Caoran is Gaelic for wee peat
OUT OF STOCK – please contact me if interested to purchase
What is ‘caoran’?
Caoran are felted soaps, handmade in my studio on the island of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides.
Use your caoran to gently cleanse, nourish and exfoliate your skin.
Caoran is inspired by the working landscapes, mountains, lochs and weather of the lesser-known east side of Uist. A place of wild moor, moss, stone, peat banks, birds and hills. A place I love to walk and fly fish , with my dog, Sprout.
‘Caoran’ are a 100% Scottish product, inspired by island life. You are also supporting a creative solution towards a more sustainable way of living.
Ingredients for caoran.
Soap: a large handmade, cold-processed soap made specially for me by the Hebridean Soap Company enriched with skin-nourishing coconut oil and RSPO certified sustainable Palm oil. This soap contains locally harvested wild thyme and has a fresh, zesty fragrance created using essential oils of rosemary, lemon balm and thyme.
Fleece: The hardy, small black Hebridean sheep plus Scottish blackface and cheviot fleece from sheep raised by island crofters. All fleece is washed and carded at my home or with help from uist wool. ‘Yarn over’ (yarn waste) from Hebridean spinners and weavers, provides a touch of colour.
Note to self: Most other felted soap is made using merino from NZ and Australia sheep. It felts much faster, but travels a long way and there are welfare issues relating to ‘mulesing’, which is the deliberate removal of the skin around the sheep’s tail area.
Why is caoran special?
Caoran is a handmade 100% Scottish product from the Highlands and Islands. Felting is a traditional skilled craft practice and takes time, as does the hand-processing of the raw materials for both the handmade soap and the fleece outer pod.
Each caoran is unique due to natural variations in the making.
Three colours are available, ‘rueval’, ‘eaval’ and ‘hecla’, named after my favourite Uist hills and mountains.
Rueval (or Ruebhal and pronounced Rooval) : the suffix val, is from fjall in old Norse meaning mountain or hill and Ru from the Gaelic for red. This is the baby hill of Benbecula at 120m high but worth a climb to see the lacework of watery lochs which invade the land .
Eaval (Eabhal and pronounced Eeval) : probably from ey fjall, island fell, because it is surrounded by Loch Obsidary and the Minch and lies in a moor studded with lochs. it is 347m high and has always dominated the view from my house.
Hecla (Thacla or Hekla): from the Gaelic borrowing of Norse, meaning ‘serrated or comb-like’ in Norse and refers to the sharp, jagged outline. Hecla is 606m high, feels much higher and grander sitting shoulder to shoulder with Beinn Mor and Corodale and where I saw my first snow bunting, while Sprout and I were being stalked by a sea eagle!
Why ‘caoran’?
Living on Uist I’ve learned many new skills. Small-scale peat cutting for home use is still a vital part of the landscape of the Hebrides. Peat is cut, often by hand using a peat iron or ‘tairsgear’ from May onwards, to make the most of the summer for drying. The peat is cut in brick shapes and thrown out to dry, then after 2-3 weeks stacked in small cairns, before being inverted and restacked so the bottom edge will dry. Once all the peat is dry, it is carried home and stacked by the house. The peat stack is an art form, constructed to be wind resistant with the larger ‘fàd’ on the outside and the smaller peat, ‘caoran’ inside.
A peat bank is usually 2-3 peats deep and the lower layer, closest to the bedrock is often the smallest peat, which later becomes the most fragile and is referred to as ‘Caoran’.
The east side of Uist is full of intrigue. Wild plants of the moor, like Bog Asphodel, and Cotton Grass are found there among rusty iron-coloured peaty pools of water and midnight blue lochs. Rare divers nest ‘out east’ and the coast is mainly cliffy, backed by the mountain home of the mighty eagles.
How do I care for my caoran?
Pat your caoran dry with a towel, hang up to dry or place on draining dish.
With its felted cover, your caoran will last for ages and stays clean and fresh thanks to the natural anti-bacterial qualities of wool.
I re-cycle my caoran?
Yes! You can turn the woolly case into your own pod or vessel following the instructions on my Facebook page ‘Rebecca Cotton Felt’, find the album ‘molagan and memories: recycle and reuse’ for inspiration. Please post your creations on instagram, hashtag #rebeccacottonfelt. Wool is also biodegradable so it is a ‘good waste’.