Latest Folklore

Pembrokeshire – in common with several other districts in Great Britain and Ireland – possesses a good phantom coach legend, localised in the southern part of the county, at a place where four roads meet, called Sampson Cross.

In old days, the belated farmer, driving home in his gig from market, was apt to cast a nervous glance over his shoulder as his pony slowly climbed the last steep pitch leading up to the Cross. For he remembered the story connected with that dark bit of road, that told how every night a certain Lady Z. (who lived in the seventeenth century, and whose monument is in the church close by) drives over from Tenby, ten miles distant, in a coach drawn by headless horses, guided by a headless coachman. She also has no head; and arriving by midnight at Sampson Cross, the whole equipage is said to disappear in a flame of fire, with a loud noise of explosion.

A clergyman living in the immediate neighbourhood, who told me the story, said that some people believed the ghostly traveller had been safely “laid” many years ago, in the waters of a lake not far distant. He added, however that might be, it was an odd fact that his sedate and elderly cob, when driven past the Cross after nightfall, would invariably start as if frightened there, a thing which never happened by daylight.

I think all that universal headlessness happening every night is a mite ostentatious. But you can’t be too careful at prehistoric stones especially at liminal places like crossroads. So be careful.
From ‘Stranger than fiction, being tales from the byways of ghosts and folk-lore’ by Mary Lewes, 1911 (p.24).

There is one institution connected with Dartmoor that must not be passed over – Bellever Day. When hare-hunting is over in the low country, then, some week or two after Easter, the packs that surround Dartmoor assemble on it, and a week is given up to hare-hunting. On the last day, Friday, there is a grand gathering on Bellever Tor.

All the towns and villages neighbouring on Dartmoor send out carriages, traps, carts, riders; the roads are full of men and women, ay, and children hurrying to Bellever.

Little girls with their baskets stuffed with saffron cake for lunch desert school and trudge to the tor. Ladies go out with champagne luncheons ready. Whether a hare be found and coursed that day matters little. It is given up to merriment in the fresh air and sparkling sun.

And the roads that lead from Bellever in the afternon are careered over by riders, whose horses are so exhilerated that they race, and the riders have a difficulty in keeping their seats. Their faces are red, not those of the horses, but their riders – from the sun and air – and they are so averse to leave the moor, that they sometimes desert their saddles to roll on the soft and springy turf.

‘A Book of the West’ by Sabine Baring-Gould (1899).

... Craigshowe cave was at length reached. Some recent visitors assured us that the cave had no end, and that they had been told that it took a turn and came out at Loch Lundy on the other side of the hill.

Going in as far as we could without stooping, the rock dipped downward, and there seemed nothing but black darkness beyond; and over us came a creepy feeling lest we should be disturbing some sleeping goblin or fairy within its depths. However, doubling ourselves until our heads and knees almost met, a few yards’ crawling enabled us to pass the turn and stand once more, while behind us was the light trying to pierce the gloom. A matchbox proved a handy companion, but, do what we could, the matches would not burn, but flickered and died out almost immediately, and even the attempts to obtain light by igniting the matchbox failed, so damp was the atmosphere. We managed, however, to see that we were at the end of the cave, and that the water was trickling very slowly from the rocky ceiling.

Returning to the beach, we inspected the well at the mouth of the cave, into which the water is said to fall at the rate of one drop a minute. This well is also stated to possess virtues which are said to have been proved by visitors who suffer from deafness, and instances are given where the observance of the rites have resulted in an absolute relief to the victims of this most trying complaint. One must visit the well at midnight; and, having secured a mussel shell, hold it to the drop until it has been filled, thereafter pouring it into the ear, and – well, faith does the rest.

