Folk Tales of the Highlands

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The Highlands are rich in folk tales and in the following pages Gregor lan Smith and Alisdair Alpin McGregor present a selection of their particular favourites. The stories are highly readable and are sure to fascinate readers of all ages.

From the pen of Gregor Ian Smith you can find out about seven brothers who were slaughtered by the Giant of Jura, the princess turned into a goose by witchcraft, the drowned sailors who came back to life as seals, buried mountain treasure, the beautiful young woman who aged seventy years in less than a week, the cloak of invisibility and the vanity of two giants which turned a life of poverty into a life of prosperity for folk living in a glen beside Loch Shiel.

Mr. Smith also tells of the Taynuilt blacksmith who made horse shoes lucky, the piper who vanished near Dunvegan Castle while playing a silver chanter, the water horse of misfortune, a good deed which prevented murder, the Tiree youngster who changed his wicked stepmother into an animal, the clan leader who vowed to build seven churches before his death and the extraordinary strength of Lochaber man Alasdair Cameron.

Alasdair Alpin MacGregor introduces us to a whole host of unusual happenings and events.

The secrets are revealed of creatures like faeries, brownies and water-horses. There are spine-chilling yarns about ghosts and witchcraft. Wells said to cure all kinds of crippling diseases are examined. And to complete the book Mr. MacGregor recalls adventures from the Jacobite Rebellions. This issue consists of extracts taken from the 1937 edition of The Peat Fire Flame, published by the Moray Press.

Readers are reminded that certain local comments made in the author’s text were of course to conditions as they prevailed at the time of original publication.

  • Author: Gregor Ian Smith & Alasdair Alpin MacGregor
  • Paperback: 112 pages
  • Dimensions: 14.8 × 0.7 × 21 cm
  • Publisher: Lang Syne Publishers (2017)