Category: Scottish Folktales
Jedburgh’s original wooden motte and bailey castle dated back to the 12th century and was founded by King David I of Scotland (Born 1084 – Died 24 May 1153). The Scottish demolished the castle in 1409, which by then was a stone fortress with a pele tower, gatehouse and courtyard. In 1823 a Howard Reform prison was built on the site of the castle which was then closed in 1868.
The following extract is taken from Folklore [A Quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution & Custom] Vol III (1892). ‘Lochan-wan* is a small loch, in a fine grazing district, lying on the upper confines of Aberdeen and Banffshire.
Archibald Boyle is said to have been the leader of ‘The Hell Club’ in Glasgow during the 18th century. There is a story associated with his death which has appeared in Catherine Ann Crowe’s ‘The Night-side of Nature’ (1848), and repeated again in ‘The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain’ by John Ingram (1897).
ON a still Sabbath evening in summer, an old man was seated, reading his Bible in the open air, at a quiet spot upon the Ross-shire coast. A beautiful little lady, clad in green, drew near, and addressing him in a silvery voice, sought to know if for such as she Holy Scripture held out any hope of salvation.
NEAR the town of Aberdeen, in Scotland, lived James Campbell, who had one daughter, named Mary, who, was married to John Nelson, a young man of that neighbourhood.
‘THE old house of Knockdolion stood near the water of Girvan, with a black stone at the end of it. A mermaid used to come from the water at night, and taking her seat upon this stone, would sing for hours, at the same time combing her long yellow hair.
THOM and Willie, two young fisher-mates of Lunna, in Shetland, were rivals for the hand of the fair Osla, daughter of Jarm. Now it so happened that, one October afternoon, they took their hand-lines and went out fishing together in their boat.
"You have been often at the Gatehouse," said Johnny Nicholson; "well, you’ll mind a flat piece of land near Enrick farm; well, that was once a large loch; a long way down from there is still the ruin of a mill, which at that time was fed from this loch.
"SPEAKIN’ o’ fairies," quoth Robbie Oliver (an old shepherd, who lived at Southdean in Jedwater, and died about 1830), "I can tell ye about the vera last fairy that was seen hereaway. When my faither, Peter Oliver, was a young man, he lived at Hyndlee, an’ herdit the Brocklaw.
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.
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