What is "birlinn"

n. (context Scotland historical English) a type of boat used especially in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland in the Middle Ages

The birlinn (spelt bìrlinn in Scottish Gaelic) was a wooden vessel propelled by sail and oar, used extensively in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland from the Middle Ages on. Variants of the name in English and Lowland Scots include "berlin" and "birling". The Gallo-Norse term may derive from the Norse byrðingr (ship of burden). It has been suggested that a local design lineage might also be traceable to vessels similar to the Broighter-type boat (first century BC), equipped with oars and a square sail, without the need to assume a specific Viking design influence. It is uncertain, however, whether the Broighter model represents a wooden vessel or a skin-covered boat of the currach type. The majority of scholars emphasise the Viking influence on the birlinn.

The birlinn was clinker-built and could be sailed or rowed. It had a single mast with a square sail. Smaller vessels of this type might have had as few as twelve oars, with the larger West Highland galley having as many as forty. For over four hundred years, down to the seventeenth century, the birlinn was the dominant vessel in the Hebrides.

A 1615 report to the Scottish Privy Council made a distinction between galleys, having between 18 and 20 oars, and birlinns, with between 12 and 18 oars. There was no suggestion of structural differences. The report stated that there were three men per oar.

The birlinn appears in Scottish heraldry as the " lymphad" (a corruption of long fhada (longship).

Birlinn Limited is an independent publishing house based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Established in 1992 by Managing Director Hugh Andrew, Birlinn Limited is composed of a number of imprints, including:

• Birlinn publishes Scottish interest books, from biography to history, military history and Scottish Gaelic. The name comes from the old Norse word birlinn, meaning a long boat or small galley with 12 to 18 oars, used especially in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland in the Middle Ages.
• Polygon Books publishes literary fiction and poetry, both classic and modern, from Scottish writers such as Robin Jenkins, George Mackay Brown, and the author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith. Polygon Books was originally set up by students of Edinburgh University in the late 1960s.
• Mercat Press, founded in 1970 and acquired by Birlinn in 2007, now an imprint publishing walking and climbing guides. Mercat is the Scots language word for "market" or "trade".
• Academic books about Scotland are published under the imprint John Donald.