Folklore & legend

The Dancer in the Fairy Hill on Harris

Leathad nan Clacha Mora (Slope of Big Stones), Harris

Undated oral tale

Campbell adds that the tale is localised in the Ferintosh district and at the Slope of Big Stones (Leathad nan Clacha Mora) in Harris. In the Harris telling the young men were a bridegroom and his brother-in-law, bringing home whisky for the marriage. In the Ferintosh version only one man entered and the door shut at once, and the other recovered him a year later by putting steel in the door of the dwelling.

Steel in the door is the standard protection against the fairy dwelling closing. This is one of only a few Harris-located fairy tales in Campbell and the place named is a landscape feature rather than a village.

Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
Access unrecorded
Location
57.850, -6.950 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)

Sources: John Gregorson Campbell, Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (1900), Project Gutenberg [public-domain]

View on the map →

Comments

Loading…