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Audiobook edition · 10 h 59 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What stories lie beneath a quiet Scottish loch, or linger beside an old healing well?
In Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs, James M. Mackinlay explores the beliefs people attach to Scotland’s waters. Holy wells, healing springs and haunted lochs bring together local memory, parish records and older writings. His study asks why these places matter so deeply, and what their customs reveal about older ways of seeing the world.
Mackinlay begins with the idea that ancient peoples regard water as a living power. He argues that Christian traditions build upon earlier beliefs rather than simply replacing them. From wells associated with saints to tales of creatures beneath lochs, he traces the meeting of faith, fear and hope in Scottish local lore.
What you’ll discover
- Water as a living power Explore Mackinlay’s view that springs, rivers and lakes once inspire worship in ancient Britain.
- Saints beside old wells Follow his argument that Christian traditions settle over older customs at Scotland’s sacred waters.
- The hope of healing Encounter rituals surrounding wells believed to help sick children and ease bodily troubles.
- Spirits beneath the surface Meet the water spirits, strange beasts and guardians of Highland and Lowland tales.
- Local memories gathered together Discover how records, older writers and remembered traditions give these watery places their stories.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy legends of saints and water spirits, old Highland customs, travellers' tales, and finding a pagan past hidden in place-names and holy days.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Early Scots treated water as a living power
- Rivers and lochs demanded respect and offerings
- Christian saints took over the pagan wells
- Saints' lives left a well in nearly every district
- Wells were trusted to heal body and mind
- Some cures at sacred pools were harsh
- Wells foretold the future and judged the guilty
- Kelpies, water-horses and mermaids guarded the waters
- Gifts left at wells carried sickness away
- The calendar and the sun explain when wells mattered
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Folclore dei loch e delle fonti scozzesi
by James M. Mackinlay · 1893
An old woman at St Anthony's Well wraps a sick child's head in wet linen while the mother watches and weeps.
Medium level5–10 hours to readItaliano
Learn a language with medium classicsSpagnoloFranceseTedescoItalianoGiapponesePortogheseIngleseAll 25 languages
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In short
Picture a mother at St Anthony's Well near Edinburgh at sunset. Two old women dip cups in the pool and drink, then wrap a wet linen bandage around a pale child's head while the mother weeps quietly.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Early Scots treated water as a living power
Mackinlay begins with a simple claim. Our ancestors did not separate the natural from the supernatural, so for them water was alive. Its powers could help or harm, and they had to be kept friendly.
The clearest case comes from Martin, who visited the Western Isles near the end of the seventeenth century. On Lewis, each Hallowtide, one man waded into the sea up to his waist and threw a cup of ale to a sea god called Shony, asking for seaweed to enrich the land. In Shetland, the Sea-trows rose as seals and slipped off their skins on the beach. A man who stole a skin could keep a sea wife, but she would go home the moment she found it.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1893
- Language
- Italiano
- Level
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Cite this edition
Mackinlay, James M. Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/folklore-of-scottish-lochs-and-springs.
Mackinlay, J. M. (2026). Folklore of Scottish lochs and springs. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folklore-of-scottish-lochs-and-springs (Original work published 1893)
Mackinlay, James M. Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folklore-of-scottish-lochs-and-springs.
@book{mackinlay2026folklore,
author = {Mackinlay, James M.},
title = {Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/folklore-of-scottish-lochs-and-springs},
note = {First published 1893}
}
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What is Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs about?
It gathers the beliefs and customs attached to Scottish wells, lochs, rivers and the sea, from saints' springs and healing pools to water spirits, offerings, pilgrimages and wishing wells, and links them to older nature worship.
What is a kelpie in Scottish folklore?
A kelpie is a water spirit, often shaped like a horse, that waits by a ford or loch. It lures travellers onto its back and plunges into deep water. The book gives several tales of how people outwitted one.
Why were rags and pins left at holy wells?
Mackinlay explains them as gifts to the spirit of the well and as a way of leaving a disease behind. Taking an offering away was thought to bring the sickness to the person who took it.
The author
James M. Mackinlay
Scottish folklorist
James M. Mackinlay died in 1916. He wrote from Glasgow, where he dated the preface to this book in December 1893. His work shows a collector's patience, drawing on travellers' journals, church records, antiquarian proceedings and the comparative studies of his day to gather the folklore of Scotland's waters, wells and saints into one study.
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