Hagitude by Sharon Blackie

Author:Sharon Blackie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New World Library
Published: 2022-08-13T00:00:00+00:00

5

A FORCE OF NATURE

Guardians and Protectors of the Land

In a remote glen in the Scottish Highlands — one of the few which are inaccessible by car — lies a unique and hidden treasure. Glen Cailliche is home to a little-known shrine to a pre-Christian deity and to the remnants of a tradition of honoring it which folklorists believe dates back centuries. Rising up organically out of the peat, as all such temples of the people would once have done, is the house of the Cailleach: the archetypal Old Woman of Scottish and Irish mythology. In neither Celtic literature nor the folk narrative tradition does there exist a myth which specifically explains the creation of the universe, but in the folklore of Ireland and Scotland (and, to a lesser degree, the Isle of Man) there are many references to the Cailleach, who gives shape to the land throughout all its ages. Her stories are strung out across these Gaelic-speaking countries like the necklace of rough granite boulders which one old tale says she wore.

Looking for this unique shrine, I set off, one gloriously crisp, clear autumn morning, to walk the dirt road along Loch Lyon’s northern shore, heading west on the five-mile journey to the Cailleach’s glen. Even on this rare rain-free day, I felt as if I were walking through a waterworld. The loch glistened and glowered on my left, and waterfalls and tiny streams tumbled down the mountains on my right. A merlin sped across my path at head height — one of many rare birds, including golden eagles, which are known to breed in the area. In spite of the grazing sheep, there’s a wildness to this landscape which is rare in the British Isles. It’s a long enough walk to Glen Cailliche, but not especially difficult; the only real challenge presents itself when you come to Allt Meran, a plucky little river which has to be crossed before you can carry on west into the glen. Once I had forded the river, a mile or so later I found the shrine down near the fast-flowing Allt Cailliche, to the left of the narrowing path. It’s known as Tigh nam Bodach,* and is a simple, miniature thatched stone hut which is home to a small family of stones shaped by water into sort-of-human forms. The largest stone, with a squat base that narrows into a thin neck and is topped by a roundish head of pink stone, represents the Cailleach; the other two stones represent her husband and their daughter.

The folk tradition here says that the Cailleach and her family were once given shelter in the glen during a period of heavy snow; they liked it, and so stayed a while. So grateful was the Cailleach for this hospitality that she left these stones at the house she’d occupied — with the promise that, as long as they were cared for, the glen would always be peaceful and prosperous. And so this small shrine was constructed by the

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