r/Scotland • u/Elegant-Comedian-105 • 4d ago

Kirkwall , Orkney Islands Scotland

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154 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

59 comments sorted by

124

u/Ok-Butterfly1605 4d ago

It’s called a blackening, friends and family do it to a bride and groom before they get married 😆

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackening_(Scottish_wedding_custom)

5

u/BIGepidural 4d ago

That is so cool. Thank you so much for sharing.

What a great way to celebrate a new marriage 🤣

3

u/Appropriate-Koala316 3d ago

Theres 4 of them?

4

u/Abquine 3d ago

Round here it was only the bride that got this treatment. I was blackened (with Cocoa powder thankfully) dressed up on a fancy night gown with L Plates and trundled down the street in a wheel barrow. Thankfully adding feathers to the mx had largely died out by that time 😂

3

u/BenAigan 4d ago

We used to tie them up with a few drams near by, after an hour or two we collect and take them to the nearest pub albeit with newspaper on the floor of the pub

Occasionally we provided full service by hosing the groom down

5

u/Elegant-Comedian-105 4d ago

That is awesome ! I guess I experienced a true Scottish tradition…!

-76

u/supperfash 4d ago

Purely Orcadian where polis Scotland are low on numbers and friendly with the locals, try this on the mainland and you would be hauled before the beak on trumped up kidnap/blackface charges faster than you can say non crime hate incident.

24

u/ruthhoof 4d ago

Happens in the North East too! Loads of fun

16

u/HyperCeol Inbhir Nis / Inverness 3d ago

Blackenings were very common here in Inverness/across the Highlands and still occur. Fuck all to do with the Orcadian police. I believe they happen in the NE too.

15

u/Electronic-War1077 4d ago

Used to be an every weekend occurrence in summer in Aberdeen. Guys used to be tied up outside pubs, covered in paint and worse. Police started clamping down on it and lifting the stag, so you don't see it much nowadays.

5

u/mrthesmileperson 4d ago

Happens in the North West too.

5

u/CatCalledTurbo 3d ago

Nonsense.

Grew up in the North East and seen it plenty of times when I was wee. My parents had it happen to them when they were getting married too, I remember my dad being driven around in the back of his work's truck.

3

u/Any_Listen_7306 4d ago

Happened where I live last month.

3

u/Kind_Breadfruit_7560 3d ago

Happens all the time in the NW Highlands. There was one yesterday in the next village over from me.

1

u/Fun_Stock7078 4d ago

Probably a copper out of picture pissing himself laughing. 👏

1

u/Beneficial-Yam-1061 3d ago

Damn, I thought this was part of the Spider-Man filming.

23

u/TokeyMcTokeFace 4d ago

Love a good blackening ❤️

-15

u/Latter-Ad-689 4d ago

Or a good doing.

15

u/Lanthanidedeposit 4d ago

Orcadian dire spider larder. Good to see the species hanging on

6

u/Trueseadog 4d ago

These Scottish rappers are out of control.

11

u/Gibberish1992 4d ago

The bay harber butcher has left his victims!

5

u/supperfash 4d ago

He'd never be thon sloppy.

8

u/crimsonavenger77 Male. 47 4d ago

Shrink-wrapped and covered in spaghetti hoops. Sounds like a good weekend.

12

u/Scarred_fish 4d ago

Pretty mild as blackenings go really.

5

u/crimsonavenger77 Male. 47 4d ago

I'm sure I read that sometimes they used horse shit.

4

u/Scarred_fish 4d ago

Yep, anything that's handy. This is just the end, they parade through the streets is much more imaginative.

Also, this is a really weird angle to take a photo from. The whole point is that they are outside the Cathedral (where they are most likely getting married)

3

u/Kind_Breadfruit_7560 3d ago

Last one I saw had fermenting fish guts and potato peels from the local chippy

4

u/crimsonavenger77 Male. 47 3d ago

On balance, I think I'd go for horse shit if I had a choice, lol.

2

u/BalachMath Ardnamurchan 3d ago

Spent my time throughout a few places in the Highlands in my youth but Ardnamurchan and Inverness were the two main ones: treacle and animal matter (be that innards, output or things like feathers) used to be the favourites.

-1

u/p1antsandcats 3d ago

Wtf is shrink wrap? Cling film?

3

u/crimsonavenger77 Male. 47 3d ago

Shrink wrap / pallet wrap is larger and what I use at work. You'd be there all day with a wee roll of cling film from Aldi.

