5 Scottish Fairies And Where To Find Them
Fairy Belief in Scotland
My country is steeped in fairy faith. Many of our traditions and rituals in Scotland come from our ancestor’s desire to appease the ‘guid folk’ who could be fickle in their affections and downright dangerous if provoked. As children, on the 31st of October we’d go “guising”, which is the practise of dressing up in scary costumes and visiting neighbours to sing songs or tell jokes in exchange for sweeties. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was an echo of an ancient tradition designed to ward off malicious fairies and evil spirits.
Do modern Scots believe in fairies?
It depends who you ask! In my experience, most folk are caught up in the whirlwind of modern living and don’t give fairies a second thought. And while some still observe the old calendar days and traditions, you’ll find that most Scots are of a pragmatic, rather than whimsical, nature.
As Scotland became more urbanised and humans took greater control over their environment, fairy belief faded. With heavy industrialisation, many people saw their rural homes transformed or they migrated to bigger towns for work. This social upheaval uprooted people’s traditional beliefs, too. While belief in fairies clung on in more rural areas, even our ancestors took a practical approach. Offerings to fairies and ancient deities served the purpose of ensuring a good harvest, curing sick cattle or protecting them from the unpredictable and destructive elements.
Many Gaelic speaking rural areas experienced a loss of their language and culture during the Highland Clearances and the World Wars, and I wonder if belief in fairies and supernatural gifts like the Second Sight faded during this time, too.
And yet, as I mentioned at the start of my post, echoes of our older beliefs still remain. I feel many of us are alienated by the industrialised world we live in and are craving wonder and a closer connection with the natural world. I know I feel more rooted in myself and the land I live in when I observe the old ways.
The Role of Fairies in Scottish Folklore
Fairies feature prominently in Scottish folklore. Sometimes helpers, often hinderers, their origins are shrouded in mystery. Fairies are deeply connected to nature, being guardians of the wood, waterways and sea. Many are human-sized in stature, and the fearsome Cailleach is a towering hag who could walk over the mountain tops in a few strides. Definitely not the diminutive, cutesy fairies of the Victorian era!
As an aside, this is why I love Brian Froud’s artwork so much. He adequately captures the fairies’ dark side and their inextricable link to nature.
What are Scottish fairies called?
Scottish fairies go by many names. Often the old Scots called them ‘the guid folk’ i.e. ‘good folk’ in a bid to stay on their good side. In Gaelic they’re known as the sìth (pronounced ‘shee’). There are many place names in Scotland named after the fairies such as Glen Shee (Fairy Glen) and Schiehallion (Fairy Hill of the Caledonians), one of our most famous mountains. ‘Daoine sidhe’ is an Irish term that means faery folk.
In folklore and legend, fairies will curdle milk, sicken cattle, steal babies, lead weary travellers into bogs or strike folk dead with an ‘elf-bolt’. If you’re lucky they might guide you out of the dark wood you’ve become so lost in, clean your house from top to bottom, save you from a storm, or ensure you never go hungry for want of fish.
I always think that the best way to explain the fairies is that they are as cruel or as kind the natural world they are tied to, almost an extension of nature and Her inscrutable laws. They care as much about human wellbeing as a boulder or a deer might. Yet like the shy deer they are sometimes curious about us farcical humans, who try so hard to master forces beyond our control.
The Overlap Between Fairy and the Underworld
One of the things I find fascinating about Scotland’s fairies is their link between Fairyland and the Underworld. You can see this belief in some selkie stories, where selkies are believed to be the spirits of drowned sailors.
One of Scotland’s most famous storyteller’s, Duncan Williamson, said, “Because it’s sad, as I said, to lose a loved one, lying there mouldering under the sea, thinking about them, never to be found, never to have a Christian burial. You can’t go to their graveside and put flowers round their grave as many people do. But if you were brought up with the idea down through time since childhood, the reason that these people had never been found - they had joined the seal folk and become seal people. And they’ll come back again.”
The mingling of fairies and the dead can be seen as a way to cope with the trauma of losing a loved one, or a way to personify and rationalise death, a forbidding event we’ll all have to face one day.
