The Lore of Scotland: A Guide to Scottish Legends

The Lore of Scotland gathers legends, beliefs, customs and traditional stories from across the country, arranged through its regions and local landscapes. Jennifer Westwood and Sophia Kingshill include tales of heroes, bloody feuds, giants, fairies, witches, kelpies, water-horses and the seal-people of Shetland, alongside accounts connected with Glasgow, Culloden, the Borders, Orkney and the Western Isles.

The book also considers how these stories developed and whether historical events lie behind particular traditions. Its subjects include the legends surrounding Macbeth, the claim that Mary King’s Close is Edinburgh’s most haunted street, the reputation of Skye’s MacCrimmons, and the enduring stories of figures such as St Columba, Sir William Wallace and Fingal.