machairn.

1692 A. Symson Large Descr. Galloway (1823) 51 These three parishes last described..are commonly call'd the Machirrs or Machirrs of Whithern, which word Machirrs, as I am informed, imports white ground; and indeed those parishes containe by far much more arable and white land than up in the moors, though the parishes there be much larger.

1796 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. XVII. 560 On this beach, the road which opens the communication between what are called the Makers and Reins of Galloway..has, of late, been completely repaired.

1824 J. Mactaggart Sc. Gallovidian Encycl. 336 Mahers, a tract of low, wet lying land, of a marshy and moory nature.

1878 Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. 34 848 Benbecula..has only one hill; and if we except the ‘Machair’, as the ‘good land’ along the west coast is called, all the rest of the island consists of low-lying moor, bog, and lake, with long shallow inlets of the sea straggling in.

1878 Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. 34 849 Adjoining the sandy shores are the delightful ‘machairs’, with their wealth of bright colour; while inland from the ‘machairs’ stretch the brown sombre peat and moorland.

1899 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Feb. 423/2 The burial-ground..occupied a little knoll in the middle of the ‘machar’, close to the sea (machar is the fine sweet pasture or links lying along the shore).

1924 Glasgow Herald 15 Mar. 4 In Highland glens or by the machirs of the Western Isles a crone..will still be consulted as if she were the Delphic sibyl.

1930 J. Buchan Castle Gay xvii. 271 The machars, yellowing with autumn, stretched for miles before him.

1955 F. F. Darling West Highland Survey 21 There is a sufficiency of shell among the sand to encourage a fairly typical machair flora.

1955 F. F. Darling West Highland Survey 51 The introduction of rabbits in the nineteenth century has gone a long way towards ruining the agricultural potential of the island, as these animals have created several small deserts on the machair.

1958 Irish Times 7 June The term ‘machaire’ is used by English-speakers here to denote ‘coastal strips of pasture land’.

1973 Stornoway Gaz. 3 Mar. 6/2 We are appealing to any reader (rugby enthusiast or not) who might be able to suggest (or lend) any reasonably flat area of ground—a stretch of machair or croftland—within, say, five miles of Stornoway.

1990 New Scientist 21 July 57/1 The first part of the book deals with the ecosystem of the Hebrides, and gives a concise account of the geology, climate, soils, seashore, dunes and machair.