A few paces from the cave there stands the Wishing Tree, a very flourishing and luxuriant rose tree bristling with thorns. Each visitor to this shrine of hope and fear, if desirous of obtaining some good or ill omen, ties a rag upon one of its branches, and the wish is said to be thereupon granted. It is indeed a curious sight to see the many coloured ribbons fluttering in the breeze, some of them having maybe stood the storm and sunshine more bravely than has done the faint heart that fluttered like a frightened bird as the trembling hands tied firmly to the thorny tree the little bit of gay ribbon that a minute before may have adorned the hair of a fair vision, and who may have come there to charm away the evil spirits, because -’My fause lover pa’d the rose; And, ah, he’s left the thorn wi’ me.‘

Then, if it is felt that the tree has not yielded the desired fruit, there remaineth the wishing well, just behind, in a recess of the rock, into which one must drop a penny in order to tempt the fairies to give the donors what they sigh for. Someone must reap the benefit of this simple faith, as the clear depths of the well did not show that even the latest copper had been allowed to rust in fairyland.

Then beside the well there is a large stone, on which are distinctly marked red spots, which are said to be the indelible traces of the blood of a child that was cruelly murdered by its mother.

From ‘Highland Superstitions (From a Correspondent)’ in the Aberdeen Press and Journal, 12th September 1895.

Built into the wall surrounding St Peter’s Church in Onchan is a stone pillar which is known locally as the “whipping post”. However, its origin is more likely to be that it is the sole survivor of a semi-circle of similar stones associated with a pre-historic burial site.

This loch, situated between the River Spey and the foothills of the Cairngorms, has an eerie reputation. It is said to harbour a water-horse, which, in defiance of the “each uisge” tradition, is black in colour. This animal is believed to inhabit a sunken “crannog” or prehistoric loch-dwelling, the site of which at the bottom of the loch can be seen on calm days deep down through the clear water.

According to local tradition, the black horse appeared one day many years ago to the young heir to the Barony Of Kincardine as he played with other children at the side of the loch – as a coal-black steed decked out with a silver saddle, silver bridle and silver reins. The boys grasped the reins, which galloped off with them to the loch, and only the young heir remained lived to tell of the encounter, as he alone had had the presence of mind to free his fingers from the reins with a knife.

R MacDonald Robertson – Highland Folktales

A local chieftain fell in low with a beautiful but low-born maiden. His mother. opposing the match, caused the girl to be transformed by magic into a swan, which the chief, when out hunting, shot (by arrow) and killed. He was horror-struck to see the swan at the moment of its death resume the form of his beloved. Overcome with grief, he fell on his own sword, and the lovers are said to still lie together beneath the ruined walls of Dun Ghallian.

Exploring Sunart, Arnamurchan, Moidart and Morar

Two neighbouring chambered cairns on Whiting Bay on Arran are known as the Giants’ Graves (although some sources record only one Giant’s Grave). It is possible that the giant or giants concerned have something to do with the following tradition.

The Name of this Isle is by some derived from Arran, which in the Irish language signifies Bread: Others think it comes more probably from Arjn or Arfyn, which in their language is as much, as the Place of the Giant fin-Ma-Cowls Slaughter or Execution...the received Tradition of the great Giant Fin-Ma-Cowls Military Valour, which he exercised upon the Ancient Natives here, seems to favour this Conjecture; this they say is evident from the many Stones set up in diverse Places of the Isle, as Monuments upon the Graces of Persons of Note that were killed in Battle.

Martin Martin 1695

A small conical hill at Kildalloig had a circle around the top, most likely the remains of a dun, once upon a time the lair of a huge serpent that devoured sheep and cattle in large quantities.

At last the deliverer arose. A man engaged to fight the serpent on condition that a barn which stood were the ship-building yard now is, should be placed at his disposal.

The barn was at once given to him. Causing a quantity of hay to be placed in it, he rode off to do battle with the serpent. On arriving at the mound he found the serpent asleep. Riding up to it, he dealt it a tremendous blow with his sword.

Although terribly wounded the beast followed hard after him. On coming to the shore, he plunged his horse into the sea and swam across the loch. By the time he reached the other side the beast was close in his heels. Riding into the barn by one door, he rapidly rode out the other, shutting it immediately behind him. Round he rode to the one which the dragon had entered by, and had the satisfaction of seeing the serpents’s tail disappearing into the barn, and they had the monster fast. They then set fire to the barn, and burned the dragon to death.

