How Highlanders Lit Their Homes- 3 Lighting Methods Used From The Stone Age to 20th Century Scotland

Covering the Rush Light in wax, should prolong the burn time. Or using it as an oil wick, where it constantly draws oil from the base, will prolong it as long as there is oil in the reservoir.

Half of Scotland still lives this way

I had no idea that fir candles where a thing

How does the thatch roof not catch fire from embers?

gotta get myself such lamp. Good design

My power is turned off the algorithms have sent you at perfect time

In Macedonia it whas candles (svekji) made of talow or bees wax, and fat wood (borina) and some stories mention lamps with oil, but i haven't seen it

i know a bit more about a past life now

The earliest English settlers (early 17th century) brought lamps much like that cruisean from England to America. They also had more crafted designs resembling the classic "Aladdin's lamp" (enclosed oil reservoir and shielded wick channel), and would have made rush lights from American species similar to the soft rush. Torches (like much larger fir candles, or plain wooden sticks wrapped in tow and soaked with pitch) were used as well, though mostly outdoors; the flame was too large and smokey to be welcome indoors.

Another seasonal light source that persisted with children into my own lifetime (late 20th century to present) was capturing fireflies (lightning bugs) and putting them in a glass jar. Get enough of them and the light was continuous enough to read by (if your eyes were young) for a couple hours until the flies got too exhausted. Fireflies, however, are only common in warmer climates than Scotland (or even Washington and Idaho, where I grew up; I never saw one until I moved to North Carolina).

Betty lamps were popular in the U.S. In the 1800's and still are with some.

When the ads ended I looked and realized almost a third of the video was over :(

How Highlanders lit their homes - 3 lighting methods used...

Silly Fandabi... Everyone knows "there can be only one!!!"

👍👍👍

put a fuckin sock init wanker

Very cool stuff

Loving your channel. Was really happy to find it when I was searching information on the Great Kilt. Keep up the amazing work.

WE NEVER USED ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING WHERE I CAME FROM... WE'RE NOT AFRAID OF THE DARK 😂

i gotta say this is one of my absolute fav vids on this site

In the 4 to 6 hours, how many rush piths did you go through?
Excellent video!

Mate, this is a phenomenal video! Thanks for putting this up!!

think you meant to say highlander. since there can only be one

Does anyone know about African bushcraft and fire starting methods?

Very interesting.

The australian aboriginals used wood I believe

Bees wax candles burn sweet and clean but the wax is expensive. Pre-industrial candles (for most people) were made from tallow. Tallow (rendered suet) and fish oil are both high calorie foods so there's a trade off in deciding whether to eat it or burn it.

In Australia our indigenous people ( the oldest race on earth ) never developed anything like a permanent dwelling let alone anything to illuminate it. They simply relied on a campfire.

Great video, Great channel, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge, God Bless

The term.. BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS is actually thought to be a reference to rush lamps. It's also a cool bit of trivia. I have a few differently designed antique Rush Lamps and based on my research and own experimentations you have to harvest your rush in the fall when they are at their tallest and fattest. When you gathered your rush you had to harvest enough to get you through to the following fall so it was a major endeavor. There were people who earned their keep processing the rush so if you didn't have enough money to by candles you could buy small bundles of finished wicks. Any fat will do but mutton was preferred. I've gotten as much as 45 minutes of light (beef fat) from a single stem which is my record. Of course as others have mentioned you don't need a thousand lumens to see in the dark once your eyes have acclimated. Once acclimated it's surprisingly easy to read in dim light and a few people could huddle together to sew, read or what have you. If it was too dark to thread the needle you could always " BURN THE CANDLE/RUSH AT BOTH ENDS".

Brilliant

I like to see people who can produce entertaining content on a subjects that they have an in. Well Done!

I'm of Scottish origin, yet I never knew none of these lighting methods. I just assumed Candles were used? I can imagine my ancestors huddled around their lamps on the dark winter nights.

I'm part Scottish and learned today that my fear of holding a light for my father is probably genetic. 😂

I find plenty old stuff during my work, as a Drystane dyker, and found one of these crusie lamps, a decade ago. I discovered it was a lamp, but never really got it to work.
I stumbled on your video, and have brought it inside to clean it and try again, though I may use a sweeter smelling oil than cod liver!
Well presented and clear production, thanks.
Bruce.

Awesome video!!

Thank you

Hello from Australia ❤. I came across your site, I love it! Keep up your great posts.

You almost got me. I want to know how Scottish Highlanders lit their homes, but you want to tell me the 30 second version, and then give me a quarter hour song and dance. I'll save myself for 15 minutes of content.

There's a good book, "A World Lit Only by Fire" by William Manchester which points out that, until the late 19th century, to light up the dark you had to use fire of some kind.

in my village, which is in Arcadia, Greece, they used melted pig's fat from the bigs that they were killing.

What are you wearing in the vid, and why...?
That coat looks useless, is that shoulder shawl/kilt just a convenient way to carry a blanket?
Etc...

There can only be one!

amazing, thanks for this

A fun thing I discovered with fatwood is that the kind I can buy at a store are phenomenal massive matches or that you can light them and then quite literally throw them about 15 feet and they’ll stay aflame and light a pile of tinder

Amazing thanks 👍🇺🇸🇺🇸👍

Is that where "kick it up a notch" comes from?

The kitchen photo of Josephine is just the ghost of Christmas past 😂 (or the grim reaper taking a break!) Years ago, my brother and I used to take our dad out on a chartered fishing trip just off Block island. During one of the last trips, there were three spherical lights bobbing up and down as if they were riding the waves hitting the boat. They were relatively far from the boat, and I pointed them out... my brother insisted on thinking it was another boats lights. However, they were in a triangle formation, and rocking up and down in a more severe fashion than we were as the waves raised our chartered boat.

This is lit

The last lamp you displayed, reminded me of an 'emergency' lamp that we use to use, here in the Ozark mountains. However we used a jar lid instead of a proper oil lamp, but it still works.