Dalriada Celtic Heritage Trust: Traditional Tale

Scottish Folk Tales

CNOC AN T-SITHEIN

At Breighig, or Broad Bay, on the eastern side of the Isle of Barra, there once lived a man who spent much of his time by the shore, searching for anything the waves might have washed up. Round the headland of Ru Mor was a creek called Port an Duine, well known for the number of things that were washed up there. One day, the man was standing above the creek, looking down over the shore. As he was walking back up from the shore, suddenly he heard the pipes being played like he had never heard before. The sound seemed to come from under the ground, in front of him. As he drew closer the music grew louder, and he saw a flat stone set in the sea turf, and lifting this up he saw a flight of stairs leading downwards. Going down these he found the piper, dressed in kilts of beautiful green with silver buckled shoes. The piper made the man welcome and invited him to sit by a fire. Food was brought to the man, which he much enjoyed.

After a short time, he was told he could not stay any longer, and that it was time for him to go back now up the stairs, and put the stone back just as he had found it. The man duly did this, then set out for home. When he came to the place there was nothing but nettles and bracken and no sign of human habitation at all. The man was greatly disturbed by this and knew then that he must have been in Cnoc an t-Sithein, the Fairy Knoll. However, he sighted one house some way away and made his way towards it. In the house was a cobbler, a very old man mending boots.

"Come in" said the cobbler, "you are a stranger".

"Yes" said the man, "I am a stranger". And he told him how he had gone round Ru Mor and down to Port an Duine to the shore. The cobbler was amazed when the man told him his name, saying:

"Yes, I remember. I remember seeing my great grandfather, and he heard from his father that an old man went round the shore at the Ru Mor and never came back. And so you must be the man I heard of..." And the man who had been in the Fairy Knoll sat down on the cobbler's bench, and suddenly felt himself getting weaker and weaker. The priest came from the church and gave him the last rites, and as soon as that was done he crumpled down, a heap of earth.

[(c) Dalriada Celtic Heritage Trust]

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