Witchcraft

Mac-Vuirich's Wind

At sea off South Uist (home of Mac-Vuirich)

Undated oral tale

Mac-Vuirich then asked for a north wind hard as a rod, and the skipper said it did not yet deserve praise. He went on to a verse that sent the devil to send them any wind there was in cold hell, adding that if one man went ashore it should be himself, and if two, himself and his dog. A sea came that rolled the stern of the boat over her bows, and all were drowned except Mac-Vuirich and his dog.

Campbell gives this as an example of the spoken form of wind-raising, set against the knotted-string kind. He also says Mac-Vuirich was favourable to the MacNeills of Barra, and in another story used a rhyme to sink the boat of Clanranald's men off Skye, which is told in his witchcraft chapter. The date of Mac-Vuirich is not given.

This site is private property or has no public access. Coordinates shown are rounded and no directions are offered.
Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
No public access
Location
57.250, -7.350 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)

Sources: John Gregorson Campbell, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (1902), Project Gutenberg [public-domain]

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