Kelpies
If you ever see a fine-looking horse standing on the shores of a loch, beware - it may be a kelpie.
The kelpie is a legendary, supernatural creature that haunts Scotland’s lochs and lonely rivers. Kelpies have the magical ability to shape-shift: taking the form of beautiful horses or handsome young men with dark eyes and pond weed in their hair. Some people believe that the Loch Ness Monster may be a kelpie.
'Every lake has its Kelpie, or Water-horse, often seen by the shepherd, as he sat in a summer's evening upon the brow of a rock, dashing along the surface of the deep, or browsing on the pasture-ground upon its verge.'
'Sketches of Perthshire' by Rev. Patrick Graham, 1812
It is said that kelpies, in the shape of horses, wait near the water to trap anyone that wanders by. They entice people to climb up on their backs but as soon as they do the kelpie gallops into the loch beneath the waters, where it devours its victim.
Some say that the kelpie can swell rivers or lochs beyond their usual limits so that they flood, breaking their banks and overwhelming hapless travellers.
Many different countries have stories of supernatural water horses; the Irish 'phooka' can appear as a bull, a pony or a horse. The Scandinavian 'Backahasten' ('brook-horse') is a beautiful but deadly white horse. French water horses can stretch their backs to carry more and more riders into dark lakes and pools. The Highland 'each uisge', a malevolent water horse, is matched by the Irish 'aughisky'.
If you manage to bridle a kelpie they can be put to work. They are much stronger than an ordinary horse, carrying huge loads. It's said that a kelpie carried all the stones that built St Vigean's Church, near Arbroath. The laird of Morphie made a kelpie work for him when he built his new castle. When the castle was finished the kelpie cursed the laird and his family.
According to tradition a supernatural sea-horse once lived in one of the lochs of Raasay near Skye. Scottish author James Boswell recorded the story.
'There was once a wild beast in it, a sea-horse, which came and devoured a man's daughter, upon which the man lighted a great fire and had a sow roasted in it, the smell of which attracted the monster. In the fire was put a spit. The man lay concealed behind a low wall of loose stones. The monster came, and the man with the red hot spit destroyed it.'
'The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson' by James Boswell, 1785
In Perth you can find 'Poll an tacharain', the pool of the kelpie, and on Islay is 'Clachan an tacharain', the ford of the kelpie.
The Kelpie's Stane
Near the Bridge of Luib, on the River Don, lies the 'Kelpie’s Stane’. Long ago a man who needed to cross the river found that torrential floods had destroyed the bridge. He was about to give up all hope of finding a crossing place when a tall stranger appeared from nowhere and offered to carry him across.
The man thanked the stranger and accepted his kind offer. Halfway across the river the stranger began to change. His hair turned into a long mane, matted with river weed, and his hands and feet turned into hooves. The tall stranger was a kelpie. As the man screamed, the kelpie tried to drag him down under the water.
Somehow the man managed to struggle free and scramble to the bank. The angry kelpie hurled a huge boulder at him. It missed him and landed near the river, where you can find it to this day.