Lord Archibald Campbell 1895

In the Moor on the East-side Druin-cruey there is a circle f stones, the Area is about thirty Paces; there is a Stone of same shape and kind about forty Paces to the West of the Circle, the Natives say that this Circle was made by the giant Fin-Mac-Cowl, and that to the single Stone Bran-Fin-Mac-Cowls Hunting dog was usually tied......There is a circle of Big-stones to the South of Druin Cruey, the Area of which about is twelve Paces; there is a broad thin Stone in the middle of this Circle, supported by three lesser Stones, the Ancient inhabitants are reported to have burnt their Sacrifices on the broad Stone, in the time of Heathenism.

Martin Martin 1695

The cairn covered the remains of a great hero. He was wont to wear a belt of gold, which, being charmed, protected him on the field of battle. One day, however, as he rode a-hunting accompanied by his sister, the maid, coveting the golden talisman, prevailed upon him to lend it to her. While thus unprotected he was killed – whether by enemies or mischance the attenuated tradition does not clearly indicate; and this cairn marked the warrior’s grave

James King Hewison 1893

At a little distance westward from Largo, in the middle of a park on the north side of the road, is the celebrated curiosity called ‘The Standing Stanes O’ Lundie.‘ Three tall straight sharp stones, resembling whales jaws more than any thing else, rear themselves at the distance of a few yards from each other, and, though several yards high, are supposed to pierce the ground to same depth. According to the common people, they are monuments to the memory of three Danish generals slain here in battle; but it is more probable they are of Roman origin, it being the site of a Roman town.

Robert Chambers, 1827

Near Murthly, north of Perth, there is a standing stone of which the tradition is that a man brave enough to move it would find a chest with a black dog sitting on it, guarding it. it is said that the schoolmaster’s sons once shifted the stone with gunpowder but were terrified by the dog so put the stone back again. Katherine Briggs gives this

‘on the authority of the Rev. Routledge Bell, who had it from one of his parishioners.‘

The stone to which the tradition refers is probably Murthly Castle Standing Stone, Little Dunkeld. It is unusual to find a dog among supernatural treasure-guardians which are far more often birds, including eagles, and black cocks or hens, although the fairytale The Tinderbox features three guardian dogs, each progressively larger until the third has

‘eyes as big as mill-wheels‘

The colour black is generally the sign of a diabolic presence, but in England phantom Black Dogs could sometimes perform a protective function to travellers on lonely roads.

The Lore Of Scotland – A Guide To Scottish Legends

Westwood & Kingshill

Near Newburgh once stood Macduff’s Cross, a ‘rude upright stone’. The common legend, recorded by Robert Chambers in 1827, was that Malcolm Canmore endowed Macduff, Thane Of Fife, with three privileges, in recognition of his help in deposing Macbeth. First, he and his heirs should have the honour of placing the crown on the king’s head at any coronation; secondly, whenever the royal standard was displayed in battle they should lead the vanguard of the army;

‘and, lastly, that any person related to him within the ninth degree of kindred, having committed homicide without premeditation, should, upon flying to this obelisk and paying a certain fine, obtain remission of his crime’.

The cross was said to retain its sacred character almost until the Reformation, when it was demolished as a relic of popery; anyone who is interested, says Chambers,

‘may still see the block of stone in which it was fixed, together with many tumuli, or mounds, said to contain the bodies of such refugees as, having failed to prove their consanguinity to Macduff, were sacrificed on the spot by their enraged pursuers’.

The block or pedestal can still be seen, in the field between the roads leading to Easter Lumbennie and Auchternuchty.

The privilege was invoked successfully at least once, if we believe the horror story of John Melville’s death at Glenbervie, Aberdeenshire, when the laird of Arbuthnott claimed immunity on this account.

Robert Chambers

The sun was setting on a fine summer’s evening and the peasantry were returning from labour, when, on the side of a green hill, appeared a procession of thousands of apparently little boys, habited in mantles of green, freckled with light. One, taller than the rest, ran before them, and seemed to enter the hill, and again appeared at its summit. This was repeated three times, and all vanished. The peasantry, who beheld it, called, ‘The Fareweel o’ the Fairies to the Burrow Hill’.

