Lochan-Nan-Deaan

The following extract is taken from Folklore [A Quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution & Custom] Vol III (1892). ‘This is a small loch on the side of the old military* road between Gorgarff and Tomintoul. The road passes close by its brink on the west side. On the other side of the road is an almost perpendicular rock, between 400 and 500 feet high. On the opposite side of the loch rises a very steep hill to the height of about 1,000 feet. The road in a snow-storm and after nightfall is very dangerous, and tradition has it that many travellers have lost their lives in the loch, and that their bodies were never recovered. It was believed to be bottomless, and to be the abode of a Water-Spirit that delighted in human sacrifice.

Notwithstanding this bloodthirsty Spirit, the men of Strathdon and Gorgarff resolved to try to draw the water from the loch in hope of finding the remains of those that had perished in it. On a fixed day a number of them met, with spades and picks to cut a way for the outflow of the water through the road. When all were ready to begin work, a terrific yell came from the loch, and there arose from its waters a diminutive creature in shape of a man with a red cap on his head. The men fled in terror, leaving their picks and spades behind them. The Spirit seized them and threw them into the loch. Then, with a gesture of defiance at the fleeing men, and a roar that shook the hills, he plunged into the loch and disappeared amidst the water that boiled and heaved as red as blood.’

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