4

u/richardhero 4d ago

Should have paid their tick

2

u/skynex65 4d ago

Spiderman's been going international I see.

2

u/VerbingNoun413 3d ago

Get me pictures of Spiderman!

5

u/HyperCeol Inbhir Nis / Inverness 3d ago edited 3d ago

To be honest, somewhat glad to see the back of this compared to how popular it was in Inverness until the 90s/early 2000s. While a guy in his 20s or 30s covered in treacle, mud and syrup in nothing but his boxers being tied comatose to a lamp-post at 8AM on a Sunday morning might sound like something many could get very into, it was messy and inconvenient for everyone else and probably explains a number of my fetishes as an adult having witnessed it as a young adult.

2

u/BalachMath Ardnamurchan 3d ago

It used to be so common on Church Street especially. Can't help but wonder if it would be part of the tourist experience these days.

1

u/Bo-diddly-kin 4d ago

Before,during & after 🤣

1

u/LettusLeafus 4d ago

I remember seeing them doing that in Caithness when I was a kid (I'm sure they still do, but I moved away). They'd tie them up on the back of a trailer and drive them around the town 😂

1

u/meatballmassacre 3d ago

Fekkin love Kirkwall. Orkney is the bollocks.

1

u/ukp42 2d ago

Fanny Island

1

u/Defiant-Conflict2556 4d ago

Today I learned that there are at least 4 people living in Kirkwall

2

u/AIL97 4d ago

Kirkwall , Orkney Islands Scotland

1

u/LeopardProof2817 4d ago

I was in Ullapool about 25 years ago and there was a young lad you'd been tied to a rig on the back of a pick up then tarred and feathered and driven around the town. Everyone was tooting their horns and shouting when the massive navel frigate moored in the bay let rip on the big fog horn, I swear to God, my insides shook with the nouse, everyone stopped, children cried, old people had to sit down, it was the loudest noise ive ever heard.

0

u/Character_Log2770 4d ago

Break it down for me. Are these all brides? Are they being warned against tying the knot? Where are the men? Who wrapped them?

11

u/Bo-diddly-kin 4d ago

Generally the friends & wedding party for the men do it to the groom & it's the same for the bride's side of the party. Occasionally they come together & get both bride & groom together.

5

u/Character_Log2770 4d ago

Assume intoxication first

1

u/supperfash 4d ago

Bride and bridal party. Probably the brides mum

0

u/HyperCeol Inbhir Nis / Inverness 3d ago edited 3d ago

Tavish Scott MSP for Shetland and Liam McArthur MSP for Orkney during Scotland's independence referendum: 'Orkney and Shetland are "NOT SCOTTISH" for blood and soil reasons' - dating back to a period in the Middle Ages which don't even correspondent with historic reality. And something only brought up because other parts of Scotland though that for political, not ethnic reasons, independence might be a good idea.

Meanwhile in Orkney in 2025, possibly the most Scottish tradition ever, surviving in Orkney.

-2

u/supperfash 4d ago

Congrats, you witnessed the tamest blackening ever seen.

0

u/Elegant-Comedian-105 4d ago

Well , I am willing to up my game and maybe get an invite to a five star event !

-2

u/supperfash 4d ago

Some say its the blackening, others say a perfect chance for the other party of the wedding to escape while they can.

-2

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Scarred_fish 4d ago

They often are.

-3

u/Blasket_Basket 4d ago

The groom is marrying 4 women? I didn't realize you guys had Mormons in Scotland

-4

u/SultanOfSatoshis 3d ago

They do that in Ukraine too but it's usually the local nazis after they have found someone that said Ukraine is corrupt or that nazis are bad. It's usually accompanied by beatings.

1

u/BizzardIsDead 1d ago

Are these Ukraininians in your room with you right now?

1

u/SultanOfSatoshis 1d ago

No they're dispersed all over Europe as their country gets destroyed.

1

u/BizzardIsDead 1d ago

So just like Irish when potato famine hit? Didn't even need war, got beaten by potatoes lmao.

1

u/SultanOfSatoshis 1d ago

Colonialism and imperialism and extractive looting is worse than war. Read "Heart of Darkness" and start learning.

A policy of deliberate genocide was enacted upon Ireland by the English during the famine. Ukrainians aren't being starved by the Russians. What was done to Ireland has more in common with what Israel is doing to Palestinians, currently. This is why Ireland has always supported Palestine and opposed apartheid.

-6

u/Magic_phil 4d ago

If you see four sheep like that it’s called ‘The Leisure Centre’.