- blast or squall of wind. This vivid simile by Sir Walter Scott in The Antiquary (1816) really shows what the untranslatable word skirling means. It is the noise people make in great distress or anger and it is the sound of the bagpipes, but if you really want to get to grips with it, you need to go bird-watching in winter: Skirling like an auld skart [cormorant] before a flaw o’ weather.