Remains Of Nithsdale and Galloway Song (1810) by R. H. Cromek

This prehistoric monument sits below the village of Llanglydwen in Carmarthenshire. Situated on an ancient path in a secluded forest, its huge capstone points towards the nearby river Taf, which you can hear flowing below the trees.

An old Welsh tale set during the days of King Arthur tells of Ceridwen and Taleisin. Welsh poetry refers to the goddess of transformation, rebirth and inspiration – Ceridwen – as possessing the cauldron of “poetic inspiration”, called Awen.

This legendary story tells that Ceridwen set to brew in her magical cauldron, a mixture that would grant the gift of wisdom and poetic inspiration, Awen, for her son Morfran. The mixture was to be boiled for a year and a day. One day when the brew was almost finished, her young servant Gwion Bach was stirring the concoction and three drops of the liquid splashed onto his thumb. He instinctively put his thumb to his mouth and gained the wisdom and knowledge that Ceridwen had intended for her son. In his fear of Ceridwens anger, Gwion fled.. with Ceridwen chasing after him.

We have a video covering the folklore and history of this site and the name on our Youtube..

youtu.be/OZBEWy9Zum4?si=1Xl4tWr8hhV0E_qd

Speaking of Coylton, on the Water Of Coyle, the Statistical Account Of Scotland (1798) says;

‘There is a tradition, though it is believed, very ill-founded’, that the village derives its name from a King Coilus who was killed in battle in the neighbourhood and buried in the church here. Fergus Loch, to the west of the church, ‘is supposed by some to take its name from King Fergus, who defeated Coel King Of The Britons in the adjacent field’.

According to others, however, the battle was fought in the parish of Tarbolton, and they pointed to the slabs of stone covering a burial mound known as King Coil’s Tomb in the grounds of Coilsfield House. The tomb is probably the cairn marked near Coilsfield Mains on modern maps.

The site was investigated in May 1837 by the minister of the parish, the Reverend David Ritchie, whose report went into the New Statistical Account 1845. The excavations unearthed a circular flagstone covering another, smaller stone which itself covered the mouth of an urn filled with white coloured burned bones. Other urns were found nearby, and though no coins, armour or other implements were discovered, Ritchie notes:

An old man remembers that his father, then a tenant on the Coilsfield estate, turned up pieces of ancient armour and fragments of bone when ploughing the ‘Dead-Men’s-Holm.‘

Reverend David Ritchie 1845

A poor man from Jedburgh was on his way to one of the sheep markets held at Hawick at the end of every year to sell off sheep for slaughter. As he was passing over the side of ‘Rubislaw’ nearest the Teviot he was suddenly alarmed by a frightful and unaccountable noise which seemed to come from a multitude of female voices. He could see nothing of the speakers but heard the howling and wailing mingled with shouts of mirth and merriment, and he made out the words,

‘O there’s a bairn born, there’s naething to pit on’t.‘

The outcry was evidently occasioned by the birth of a fairy child, at which most of the fairy women rejoiced, while a few lamented the lack of anything to wrap the baby in.

Much astonished at finding himself in the midst of invisible beings in a wild moorland place, far from help should help be needed, the poor man, hearing the lament over and over again, stripped off his plaid and threw it on the ground. No sooner had he done so, than it was snatched up by an invisible hand, and the lamentations ceased, but the sounds of joy redoubled.

Guessing that he had pleased the invisible beings, the poor man lost no time in continuing on his way to Hawick market. There he bought a sheep which proved a remarkably bargain, and returned to Jedburgh. He never had cause to regret the loss of his plaid, for every day after that his wealth multiplied and he died a rich and prosperous man.

