Gàidhlig / English
Uilebheistean

Uilebheistean

Posted by Eleanor on 30th August 2018
During a recent holiday in the north of Wales, I noticed just how fond the Welsh are of dragons. Apart from the dragon on their flag, I counted no fewer than eleven dragons all over the place during the weekend I was there. A rather fun game to play when walking around the town with friends.
 
Upon returning to Scotland and deciding on a subject for this week’s blog, I thought about the things we have in common with the Welsh. Although we don’t have a dragon on our flag, there are many stories about different kinds of monsters from all over Scotland. Here’s a little of what I found in Gaelic from our Fieldwork Archive:
 
From the Isle of Skye we have ciuthach – a monster who appears in the shape of a man. This creature also appears in a story from Guth na Bliadhna, (pp. 392–393) where a pixie with the name “Ciuthach Caogach” is tricked by a clever farmer’s wife.
 
The word seilch comes from Lewis. According to our notes, this monster lives in lochs where waterlilies grow. It will grab hold of someone walking too close to the water and pull them down into the loch, similar to the kelpies that are found all over Scotland.
 
Sometimes a word will appear in the Fieldwork Archive with just enough of a story to pique one’s interest without giving the full story. The word cianaran cro is like this. The word was collected from the Isle of Skye and the little bit of information we have along with it tells us that this was a monster who flew with St Ronan from “Eurobay” to North Rona…but what kind of monster was it? Who knows? Perhaps there are dragons in Scotland after all!
 
If you know any more about this story, or if you have any other words for monsters, why not write to us on Facebook or Twitter. And if you’re walking near a loch any time soon, remember to keep an eye out for the seilch!
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