Folklore & legend

The Wishing Tree of Isle Maree

Isle Maree, Loch Maree

Recorded 1860 and 1886

Dixon records that Victoria visited the island on a Sunday and read a short sermon to her Gairloch gillies before fixing her offering. He adds the rule that anyone taking an offering from the tree would suffer a misfortune, probably the burning of his house.

Wikipedia notes a related tradition that nothing may be taken off the island, even a pebble, in case the madness once cured there follows it into the world.

The island is reached by boat on Loch Maree and is a protected site; ask locally before landing.
Evidence
Contemporary written record
Access
No public access
Location
57.694, -5.472 (Sited to the building or field)

Sources: John H. Dixon, Gairloch in North-West Ross-shire (1886), Project Gutenberg [public-domain]; Wikipedia, Isle Maree [other]

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