Folk-Lore And Legends: Scotland (1889)

A special type of stone circle known as ‘recumbent’ is to be found in this part of the country (aka Aberdeenshire), distinguished by a massive block lying flat and flanked by two upright stones. A good example is found here, near Banchory-Devenick. It is said that a local man removed one of the stones to serve as a hearthstone, but was afterwards so disturbed by strange noises that he put it back where he found it. Similar stories are told of many stone circles, but a more unusual tale concerning Aquhorthies is given in an 1813 agricultural survey:

Close to the principle druidical circle there are two parks of extraordinary fertility, although much incumbered with large masses of stone interspersed through them. The ground of these parks has been long remarked for its productiveness; that in the time of the Picts, soil had been brought to these parks, all the way from Findon, a distance of two miles; and that this was done by ranging a line of men along the whole distance, who handed the earth from one to another

It was remarked in 1985 that the fields around the Aquhorthie circle still have some of the best soil in the area.

The Lore Of Scotland – A Guide To Scottish Legends

Westwood & Kingshill

The large Iron Age ring fort of Green Castle, otherwise known as Queen’s Castle or Finella’s Castle, is said to have been the site of an early medieval fortress, seat of the maomor or ‘great officer’ of the Mearns. Here, it was said, Kenneth III was assassinated towards the end of the tenth century. The antiquarian Robert Chambers, writing in 1827, gives an account of the murder drawn from the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century chronicles:

Having excited the implacable hatred of a powerful lady, named Fenella, by killing her son in a rebellion, she put on a courteous face, and invited him to her castle, where she had prepared a singular engine, for the purpose of putting him to death. Under pretence of amusing him with the architectural elegance of her mansion, she conducted him to the upper apartment of a tall tower, where, in the midst of splendid drapery and curious sculptures, she had planted a statue of brass, holding a golden apple. This apple, she told him, was designed as a present for his majesty, and she courteously invited him to take it from the hand of the image. No sooner had the king done this, then some machinery was set in motion, which, acting upon an ambuscade of crossbows behind the arras, caused a number of arrows to traverse the apartment, by one of which killed the king.

Fenella left the castle before the murder was discovered by the king’s attendants, who broke down the door and found their master weltering in his blood.

It was said that Fenella made for another castle of hers at a wild place on the coast called, Den-Fenella. Being pursued, she concealed herself amongst the branches of the trees, and as thick forest stretched all the way from one castle to the other, she was able to swing herself along for a distance of about ten miles, and pass over the very heads of her bewildered pursuers. Different accounts can be found of what happened to her after that: some say she was captured and burned, some that she was at last brought to bay near Lauriston Castle, where she chose death over captivity and threw herself from the crags onto the rocks beneath, while a third version holds that she escaped to Ireland.

The Lore Of Scotland – A Guide To Scottish Legends

Westwood & Kingshill

The Stone Of Morphie or Morphy is said to mark the grave of a Danish king, Camus, defeated in battle by Malcolm 2 (1005-1034). During a hurricane in the mid nineteenth century the stone fell down, and while it was being re-erected a skeleton was found beneath it, ‘of large dimensions.‘

J. C. Watt writing in 1914, surmises that the monolith once formed part of a circle, adducing the ‘immense number’ of stone circles and tombs found in the neighbourhood, and adds that ‘some years ago’ he sent a friend to photograph the stone, ‘but it was doing some duty at the core of a corn stack at the farm of Stone o’ Morphy’.

The stone is associated not only with the Danes but with the menacing Kelpie, said to have carried it. Archibald Watt notes in 1985 that ‘you can still see his fingerprint on the stone where he grasped it’, a motif more commonly associated with the Devil or a giant rather than the Kelpie, which usually appeared as a horse, although it could mainfest in human form. This Kelpie haunted the Ponage (or Poundage, or Pontage) Pool in the Esk, and was celebrated in a poem of 1826 by George Beattie

When ye hear the Kelpie howl,
Hie ye to the Pontage-pool;
There you’ll see the Deil himsel‘
Leadin’ on the hounds o’ Hell.

Here the Kelpie is described as a ‘stalwart monster, huge in size’;

Behind, a dragon’s tail he wore,
Twa bullock’s horns stack out before;
His legs were horn, wi joints o’ steel,
His body like a crocodile.

