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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

STRATH, n. A river valley, esp. at its broader parts with meadows and arable land, and freq. extending for many miles on either side of the river to the feet of the surrounding hills (Sc. 1782 J. Sinclair Ob. Sc. Dial. 193, 1822 E. Burt Letters (Jamieson) I. 290). Gen.Sc. Common as the first element in place-names, e.g. Strathmore, Strathclyde, Strathearn, Strathspey, Strathconon, and specif. as The Strath, i.e. Nithsdale, in Dmf.Sc. 1710 Sheriffdom Lnk. & Rnf. (M.C.) 65:
It is a pleasant strath, plentiful in grass and corne.Sc. 1720 Chrons. Atholl and Tullibardine Families II. 308:
The house of Malcolm McGrigor in the afors'd strath.Sc. 1745 Earls Crm. (Fraser 1876) II. 306:
Such a storm of snow upon the strath of the Aird.Dmf. 1763 Caled. Mercury (17 Sept.):
The farm consists . . . of several rigs and howpes or straths, and each part may have arable ground, and pasture of the several kinds.Edb. 1773 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 176:
Nae mair, thro' Straths in Simmer dight.Ayr. 1811 W. Aiton Agric. Ayr. 425:
On the strath of the water of Irvine.Sc. 1819 Scott Leg. Montrose vii.:
The Highlanders, from different islands, glens, and straths.Arg. 1878 Trans. Highl. Soc. 35:
Its beautiful strath and sloping hillsides.Edb. 1883 Robert Louis Stevenson in Andrew Noble From the Clyde to California (1985) 205:
Thence he takes rail once more to mount the long green strath of Napa Valley.Kcb. 1901 R. Trotter Gall. Gossip 156:
Gallawa's dividit inta The Shire, The Stewartry, an The Strath; or if ye like tae pit it that wey, inta Wigtownshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, an Nithsdale.Ags. 1923 V. Jacob Songs 51:
And far abune the Angus straths I saw the wild geese flee.Inv. 1952 Scots Mag. (Aug.) 346:
When the Spey valley dream becomes a reality, the high unpeopled straths will again echo to children's laughter.Sc. 1989 Scotsman 30 Jan 10:
On January 15 the river Spey at Laggan, normally a mere 15 yards across, burst its banks and soon filled the whole of the strath to a width of more than one mile. Sc. 1991 Scotsman 18 May 16:
... rubber rafts on his silvery Tay and dune buggies skidding round the fields of the strath, but the sheep act as if it had been going on for centuries.