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Some background facts and words which some readers may not be familiar with:
kyle: a narrow strait of water (usu. in West of Scotland)
crofter: someone who farms a croft, a small subsistence farm (usu. in West of Scotland)
Mackerel Dandy: a fishing implement
gaff: a hook, used when landing fish
lecher: someone lustful
vibrato: a throbbing singing voice
The town of Assisi in Italy was the home of St Francis, founder of the Franciscan order of mendicant (begging) monks. Before they were devastated by an earthquake in 1998, the churches of Assisi were famous for the religious frescoes (wall paintings) by the great 13th-14th century artist Giotto.
"The grain of the Word" is an image taken from Jesus' parable in Luke 8; "the ruined temple" from John 2: 18-22.
Grazie: Italian for "thank you".
roof-tree: the central support of a house or barn
Debatable Lands: an old name for the much-contested border territory between Scotland and England
lazybed: a kind of plot for growing vegetables
Joseph-coated: multi-coloured (from the Bible story of Joseph in Genesis 37)
Assynt: a mountainous area in the north-west of Scotland
the Minch: the strip of sea separating the Inner and Outer Hebrides
laroch: (Gaelic) the site or remains of a building
Indian file: single file
stickleback: small, spiky and aggressive fish
Samurai: medieval Japanese knight
The title suggests Kipling's description of a dead woman as "a rag, a bone and a hank of hair".
amoeba: a single-celled organism with a constantly changing shape
In the Middle Ages, toads were believed to carry a jewel (the carbuncle) in their heads.