Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland / Collected Entirely from Oral Sources

Chapter 100: AT MEARNAIG CASTLE.

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About This Book

A collection of oral traditions from the Scottish Highlands and Islands, recorded and arranged thematically to present popular beliefs about fairies, changelings, banshees, tutelary beings, witchcraft, and related customs. The material combines narrative tales and descriptive entries that show regional variants, accounts of sightings and interactions, and practical measures for protection or repair. Gaelic expressions are translated with emphasis on literal meaning and authentic usage, and the compiler relied solely on spoken testimony gathered across multiple districts to preserve the vernacular form of these folk beliefs.

AT MEARNAIG CASTLE.

This ancient ruin is on the summit of a conical rock, above a hundred feet high, close to the shore, in Glen Sanda, on the Kingerloch coast. About three or four hundred feet from it there is a beautiful and curious echo. A call of eight or nine syllables is distinctly repeated from the castle after the speaker has ceased. The only reminiscence of the castle’s former tenants is the call usually given, when rousing the echo, “Are you in, maiden?” (Am bheil thu stigh a mhaighdean?) The maiden is the tutelary Glaistig that haunted all such buildings.