Beasts & cryptids

The White Mare on the Loch

Unst (loch not named)

Undated; recorded 1882

Karl Blind, writing in 1882, was told that an ancestor of George Henderson of Burravoes, who lived in Unst, was in the habit of rising early. One morning he walked out and was coming home along the edge of a loch when he wished he had something to ride. He soon came to a white mare, mounted her and rode along the loch. She kept trying to go towards the water and he tried to hold her back, but she grew so stubborn that he fell off, and she went out onto the loch and across the water in a blue flame.

The features are those of the nuggle or shoopiltee, the Shetland water horse, which tempts a rider and heads for deep water, and which vanishes in fire. The name of the loch is not given, so the pin is only at the island.

Evidence
Single witness account
Access
Open ground
Location
60.760, -0.896 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)

Sources: G. F. Black and N. W. Thomas, Examples of Printed Folk-Lore concerning the Orkney and Shetland Islands (Folk-Lore Society, 1903) [public-domain]; Wikipedia, "Nuggle" [other]

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