Not everything that shares this world with us is easily seen, understood, or inclined to make itself known.
For generations, Scotland’s hills, waters, homes and lonely roads have been inhabited by rather more than the living folk who walk them. There are the Sìth, the restless dead, familiar spirits, strange presences and countless other beings who wander in and out of our stories. Some offer help, others bring misfortune, and a fair few seem to have little interest in human affairs whatsoever.
These beliefs are more than fanciful tales told beside winter fires. They speak of a world alive with relationships, obligations, warnings and possibilities. A world where the boundaries between the ordinary and extraordinary are not always quite as certain as we might imagine.
Here, I explore Scotland’s supernatural traditions, their histories, contradictions and the ways they have shaped our understanding of life, death and everything that might lie between. Not to prove that every story is true, nor to explain away its strangeness, but to ask what these beliefs tell us about the people who held them, and perhaps something about ourselves.
Come a little closer. There is more here than meets the eye.
There was a time when the folk of Scotland embraced the fairy rebellion figures, and viewed them as the root cause for revolution, pushing back against the empirical forces of
They say moving house is one of the most stressful things. It’s right up there with death and divorce. Having moved to a new house over the Bealtainn weekend I
The struggles and revelations of Scotland’s people are stamped into the landscape, like wrinkles on the palms of old lady history some say put there by the Cailleach herself. Some
The mist the dew, the dew the mist The mist, the dew, in the eye of my love In the eye of my love, Thou who didst open the young
It is the familiar spirit of the place; It judges, presides, inspires Everything in its empire; It is perhaps a fairy or a god? (No, in fact it was a
Introduction I introduced a series of writing exploring the role of the oft neglected dead in Scottish folk magic. If you haven’t read it I suggest you have a wee
Dondering around the countryside, sauntering through glen, dirt track, woods and burns. Battling the wind and falling leaves. Passed graveyard and sacred stones. An idea presented itself. To write a
I have recently been reflecting about a conference I spoke at a while ago. A few people were discussing a problem they felt they had in getting to know plants.
I have discussed the Frith – Gaelic divination charm practice before but omitted the augury signs which i have included below. Scottish folks had many ways of finding things outside
