep – as in ‘having a kip’.

Chronologically, it is difficult to say which came first: the kipper or the kip. The explanation which follows is therefore somewhat circuitous, seeming in places to fall back and in on itself. But I shall have a go.

We’ll start with ‘kipper’, whose meaning is as per above (noun, as in ‘a kipper’, or verb, as in ‘to kipper’). There is an argument which states that the word is derived from the Old English kippian, to spawn; which may be connected to the ‘kip’, or small beak, that male salmon develop during the breeding season. The word kip, kippen or kippa seems to have also generally meant ‘to catch’ across several ancient European languages; similarly, the English kipe denotes a basket used to catch fish – and this ‘catching’ variant of the word seems to go back many centuries, so it could be the original source of the term.

Quite how the terms for the fish ‘beak’, the catching process and then the fish itself came to be related to the curing process of ‘kippering’, though, is not clear. There is a clue, perhaps, in the Danish word kippe, meaning a doss house or hut, which just happens to be the word used to describe the ramshackle sleeping accommodation of the women who used to work on the fish in Craster (viz. ‘kip houses’). And, so the argument goes, because these horrible places were only fit to sleep in, this is where we get the phrase ‘having a kip’ from, when we mean to have a sleep.

So does the word ‘kipper’ (noun and verb) come from the women who slept in the ‘kips’, which was a Danish word, originally? Or does it all start from the old European kip/kippen/kippa, meaning ‘to catch’? I have successfully managed to completely confuse myself … and very probably you too.

Talking of kips, I think it’s time to have a lie down.