Forsyth draws a moral from the story and notes a similar tale from Glengarry, where eight children played near a kelpie's pool on a Sunday and seven rode on its back. In that story the eighth touched it and cut himself free with a sickle. A modern account adds that a sunken crannog in the loch was said to be the creature's home.
Beasts & cryptids
The Water Horse of Loch Pityoulish
Loch Pityoulish, near Aviemore
Traditional; recorded 1900
- Evidence
- Long-standing local tradition
- Access
- Open ground
- Location
- 57.200, -3.790 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)
Sources: Rev. W. Forsyth, In the Shadow of Cairngorm (1900), The Lochs and their Legends [public-domain]; Visit Cairngorms, My top fairy sites of the Cairngorms by the Faery Folklorist [other]
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