Nicnevin, a kind of Grand Witch would whip her unseelie horde into a frenzy on the Feile na Marbh (The Night of the Dead, or Hallowe’en) then she and her handmaidens would howl across the sky on supernatural steeds. Fairies also accompanied the midnight horde of witches, and their night-riding resembles the Wild Hunt, or the Sluagh - a band of malignant fairies that rode across the night sky and stole away any mortal foolish enough to be caught outside. This fairy host was regarded as the souls of the dead whose spirits were barred from heaven. And so Christianity arrives at the threshold of Fairy - a fascinating topic that probably merits a blog post of its own!
How To Protect Yourself Against Bad Fairies
In Scotland, good fairies belonged to the Seelie Court, and bad fairies formed the Unseelie Court. Seelie is an old Scots word meaning “lucky” or “blessed”. The fairies were ruled over by the Queen of Elphame, who many witches named as their benefactor of magic in the Scottish Witch Trials.
Fairies are said to fear the touch of cold iron. Perhaps it is the human act of forging and manipulating a natural resource for their own ends that so repels the fairies? Scotland’s ancient Druids used wands made from hazel or rowan, and a witch’s besom (broom) is made from bundles of twigs gathered from the forest. Maybe the fear of fairies arose from demonisation of the ‘old ways’ as our culture became heavily industrialised and Christianised, and our modern minds turned away from the wisdom of our ancestors?
Whatever the reason for fairies aversion to iron, the mere touch of it would burn them. For this reason, old Scots would keep a fishing hook or thimble in their pocket, or hammer a horseshoe on the lintel above the door to their home. Rowan, with its bright red berries, is a tree that provides protection from enchantment, so a sprig of this ought to keep you safe.
Now that you’re armed with some protective charms, let’s find some fairies!
5 Mystical Places to Find Fairies in Scotland
Fairies are said to dwell in hillocks and underground. If you listen closely you might hear the music and laughter of a fairy revel. Scotland’s hills and glens are littered with fairy place names. I live at the foot of one such place, Glen Shee (Fairy Glen). Only when I started learning Gaelic did I realise just how many places in Scotland have a connection to fairies - there are hundreds! Read on to learn about five mystical places in Scotland where the fairies dwell.
1. The Ghillie Dhu of Gairloch, Wester Ross
The Ghillie Dhu is one of Scotland’s famous fairies, as old as the ancient Caledonian Forest he inhabits. Shy and solitary he guards the precious trees which were sacred to the druids who once cast their spells in the oak groves. Ghillie Dhu dwindled with the loss of their habitat as more and more of Scotland’s woods and forests were harvested for timber. The last Ghillie Dhu was seen in Gairloch, in the late 1700s, when he provided shelter for a lost child.
One used to live inside the ancient Yew tree at Fortingall, in Highland Perthshire, a tree thought to be over three thousand years old.
On a personal note, me and my sister were in the Brownies as children. Every Brownie was assigned her own group which was named after one of the fairy folk. I was a Pixie and my sister was a proud Ghillie Dhu! Their group motto was, “Ghillie Dhu it is our name, We guard the bairns and lead them hame.”
So, if you do find the elusive Ghillie Dhu or ‘dark-haired lad’, be assured that he is of the Seelie Court and means you no harm.
p.s. one of these shy creatures appears very far from home in my story ‘The Muse’, found in Fireside Fairy Tales.
Illustration by Alan Lee
2. Orkney Isle Selkies
Selkies are mystical fairies of the sea. In the water they appear as seals and onshore they shed their skin to reveal their bonny human forms. Without their sealskins they can’t return to their kingdom under the waves. Many selkie stories end tragically when a fisherman forces a selkie woman to be his wife and bear him children by stealing her sealskin. Of course, at the first opportunity, the selkie reclaims her sealskin and returns home, despite the love she has for her children.
Selkies, or ‘seal-folk’, are native to the Orkney Isles where they often come into contact with humans. One of the best-known romantic encounters between a maiden and her selkie lover is recounted in the haunting ballad The Great Selkie O’ Sule Skerry.
Selkies have always fascinated me and feature in two Fireside Fairy Tales stories. On my travel wishlist is a visit to The Faroe Isles so I can see this brooding statue of a vengeful selkie woman in the flesh.
