‘An Giblean’ is the Scottish Gaelic for the month April (pronounced ‘an giplin’)

As with the other months in the Gaelic calendar, the month of April was a period of time tied to the weather and the agricultural season rather than the fixed dates that we have in our calendar today. April is of course lambing season in the Highlands and we have lots of weather lore linked to this time. In early April we can usually expect ‘sneachd beag nan uan’ or ‘the lambing snow’ which is a small snowfall that does not last very long. The final snowfall expected in the early months of the year occurs in late April and is called ‘sneachd na cuthaig’ or ‘the cuckoo snow’. This comes at a time when we start to hear the cuckoo in Skye, which is always a welcomed sound, marking the end of the cold weather and the approaching warmer days of Summer.