SKYE
THE ISLAND & ITS LEGENDS
SKYE
THE ISLAND & ITS LEGENDS
By Otta F. Swire
Foreword by Sir William Tarn
Preface by Jim Swire
Introduction by Ronald Black
This edition published in 2006 by
Birlinn Limited
West Newington House
10 Newington Road
Edinburgh EH9 1QS
www.birlinn.co.uk
Reprinted 2015
First Edition Oxford University Press 1952
Second Edition Blackie & Son 1961
Third Edition Maclean Press 1999
Copyright Preface Dr J. Swire, 2006
Copyright Introduction Ronald Black, 2006
The moral right of the authors has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN 978 1 84158 479 9
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Printed and bound in Italy by Grafica Veneta
DEDICATION
This edition is dedicated to the memory of
Flora MacDonald Margaret Swire,
Otta Swires grand-daughter.
Flora was tragically killed by an act of terrorism
in the Lockerbie Air Disaster on
December 21st 1988.
Dedication
To all the saints and sinners, heroes and Little People, giants, water-horses, and other curious creatures who look out from the past through these pages, and to all the sons and daughters of Skye, wheresoever they may have found a habitation, I dedicate this book, for of their deeds and thoughts is woven the spirit and the treasure of the Isle of Mist.
OTTA F. SWIRE
Orbost
Isle of Skye
Foreword
GREAT numbers of people visit Skye every summer, attracted by the wonderful colouring of sea and mountain, and by the islands two unique possessions, the Cuchullin range and the Fairy Flag of Dunvegan; but about Skye, as Skye, so far as I know, no book exists. This book should fill the gap; but it does, I think, much more than that. For one characteristic of the island is that you will find quite a number of people who love it in a way shared, I think, by no other island of the West coast: people who understand, or are ready to understand, the meaning of the famous saying that Skye is not an island but an intoxication. That is a matter of feeling, which can no more be explained in cold print than any other form of love; but some of us know very well that it exists. It is the spirit of the island, of the land itself, and of the people who have made it; and I think this book goes as near to portraying it as one will get. The authoress has a great fund of knowledge of old legends and stories, customs and sayings, including various unpublished legends handed down by word of mouth; and one of the strengths of the book is the way in which she has caught and reproduced for her readers the atmosphere of a time long past.
Naturally the book has little mention of anything this side of the 45, and, like its material, deals chiefly with the Gaelic-Norse period; but this period itself rested upon an older stratum of forgotten peoples who often appear in legend as Sithe, fairies, and a few of whose place-names of the great cliff in Trotternish called Baca Ruach; and I have heard of people feeling much the same about Ben Loyal in Sutherland.
But the bulk of the stories we possess, whatsoever their ultimate origin, belong to the Gaelic-Norse period, an age of heroism and savagery, tenderness and cruelty, loyalty to the death, and treachery and baneful superstitions; of people gradually groping their way towards the new light shining from Iona. It is therefore right that while the first chapter of this book relates the gruesome fate of some outlaws whose captain managed to raise the devil by roasting three cats alive, the book should conclude with the touching and beautiful story of the rescue from death of some little lost children by St. Bride and her oyster-catchers.
W. W. TARN
Preface
Otta Swire loved Skye. Her parents had met at Orbost House on Loch Bracadale in 1892 when her father, a young barrister from London named William Tarn, had taken the rough shooting on the estate and had been captivated by Flora, the third daughter of John and Isabella Robertson of Orbost house. Otta was born on December 9th 1898 into that seemingly tranquil era before the first world war. Every year she would accompany her parents to Skye to enjoy summer holidays at her grandparents house along with sundry cousins, uncles and aunts from her mothers large family. It was here that she first heard the old island stories which excited her youthful imagination. They told her of an enchanting world inhabited by mythical creatures, witches and water-horses, giants and ghosts, saints and sinners, fairies and kelpies. These ancient tales, mainly from the GaelicNorse period, had been handed down by word of mouth to entertain many generations of Island people with deeds of heroism and bravery against implacable forces.
Young Otta was as fascinated by them as her ancestors had been, and as soon as she was old enough, she began to fill notebooks with collected legends. In 1946 she happily returned to Skye to live at Orbost House and shortly afterwards, Skye, the Island and its Legends was written and published. By the middle of the century she was aware that the old tradition of fireside story telling was unlikely to compete with radio and television for family entertainment, and it must have given her great satisfaction to record permanently for posterity her collection of Skye legends. Now she could share her appreciation of the bewitching yarns of the past, set ablaze when she was a small girl in her grannys house, with enthusiasts of the future. Otta Swire died in Skye in 1973.
Jim Swire
Acknowledgements
I WISH to express my thanks to Flora, Mrs. Macleod of Macleod, for all the help and encouragement she has given me, and for her permission to use the Dunvegan stories, especially the new Haardrada theory of the Fairy Flag. I wish also to thank Mr. William Mackinnon, Glendale, and Miss Nicolson, Ord House, Sleat, for their help on the traditions of their districts.
