A quiet word about fairies, elves, kelpies and selkies

April 11, 2023, 6:21 pm , by Richard Lutz

Richard Lutz pays tribute to those of the other world

As the late and beloved Uncle Gareth would always say: ‘Now, here’s something you didn’t know….’

And with that in mind, here’s something you didn’t know: always punch a hole in the bottom of your hard boiled-eggshell or the fairies will use it as a boat.

And here’s another thing you didn’t know: Reverend Robert Kirk, a minister in the Scottish town of Aberfoyle, wrote a book in 1691 called The Secret Commonwealth about the lives of elves, fairies and, crucially, The Sith who are the spirits of the Gaelic world. Just one year later, he died while walking on Doon Hill where he said the fairies lived.

Today Doon Hill still remembers the vicar’s theory. A tall Scots Pine caps the top and it’s draped in fairy cloth by those that….well….believe in the other world. One fact you didn’t know, despite Uncle Gareth, is that Rev Kirk was reportedly captured by elves and kept prisoner beneath the tall tree because his book spilled the beans on the sprites who lived there.

Go figure.

By the way, on the day I visited this sacred hill, there was not a hint of fairyness or elvishness or even Sithness about the site. Only the happy cacophony of children’s voices playing in the woods on a day out with the family.

Way northwest of Doon Hill is the Isle of Skye. Remote, misty, many times simply rainy and plagued by bus tours. Best to go before Easter to check out the spirit world dug deep into its stark landscape. But first a view of this edge of the world:

It is Neist Point, poised in the western edge of Skye. It is the neighbour to the Neist Lighthouse, now unmanned and peering out into the North Atlantic:

Not too far away there’s a link to the mythic underworld. It is a chain of mountain cataracts and clearwater ponds that collect in The Fairy Pools of Skye:

It’s a well known and legendary fact that the chief of the powerful local MacLeod clan actually married a fairy princess. And it’s also an historic fact that the pools were the site of a massacre so murderous that the translucent waters ran red with blood.

The MacLeods were a violent lot; they waged war under The Fairy Flag, now safely tucked away in the family HQ of Dunvegan Castle and a calling card as they joyfully pillaged and plundered their way through the western isles. No one knows the silk banner’s origins. It might be from The Dark Ages or from a crusader army. Its powers reportedly include the ability to multiply a clan’s military forces; the ability to save lives; the ability to cure sick cattle; the ability to increase fertility and, crucially for piscaphiles, the ability to catch herring in a Skye loch.

In other words, the pennant is wrapped in myth. As are sea spirits, called selkies, who inhabit the rough seas around Skye. They change into human form, many times as young women, and walk among those on land until they return to the grey waves. Some have been seen having a paddle in The Fairy Pools. Many have been known to help sailors in peril.

More nefarious are kelpies. They are mysterious horses spirits who live in Scottish lochs and rivers and are bent on nothing but trouble. Keep away from the kelpies. They’re up to no good. No good at all. By the way, to help you avoid these darned water borne spirit horses, these kelpies, take note that they are always black. And that’s a well known fact in fairyland. And in Wikipedia-land too.

Down south, the legends get darker. Run your finger 270 miles into Ayrshire to where The Waters of Girvan tumble down from Cornish Loch:

The surrounding hills still sleep in winter. There is no hint of spring. Only early catkin willow, yellow with pollen, shows a sign of growth and re-birth:

Look northwest from this small loch and there’s Fairy Knowe with its sharp ridged backbone and its views of the windy Carrick Hills. Nearby is The Devil’s Trail, and further afield are The Long Loch of The Dungeon, Murder Hole, The Devil’s Barn Door and Witches Bridge. Bit more nefarious down here.

But then again, these rumpled hills of Ayrshire and neighbouring Dumfrieshire have a reputation for unsettling names. Places like The Rig of The Jarkness, The Clints of the Buss, Slaethornrig, The Wolf Slock and Fang of the Merrick. A remote area where names culled from The Vikings, the Gaels, the Romans, the Celts, the Anglo Saxons, and the old sea kingdom of The Dal Riata all tumble together with the myths that the good Reverend Kirk wrote down before he was whisked away by angry spirits and held captive forever under that tall pine tree.