Boorach (also bourach) noun a state of confusion or mess; verb to heap up, crowd together
‘“Sit ye doon, young man, and I’ll attend to this fine boorachie” … She pulled on his sleeve, making clicking noises of disapproval as she viewed the leaves and twigs in his hair.’ (The Fiery Cross)
Boorach is often used to describe an energetic stramash (meaning gathering in this case). The word has been recorded since the early eighteenth century, when it initially referred to a small house. In 1737 it appears wistfully in a collection of proverbs edited by the poet Allan Ramsay: ‘we’ll never bigg sandy bowrocks together’ (sandy bowrocks being sand enclosures built by children).
The origins of the word are appropriately somewhat tangled. Senses which relate to small houses, enclosures and heaps may derive from either Old English bur (a dwelling) or burg (a fortified enclosure). However, senses relating to guddling about have some connection with the Gaelic verb burach, to dig or root up, which itself may derive from Scots bourie meaning a burrow.
Boorach was still used to refer to a small house in Angus in the twentieth century, but the general senses relating to mess and confusion are more widespread. In Matthew Fitt’s 2000 novel But n Ben A-Go-Go, we find the following description: ‘A sham o normality hingit like a fine stoor owre the boorach o hooseless citizens but amang fowk an their faimlies, the tension wis as thick as clart’.
An account of a visit to the Cromarty Courthouse Museum that appeared in the Aberdeen Evening Express in April 2001 recorded the sense of a fight: ‘Life-sized animatronic figures - judges, solicitors and prisoners - acted out scenes from a real trial ... On trial was one Cuthbert Mackenzie, charged with drinking, dancing and creating a general boorach (a stushie!)’
Also from 2018, in a very descriptive combining form, Hansard recorded a question from Hannah Bardell to Theresa May (then Prime Minister of the UK) with reference to the Brexit deal under discussion: ‘I ask this on behalf of the many Livingston constituents who have been in touch with me, and, I am sure, many people across the United Kingdom. What the heck is going on? This is a complete and utter clusterbùrach.’