Whins had myriad uses in a bygone era

Two things spring to mind when I think of whins. There is the old saying: when gorse is out of blossom, kissing's out of fashion. And the other thing is that whins were brought to Ireland by Oliver Cromwell as feed for his horses. 

Are either of these two suggestions true? I like the old saying so let’s say that one is true and while we are at it, let’s blame Cromwell for one more unpleasant thing.

Are whins unpleasant, I hear you say. Well, they have many traits and some of them are not great. Despite their splash of countryside colour, they are very invasive and they could well have formed the original Crown of Thorns. Whatever their origins they now form an accustomed backdrop to most Ox Mountain scenes.

Foreign invader 

Wildflowers of Ireland have the following information about whins, which points towards Cromwell, or someone like him. 

The common furze, gorse or whin, so familiar in the Irish landscape, is not, in fact, native, having been introduced from continental Europe.

Officially, Ulex is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs. The species are native to parts of western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia.

While common gorse does flower in late autumn and through the winter, it comes into flower most strongly in spring. Between the different species, some gorse is nearly always in flower, hence the old country saying. Gorse flowers have a distinctive coconut-like scent, experienced very strongly by some individuals but hardly at all by others.

Whin, Gorse or Furze 

So, which name is correct, whin, gorse or furze? Where I live in south Sligo, we call them ‘whins’. When large tracts of them catch fire during the tourist season, they are called ‘gorse’ by news correspondents. Niall O’Carroll, from Ballinrobe, in a letter to The Irish Times in 2013 provided the following information which seems to answer the question pretty well.

A.T. Lucas in his comprehensive book 'Furze, A Survey and History of its Uses in Ireland' (1960) writes, "There are two general English names current in the country. A line drawn from east to west across the country from the neighbourhood of Drogheda to that of Westport approximately divides the territories where these names are in use. To the north of that line, the name used is 'whins', to the south of it, 'furze'. The common English name 'gorse' is not used in Ireland except by those who have become familiar with it in England or from books.

Animal feed 

If you ask any well-educated goat, she will tell you that animals cannot live on grass alone. Leaves and spines, while hard to digest, often contain much more nutrition than grass. Another piece in The Irish Times, from September 2000 (author unknown), also refers to the authority of A.T. Lucas.

Furze, writes Lucas, although regarded as little better than a troublesome weed, formerly played a considerable role in the rural economy of large areas of Ireland, first as a hedging plant, much as we now use hawthorn.

The owners of Goleen Harbour Farm in Cork wrote recently about their interest in feeding gorse to their horses and ponies. Under the clever heading, Horses for Gorses, they explained how they use the spiney shrub as feed.

Gorse or Furze is a highly nutritious, protein-filled plant that was commonly fed to horses in winter here in West Cork and all over Ireland. It was harvested and chopped with a Furze machine; you occasionally see them around still painted up as ornaments, I have one myself. Our horses and ponies are tucking into the gorse at the moment and I’m delighted to see it as I know it is nutritious.

Their piece makes reference to the work of John Feehan, who worked at University College Dublin’s faculty of agriculture. Feehan recorded instances of furze being planted as a fodder crop in Wexford in the late 1830s and in Cork and Waterford back as far as the 1680s. Feehan also states that furze was such an important crop it was specifically registered in legal documents in the 15th and 16th centuries as an asset on farms. Writing in his book, Farming in Ireland, he noted that apart from providing wood for fires, fencing and being used for medicinal purposes, it was primarily used as fodder for animals.

In earlier times, the young shoots of furze were highly valued for the winter feeding of animals – it is after all in the same plant family as peas, beans, lucerne and clovers – especially in more marginal areas where fodder was scarce but furze grew prolifically. It was especially valued in feeding horses, though cattle throve on it also, either fed on its own or as part of a mixed diet.

Health benefits 

The following contribution from Co Kerry to the National Folklore Collection (1938) implies that the people of old had many uses for the whin in all its various forms. 

Get a few handfuls of the yellow blossoms of the furze and boil them in water. Give the water as a dose to the horse and this will cure worms.

People once used gorse flowers to make hot drinks and the leaf buds were also used as a substitute for tea. The flower buds can be pickled in vinegar and added to salads for a tangy taste. In Irish folk medicine, it was widely used to treat coughs, colds, sore throats, tuberculosis, asthma, heartburn, hiccups, jaundice, heart problems, dermatitis, ringworm, swellings, and as a general tonic. 

Speaking of a tonic, it is also possible to make a very refreshing country wine from the yellow petals. Neantóg Farm in Sligo has a simple gorse flower wine recipe at www.neantog.com. I will be trying it out this summer and will report on its success… or failure.

Gorse is included in the Bach Flower Remedy range and is reputed to “encourage the positive potential to regain the willpower to fight on, regaining faith and hope". 

"In times when you need to find the sunshine at the end of a dark period, don't give up hope. Feel brighter despite current physical, emotional, or other worldly problems.” 

How we could all do with a bit of that!

Vin de Whin 

For me it is the colour of the whin bush in the landscape, highlighting field boundaries and distant outcrops. It is the pop of their crisp seed pods on a hot summer’s day, but most of all, it is their magnificent aroma. The exotic scent of whin petals is so special, so unique.

As summer approaches, take a hike in the country and gather some whin petals for your wine recipe. On a cold evening next winter, as you enjoy a pheasant supper, pop open a bottle of Vin de Whin and remember warm summer days with pleasure. The whin is not such an unpleasant fellow after all.