Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Category: Scottish Folktales

Fairies / Folklore / Folktales / Scottish Fairies / Scottish Folktales

The Poor Man Of Peatlaw

THE following is an account of a fairy frolic said to have happened late in the last century:–The victim of elfin sport was a poor man, who, being employed in pulling heather upon Peatlaw, a hill in Selkirkshire, had tired of his labour, and laid him down to sleep upon a fairy ring.

Folklore / Folktales / Scottish Folktales

Santraigh

THERE was a herd’s wife in the island of Sanntraigh, and she had a kettle. A woman of peace would come every day to seek the kettle. She would not say a word when she came, but she would catch hold of the kettle. When she would catch the kettle, the woman of the house would say–

"A smith is able to make
Cold iron hot with coal.

Fairies / Folklore / Folktales / Mermaids / Scottish Fairies / Scottish Folktales

The Fisherman And The Merman

OF mermen and merwomen many strange stories are told in the Shetland Isles. Beneath the depths of the ocean, according to these stories, an atmosphere exists adapted to the respiratory organs of certain beings, resembling in form the human race, possessed of surpassing beauty, of limited supernatural powers, and liable to the incident of death.

Fairies / Folklore / Folktales / Mermaids / Scottish Fairies / Scottish Folktales

The Mermaid Wife

A STORY is told of an inhabitant of Unst, who, in walking on the sandy margin of a voe, saw a number of mermen and mermaids dancing by moonlight, and several seal-skins strewed beside them on the ground. At his approach they immediately fled to secure their garbs, and, taking upon themselves the form of seals, plunged immediately into the sea.

Fairies / Folklore / Folktales / Scottish Fairies / Scottish Folktales

The Bogle

THIS is a freakish spirit, who delights rather to perplex and frighten mankind than either to serve or seriously to hurt them. Shellycoat, a spirit who resides in the waters, and has given his name to many a rock and stone the Scottish coast, belongs to the class of bogles.

Folklore / Folktales / Scottish Folktales / Witchcraft

The Witch Of Laggan

A hero celebrated for his hatred of witchcraft, was warming himself in his hunting hut, in the forest of Gaick, in Badenoch. His faithful hounds, fatigued with the morning chase, lay stretched on the turf by his side,–his gun, that would not miss, reclined in the neuk of the bothy,–the skian dhu of the sharp edge hung by his side, and these alone constituted his company.