Scottish folklore

Halloween is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It is at the beginning of the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the Christian liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed. In popular culture, Halloween has become a celebration of horror and is associated with the macabre and the supernatural.

King of Scotland (1306–1329)

Columba () or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the important abbey on Iona, which became a dominant religious and political institution in the region for centuries. He is the patron saint of Derry. He was highly regarded by both the Gaels of Dál Riata and the Picts, and is remembered today as a Catholic saint and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.

Jacobite pretender to the thrones of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France; (1720-1788)

Beltane ( ) or Bealtaine () is the Gaelic May Day festival, marking the beginning of summer. It is traditionally held on 1 May, or about midway between the spring equinox and summer solstice.

natural trace of the circular growth front of mushroom mycelium

Scottish outlaw (1671–1734)

freshwater loch in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland, UK, outflows at its west to the River Morar

sculpture or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves

semi-mythical head of a 48-member clan in 15th- or 16th-century Scotland

thumb|A painting of Deirdre in A book of myths (1915), by Helen Stratton Deirdre ( , ; ) is a tragic heroine in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. She is also known by the epithet "Deirdre of the Sorrows" ().

sea loch on the west coast of Scotland

In Gaelic (Irish, Scottish and Manx) myth, the Cailleach (, ) is a divine hag, associated with the creation of the landscape and with the weather, especially storms and winter. The word literally means 'old woman, hag', and is found with this meaning in modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and has been applied to numerous mythological and folkloric figures in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. In modern Irish folklore studies, she is sometimes known as The Hag of Beara, while in Scotland she is known as Beira, Queen of Winter.

thumb|240px|alt=Tammas flees the nuckelavee|The nuckelavee chasing an islander, painting by James Torrance (1859–1916). The nuckelavee () or nuckalavee is a horse-like demon from Orcadian folklore that combines equine and human elements. If one was looking casually, or under the cover of shadow in the night, it was thought to have the silhouette of a normal horseman. However, upon further inspection, it resembles a fleshless horse which sports one eye and fins on its legs, with a fleshless human head, torso, and arms longer than normal sprouting out the horse's back.

strait in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK

mythologies of Scotland

large precariously balanced stones

road bridge in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, UK, carries an estate driveway across Overtoun Burn

The fili (or filè) (), plural filid, filidh (or filès), was a member of an elite class of poets in Ireland, and later Scotland, up until the Renaissance. The filid were believed to have the power of divination, and therefore able to foresee, foretell and predict important events.

The baobh-shìth (, literally "fairy witch" or "fairy hag" in Scottish Gaelic, plural baobhan-sìth ) is a female fairy in the folklore of the Scottish Highlands, though they also share certain characteristics in common with the succubus. They appear as beautiful women who seduce their victims before attacking them and killing them.

Scottish witch trials in 1590

fictional animal said to be the source of haggis

Scottish mythological creatures

13th-century Scottish laird and reputed prophet from Earlston

a naturally occurring stone with a hole through it

British poet, lexicographer, political writer and memoirist

Purported Scottish mountain phenomenon

Mythical creature

heavy natural stone which people are challenged to lift to prove their strength

mountain group in Highland, Scotland, UK

traditional English folk song; Scottish border ballad

In Scottish, Northern English, and Manx folklore, the first-foot (, ) is the first person to enter the home of a household on New Year's Day and is seen as a bringer of good fortune for the coming year. Similar practices are also found in Greek, Vietnamese, and Georgian new year traditions.

thumb|240px|right|Irish mermaid (bas-relief, Clonfert Cathedral). thumb|Carving of mermaid (possibly with mirror), Clontuskert Abbey Merrow (from Irish ', Middle Irish ' or '''') is a mermaid or merman in Irish folklore. The term is anglicised from the Irish word murúch.

type of two-handed sword

Scottish border ballad

thumb|upright 1.1|alt=illustration of a great auk|A great auk, which may be the source for descriptions of the boobrie The boobrie is a mythological shapeshifting entity inhabiting the lochs of the west coast of Scotland. It commonly adopts the appearance of a gigantic water bird resembling a cormorant or great northern diver, but it can also materialise in the form of various other mythological creatures such as a water bull.

thumb|"Direach Ghlinn Eiti, or Fachan" as illustrated by J. F. Campbell In Scottish folklore, the fachan (or fachin, fachen, Direach Ghlinn Eitidh or Dithreach (dwarf of Glen Etive)) is a monster or giant described by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands as having a single eye in the middle of its face, a single hand protruding from its chest instead of arms, and a single leg emerging from its central axis. It has a single tuft of hair on the top of its head, regarding which Campbell says "it were easier to take a mountain from the root than to bend that tuft." Campbell

title in the Peerage of Scotland

a wooden object carried by a messenger to rally people

Orcadian mythical being that lives in the sea during summer, when she confines the demonic nuckelavee to the ocean depths; each spring she battles with her arch-enemy Teran to gain control of the seas and the weather

The '''''' (Scottish Gaelic for 'washerwoman' or 'laundress'; ) is a female spirit in Scottish folklore, regarded as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld. She is a type of (, anglicized as "banshee") that haunts desolate streams and washes the clothing of those who are about to die. is the French word under which these "night washerwomen" are perhaps best known. She is also called , 'the little washer', , 'little washer of the ford', or , 'little washer of the sorrow'.

In folklore, Fairyland or Faerie is a fabulous land inhabited by fays or fairies. It may be ruled by a Fairy Queen. In Scottish contexts, it is also known as Elfame.

folk culture of Scotland

mythological Scottish creature

A tangie (or tongie) is a shape-shifting sea spirit in the folklore of the Orkney and Shetland Islands in Scotland. A sea horse or merman, it takes on the appearance of either a horse or an aged man. Usually described as being covered with seaweed, its name derives from "tang" or seaweed of the genus Fucus.

In Scottish folklore, the beithir is a large snakelike creature or dragon.

Scottish noble

The Sluagh (, ; ; English: 'host, army, crowd'), or Sluagh na marbh ('host of the dead'), were the hosts of the unforgiven dead in Irish and Scottish folklore. In the words of British folklorist Lewis Spence, "In the Western Isles of Scotland the Sluagh, or fairy host, was regarded as composed of the souls of the dead flying through the air, and the feast of the dead at Hallowe'en was likewise the festival of the fairies." Usually taking a crescent form, similar to a flight of grey birds, they were said to be able to approach and pick up a person from any direction and then transport them far

troll-like creature from Shetland and Orkney Island folklore

fairy tale

A constituent school of the University of Edinburgh