BEASTS OF THE SCOTTISH MOUNTAINS
Biast bhealach (beast of the pass)
The Bealach Udal is the mountain pass between Kylerhea and Glen Arroch on Skye. Today this route is a back road, used manly in summer by tourists taking the ferry option onto and off Skye, for the romance of the sea instead of the practicality of the bridge. Otherwise there is a scattered community at Kylerhea and an otter-watching site. The pass is quiet, bounded by hills and with the ground a mix of heather, forestry, rushes and grass. It’s easy enough to let your imagination run away in a place like this but in years past this was the route onto and off the Isle of Skye. Pretty-much all traffic came this way, over the Mam Ratagan Pass on the Mainland to Glenelg and aboard the ferry across the Kyle Rhea to Skye, then on and over the Bealach Udal. Not only travelers but cattle came this too with the herds of Skye swimming the waters to the mainland and their long drove south to the markets. The Bealach Udal would have been a busier place than it is today.
Yet at night it would still be all to easy, especially in more superstitious times, to imagine terrors lurking in the hills and hollows and the darkness of night. Stories tell of of demonic creature that lived in the pass, howling in the night and taking on, at times, the appearance of a great hound. It would leap upon terrified travelers in a terrible attack, tearing with its teeth at their flesh.
For the traveler, having already braved or suffered the Mam Ratagan pass and the swift running waters of the kyle the transition from human company on the ferry and at the two crossing points to the blackness, bleakness and solitude of that 900 feet high pass, rising from the shoreline in just 2 miles, it was all too easy to feel the fear of the beast of the pass.
The Bealach Udal is the mountain pass between Kylerhea and Glen Arroch on Skye. Today this route is a back road, used manly in summer by tourists taking the ferry option onto and off Skye, for the romance of the sea instead of the practicality of the bridge. Otherwise there is a scattered community at Kylerhea and an otter-watching site. The pass is quiet, bounded by hills and with the ground a mix of heather, forestry, rushes and grass. It’s easy enough to let your imagination run away in a place like this but in years past this was the route onto and off the Isle of Skye. Pretty-much all traffic came this way, over the Mam Ratagan Pass on the Mainland to Glenelg and aboard the ferry across the Kyle Rhea to Skye, then on and over the Bealach Udal. Not only travelers but cattle came this too with the herds of Skye swimming the waters to the mainland and their long drove south to the markets. The Bealach Udal would have been a busier place than it is today.
Yet at night it would still be all to easy, especially in more superstitious times, to imagine terrors lurking in the hills and hollows and the darkness of night. Stories tell of of demonic creature that lived in the pass, howling in the night and taking on, at times, the appearance of a great hound. It would leap upon terrified travelers in a terrible attack, tearing with its teeth at their flesh.
For the traveler, having already braved or suffered the Mam Ratagan pass and the swift running waters of the kyle the transition from human company on the ferry and at the two crossing points to the blackness, bleakness and solitude of that 900 feet high pass, rising from the shoreline in just 2 miles, it was all too easy to feel the fear of the beast of the pass.
Direach Ghlinn Eiti
Despite some attempts by writers to elevate the Direach Ghlinn Eiti to the status of a giant he was instead a dwarf for the name means Dwarf of Glen Etive.
Often referred to by the name Fachan the Direach was a truly bizarre creature, perhaps the strangest of all Highland creatures bar the Brollachan. The Direach had but one eye in his head, one ear, indeed one leg only too and one hand. This single hand protruded from an arm like ridge growing from the middle of his chest. He was hairy with a hard tuft of hair on his head and he carried in his one strange hand a great spiked club. He also wore a mantle of feathers and his skin was black as night.
With this club he would chase travelers away from his haunts although so terrifying was his appearance that some would simply die of heart failure on sight.
He lived high in the mountains surrounding this long, remote glen.
Despite some attempts by writers to elevate the Direach Ghlinn Eiti to the status of a giant he was instead a dwarf for the name means Dwarf of Glen Etive.
Often referred to by the name Fachan the Direach was a truly bizarre creature, perhaps the strangest of all Highland creatures bar the Brollachan. The Direach had but one eye in his head, one ear, indeed one leg only too and one hand. This single hand protruded from an arm like ridge growing from the middle of his chest. He was hairy with a hard tuft of hair on his head and he carried in his one strange hand a great spiked club. He also wore a mantle of feathers and his skin was black as night.
With this club he would chase travelers away from his haunts although so terrifying was his appearance that some would simply die of heart failure on sight.
He lived high in the mountains surrounding this long, remote glen.
Baobhan Sith
The Baobhan sith was an evil, dangerous spirit of the remote woods and hills. Living in bands they were quite unlike the usual solitary Highland spirit and would appear to passing travelers at beautiful women luring and enticing the passer-by. If he fell to their charms they would take him off and feed on him vampire-like, his induced passion proving fatal.
They were, however, afraid of iron and a horseshoe or other iron object could keep the traveler safe.
They were also said to appear as Hooded Crows.
There is a Ross-shire story of the Baobhan sith. Four men out hunting took refuge in a shieling. During the evening they passed the time singing songs. One of the men sang of his wish for women. No sooner had he done so than four women appeared at the shieling door. Not believing their luck the men took them in and they danced to the music and singing. As the evening wore on their dancing became more intense and the women more impassioned. Passionate dancing turned to frenzied writhing and the women tore at the clothing of the men. Yet the men were not to have their passions sated for the tearing of cloth turned to the tearing of flesh and the frenzied women began feasting on the blood and bodies of the dying men. Only the man playing the music escaped this murderous passion. Fleeing out of the door he hid among the horses, all of course iron-shod. There the Baobhan sith could see their victim but could not get to him. There he remained all night, cornered by the blood soaked women only able to flee in the morning when the Baobhan sith had fled the dawn. Safe now he returned to the shieling to see if his colleagues had survived, only to find mutilated corpses, ripped, torn and drained of blood.