‘It is a well-authenticated fact’ note Beattie, ‘that, upon one occasion, when the Kelpie had appeared in the shape of a horse, he was laid hold of, and had a bridle, or halter, of a particular description, fastened on to his head. He was kept in thraldom for a considerable time, and drove the greater part of the stones for the building of the house of Morphie. Some sage person, acquainted with the particular disposition of the animal, or fiend, or whatever he maybe called, gave orders that at no time should the halter be removed, otherwise he would never more be seen.’ A maid-servant, however, happened to go into the stable and took pity on the beast, taking off the bridle and giving it some food. The Kelpie then laughed and immediately went through the back of the stable, but leaving no mark whatever on the wall. As he went he proclaimed:

O sairs my back, and sair my banes,
Leadin’ the Laird o’ Morphie’s stanes;
The Laird o’ Morphie canna thrive
As lang’s the Kelpie is alive.

The curse had its effect: no trace of Morphie Castle now survives.

The Lore Of Scotland – A Guide To Scottish Legends

Westwood & Kingshill

High Baltersan Cairn sits close to a piece of ground known as Foul Hole, described as ‘a portion of waste land or common at the intersection of two roads viz. [namely] Whithorn to Glasgow and Glenluce to Carty Port’. Overlooked by Shakeabodie Rock, which is said to have derived its name from ‘a legend connected with a place called the ‘Foul Hole’. It appears that the Foul Hole has been notorious among the ignorant and superstitious as a place much frequented by spectres, witches, warlocks etc, which caused passers by to shake or tremble from the proximity of the rock’.

Wigtownshire OS Name Books, 1845-1849

When the site was excavated it looked like a small green hill, but stone slabs breaking through the surface betrayed the cairn beneath, and also that at some time it had been disturbed. Local knowledge of the man-made constructions inside such seemingly natural mounds probably inspired the tradition that fairies lived in the ‘hollow hills’ and might still be encountered by those who entered. Similar to Bruan.

Reverend George Sutherland (1937)

In the parish of Latheron are the remains of a broch known as the fairy mound of Bruan. In 1937, the Reverend George Sutherland related that two men once passed the broch carrying a small keg of whisky for New Year celebrations. A door in the broch was open, and inside fairies were dancing to bagpipe music. One of the men wanted to join the dance and went in, but the other was more cautious and waited outside. A long time passed and the waiting man called to the other, who replied,

‘I have not got a dance yet.‘

After another while the man outside took his whisky and went on his way, expecting that his friend would be home by morning, but the next day he had still not returned, and the broch was closed, with no sign of a door, and no trace of the fairies. The man did not give up hope of his friend, however:

It was an old belief that in such a case the same scene would be enacted in the same place a year after, accordingly on the anniversary of that day he went to the Bruan Broch. It was open, the music and dancing were going on as before, and his friend was there. He put some iron article in the door to prevent the fairies from closing it, as they are powerless in the presence of iron or steel. He went to the open door and said to his friend, ‘Are you not coming home now?’ His friend replied, ‘I have not got a dance yet.‘

The man outside told his friend that he had been a year in the broch, and that it was surely time for him to come home now, but his friend did not believe that he had been more than an hour inside.

The man then made a rush at his friend, seized him, and dragged him out by sheer force, and they set out for home together. It was difficult for him to realise that his sojourn with the fairies was such a prolonged one, but the fact that his own child did not recognise him, together with other changes that had taken place, convinced him.

The man who wanted to dance was lucky to have a loyal friend – some who enter a fairy mound never come out again. This is one of many similar told throughout Britain of the supernatural lapse of time in fairyland.

Caithness has numerous antiquities traditionally said to be fairy dwellings, among them a horned cairn known as the Fairies’ Mound, or Cnoc Na H-uiseig

The Lore Of Scotland – A Guide To Scottish Legends

Westwood & Kingshill

Sir Donald MacKay (1591- 1649) led an eventful life. He was imprisoned for adultery and suspected of bigamy, led a regiment in the Thirty Years war (1618-48), and, having accused his lieutenant David Ramsey of treason, was challenged by him to single combat, though the duel was prevented by the intervention of Charles 1. In 1628 he was created first Lord Reay, and a contemporary said of him that in his own estates ‘he tyrannizes as if there were no law or king to putt order to his insolencies.‘