Illustration by @acarriganart
3. The LOIREAG OF Benbecula, SOUTH UIST
The loireag dwells on the moody slopes of Beinn Mhòr, South Uist’s highest mountain. She is fond of music and milk and will render a weaver’s web too thin if they sing out of tune! Farmers were driven to distraction by the loireag, who cursed their cattle so that they couldn’t move. Only an offering of milk or invoking St Columba would chase her back to her lonely, mist-wreathed mountain top.
In the words of Benbecula local, Mary Macinnes, “Benmore [Beinn Mhòr] was always eerie because of the 'loireag' dwelling there. The 'loireag' is a small mite of womanhood that does not belong to this world, but to the world thither. She was wont to drive the people out of their heart-shrine with fear.”
As an aside, ‘loireag’ can be translated from the Gaelic to mean a shaggy cow, a plump girl, a pancake, a petrel or a water-sprite.
Photo of Beinn Mhòr gully by Mountain Coward Adventures
4. Kelpies, FEARSOME water fairies found in falkirk
Kelpies are malevolent water fairies who can take the form of a beautiful horse or a handsome young man. Beware! Both forms are designed to lure children or women to a watery grave. If you’re foolish enough to mount the kelpie you’ll find it impossible to tear free from its magical, sticky hide. In human form, the kelpie is betrayed by the bindweed tangling his hair.
Kelpies can be found near any river or loch. If you have Clan MacGregor’s magical bridle to hand you might be able to tame the kelpie. If you visit Falkirk you can’t miss two of Scotland’s most famous kelpies, rearing majestically into the grey sky.
Illustration of Scottish kelpie by Alan Lee.
5. The Bloodthirsty Baobhan-Sìth of Slains Castle, Aberdeen
Visit the ruins of Slains Castle on a moonlit night and you might witness dark shapes wheel out of the haar to perch on its Gothic ruins. They are the castle’s baobhan-sìth, blood-sucking fairy women who prey on local fishermen. Baobhan-sìth also haunt lonely glens and moors. Green of eye and dress, they captivate weary male travellers and lure them to dance before sinking needle-sharp fangs into their prey’s neck.
Your best protection against these creatures of the night is iron. I remember reading a story about a group of male travellers who were attacked by baobhan-sìth after being lured into a disused bothy. Only one escaped because he had the foresight to run to the stables and grab the leg of his iron-shod horse.
Slains Castle in Aberdeen supposedly inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula. I wonder if he knew of these fearsome fairies and whether they inspired Dracula’s blood-thirsty brides? These creepy fairies definitely send a shiver down my spine, which usually leads to a story. ‘The Traveller’s Curse’ is about a respectable lady whose thirst for stories turns into a thirst for something more sinister.
Still of Dracula’s Brides from Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), possibly inspired by Scottish fairy lore.
6. Schiehallion - the Fairy Hill of the Caledonians
Schiehallion, in Perthshire, is one of Scotland’s most prominent mountains and rich in legend. Its name derives from the Gaelic Sith Chaillean meaning ‘The Fairy Hill of the Caledonians.’ The cave network running along Gleann Mor (The Big Glen), on Schiehallion’s south side, lends an air of superstition and mysticism. Uamh Tom a’ Mhòr-fhir can be translated as Cave of the Knoll of the Big Man. Could the spirit of a tall, supernatural warrior still haunt its secret caves?
In 1845, local minister Rev. Robert MacDonald recorded that Uamh Tom a’ Mhòr-fhir was full of chambers from which no one who entered could return. If you decide to climb Schiehallion I advise sticking to the path, unless you want to be spirited away… Keep an eye out also for Fuaran na h-Inghinn (Spring of the Young Woman), which references the young women who bathed there at dawn on May Day.
Schiehallion is also said to be a favourite haunt of the mythical Cailleach Bheur, the Blue Witch, who appears every Samhain to usher in winter. Her skin is icy blue, hair white as snow and she can freeze travelers with her icy touch. I think we felt her presence this past weekend as Storm Arwen raged across Scotland!
Photo of Schiehallion, a fairy mountain in Scotland, viewed from Loch Rannoch
I hope you enjoyed this foray in Fairy! I don’t think I’ll ever tire reading about my country’s ancient fairy lore. There’s always something new to discover, often about the land under my very feet. Maybe the fact that I live at the bottom of a ‘fairy glen’ is the reason behind the enchantment, or perhaps I’m just away with fairies!