October 2019
Halloween Origins: Samhain and the Cailleach
The origins of Halloween date back to an ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced sow-in) which celebrated the harvest and the arrival of the Cailleach. For the Celts who lived some 2,000 years ago, November [...]
The Minister, The Witch and The Witch Pricker: The Tragic Tale of Kathrin Key
Witch! This was perhaps the most fearsome word encountered by Kathrin Key, resident of the small fishing town of Newburgh in Fife. Witches were powerful. They could curse and cure, make cattle sick, kill children and [...]
COME VISIT SPOOKY SCOTLAND BY NIGHT
HAUNTED CASTLES, DARK HISTORY, MYTHS AND LEGENDS AWAIT
Come visit the land where the spirits roam free
Where witches and warlocks and ghosties you’ll see.
Come visit the abode of our restless kin
Where the veil to the spirit’s realm grows thin.
Come visit the sites where folk mourned their losses
By building tombstones marked with skull crosses.
Come visit the land where the castles are haunted
By some of the world’s ghostly most wanted.
Come visit the land where Halloween’s birth
Samhain, the feast of winter’s rebirth.
Come visit the place where druids did rove
By standing stones or hallowed grove.
Come visit the land where deep in the night
Myths and legends are whispered by candlelight
Of faerie folk called the Sith
And vampire women known as Baobhan Sìth,
Of brownies and boggles and giants and selkies,
And ghosties and ghoulies and demons and kelpies.
Come visit the land where those have the ‘Sight’
Come visit Spooky Scotland by night.