After his death he became remembered in folk legend as a magician, Donald Duibheal or Dubhuail MacKay, and many tales are told of his occult exploits, several of which are included by George Sutherland in his Folk-Lore Gleaning (1937). It was said that while serving as a soldier under Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (1594 – 1632) he had met the Devil and had been invited by him to attend the famous Black School Of Padua. In return for his teaching, the Devil required that the last student to leave at the end of the session should be forfeit to him as payment. As they filed out, it happened to be MacKay who was the last one out of the door and the Devil tried to grab him, but the canny MacKay turned around and pointed to his shadow, saying,

De’il tak’ the hindmost.‘

The Devil accordingly seized hold of the shadow and before he realised he had been tricked, MacKay himself had got safe away. The story is a local version of an international tale known as

Escape From The Black School

in which a student of the Black Arts deceives his satanic master, a ploy also attributed to Michael Scot, the Wizard of Balwearie and Sir Robert Gordon of The Round Square (Aberdeenshire)

When MacKay returned to the Reay country, people soon noticed that he cast no shadow and therefore must be uncanny. The Devil meanwhile had pursued his prey all the way from Italy, and they had a fisticuff fight which ended with MacKay giving the Devil a beating and getting from him a swarm of little demons or fairies who did all his work, ploughing his land, harvesting and threshing his corn and so forth. This was all very well, but when he had run out of jobs for them they still clamoured for employment, and MacKay found himself trying to occupy his troublesome assistants.

One idea that occurred to him was to get his imps to drain the loch on the east side of Clash Breac, Broubister, where a pot of gold was said to be hidden. They set with a will, but when the Cailleach of Clach Breac saw what was happening she shouted to the workers

‘In the name of God, what are you doing here?‘

At once the imps vanished, unable to hear mention of the sacred name. In fury, MacKay picked up a spade and split the Cailleach’s head with it.

The unfinished work is still to be seen in the form of a deep ravine extending for about two hundred feet in the direction of the loch, but not reaching it. On the north side of this ravine there is a standing stone with the top part of it cleft in twain. This is said to be the Cailleach with her cloven head now turned into stone.

Spoil from the canal dug by the imps was hung up to make the conspicuous steep sided hills of Creag Mhor and Creag Bheag (’big crag’ and ‘little crag’) south-east of Reay. As to the ‘loch on the east side of Clash Breac’, this probably refers to an area east of Cnoc Na Claise Brice, not a loch but a bog, a fact that could have been cited as ‘proof’ that the imps had partly succeeded in their drainage works. The petrified Cailleach is Clach Clais An Tuirc, a standing stone south-east of Loanscorribest.

The Cailleach, as a guardian of deer and other wild animals, may have resented the imps’ interference with the landscape. It is not explained, why she, a supernatural being, is able to speak the name of God when the imps cannot bear to hear it.

The Lore Of Scotland – A Guide To Scottish Legends

Westwood & Kingshill

Unique in Britain to Caithness and Sutherland are multiple rows of small standing stones set out in parallel lines or fan shapes, thought to date from the early Bronze Age. They are found sometimes in the neighbourhood of cairns, that is, burial sites, and may have had a religious function, though in the 1970s Professor Alexander Thom argued that they were used to calculate the movements of the moon.

Whatever their original purpose, such rows are still a fantastic sight. The best preserved run down the slopes of a low hill at Mid Clyth known as the Hill O’ Many Stanes. They are small flat stones wedged upright with their broad faces aligned in more than twenty rows, fanning out slightly towards the southern end. Today about 200 stones remain, but it is thought the pattern could have involved 600 or more.

A popular belief that gold was hidden beneath the stones may have led to the removal of stone, and others have been destroyed by agriculture or removed for building, but as in the case of stone circles, it was said to be dangerous to interfere with them. A farmer at Bruan is said to have removed one of the Mid Clyth stones to use as a lintel above the fireplace of a kiln. When the fire was lit, the stone burst into flames but remained mysteriously unconsumed. This made him so fearful that he hastily returned the stone to the place in the row that he had taken it from.

The Lore Of Scotland – A Guide To Scottish Legends

Westwood & Kingshill