Annie and Jenny share some lighthearted folklore on the theme of tartans and plaids! Tartan eels, ghosts and fairies: this is a jolly voyage into rich Scottish mythology.
This episode is sponsored by Scotland Shop. If you are tempted to check out some of Scotland Shop’s beautiful tartan garments and fabrics, please follow this link to Scotland Shop. https://hubs.ly/H0-0fjl0
You can support Stories of Scotland on Patreon! www.patreon.com/storiesofscotland
Read MoreDo you want to know the secrets of the bees? So do we! In this bonus episode, Jenny and Annie speak to author Diana Gabaldon known for her bestselling Outlander series of novels. We are celebrating the highly-anticipated release of Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone on November 23rd 2021. Diana discusses her interest and research into Scottish heritage, culture, and folklore.
Read MoreIn this bonus episode, Jenny and Annie speak to Scottish actor Graham McTavish. Graham has had an incredibly successful acting career and is well-known for many of his roles including Outlander, the Hobbit films, Castlevania, and the forthcoming Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon.
While working on Outlander, Graham became good friends with Sam Heughan and together they have created the TV Series Men in Kilts and are soon to release a follow-up to their globally bestselling book Clanlands. On November 23rd 2021, the Clanlands Almanac will be released.
Read MoreIn this episode, Annie and Jenny tell some truly terrifying tales from the Borders of Scotland. We’ve all heard something go bump in the night that’s made the hairs on our neck stand on end, and while sometimes it’s as innocent as an open window in the attic, other times it can be as dastardly as the devil. These spooky tales from the archives explore the rolling moors of the Borders, haunted towers, and decrepit mansions.
So come and join us as we peek behind the veil, and then quickly run away, too scared to look back.
This episode is sponsored by Scotland Shop. If you are tempted to check out some of Scotland Shop’s beautiful tartan garments and fabrics, please follow this link to Scotland Shop. https://hubs.ly/H0-0fjl0
Read MoreJoin Annie and Jenny as they go back to the witch panics of Early Modern Scotland. We examine the witch trial of Elizabeth Bathgate from Eyemouth, and look at what witchcraft trials reveal about superstitions and paranoia of times past.
This episode is sponsored by Scotland Shop. If you are tempted to check out some of Scotland Shop’s beautiful tartan garments and fabrics, please follow this link to Scotland Shop.
Read MoreJoin Annie and Jenny on a trip to the Cèilidh house, as they discuss the magic of this old tradition. We blether about some old cèilidh lore, exploring how cèilidhs keep communities connected. We look at how the cèilidh house sometimes develops its own lore of ghosts, magic and wonder.
Stories of Scotland is an award-winning Scottish history podcast, proudly recorded in the Highlands. We research our heritage and mythology podcast using archives, books, museum objects, and oral histories from across Scotland.
You can support Stories of Scotland on Patreon! www.patreon.com/storiesofscotland
Read MoreContent warning: Discussion of death and funerals.
Join Annie and Jenny as they explore the curious Highland beliefs of the second sight. In this second part on the glorious mountain of Schiehallion, we learn about the time Robert the Bruce sought sanctuary at Schiehallion, a piper tempted by the fairy hill, and the superstitions of second sight in Rannoch. Be captured by the fairies in this enchanting episode!
You can support Stories of Scotland on Patreon! www.patreon.com/storiesofscotland
Read MoreAnnie and Jenny hike up Schiehallion, one of Scotland’s most famous peaks. This astounding mountain is home to world changing history. This episode includes an oral history with a squeaky rocking chair. Located in the heart of Scotland, Schiehallion was the site of an intricate experiment that weighed the world. It’s unique conical shape drew astronomers, physicists, mathematicians and geologists together in the 18th century to calculate the earth’s mass for the first time, causing an earthquake in the warring schools of geology.
Mountaineering in the Scottish Highlands can be dangerous, especially in the winter, but an excerpt from the Scottish Mountaineering Journal opens up the Scottish Wilderness and all it’s beauty during this time.
Read MoreJenny and Annie learn about the MacMhuirich bardic family and the significance of bards in the Gaelic dominium. This tremendously fun episode takes us back to Medieval Ireland, to look at the time when the seeds of the MacMhuirich dynasty were sown in Scotland.
We recite some English translates of MacMhuirich poetry and look at the stories behind their compositions.
Read MoreJenny and Annie continue looking at Highland clan culture, exploring the sluagh-ghairm.
Sluagh-ghairm is Gaelic and translates to ‘battle cry’ but it has multi-layered meanings. Sluagh-ghairm is also where we get the English word ‘slogan’ used in advertising. A Highland clan would choose a sluagh-ghairm to showcase their bravery, values, or very often as the gathering place for the fighting men. Join Jenny and Annie as they explore the battle cry of the Clan Macnaghten/MacNaughton and the legends of Fraoch Eilean.
Listen to an authentic Gaelic ballad of Fraoch and the rowan berries here: https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/88050
The Records of Argyll, Legends Traditions of Argyllshire Highlanders is available to read here: https://archive.org/stream/recordsofargylll00campuoft
Read MoreAnnie and Jenny start to explore the relationship between Highland clans and land. We begin by discussing the Gaelic concept of Dùthchas, learning more about how clans divided up their territories.
We then move to the legend of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne and Gràinne. We look at the connection between Ireland and Scotland, and how legends shape our clan identities.
Look out for these Gaelic phrases-
Dualchas: heritage or tradition.
Dùthchas: place of birth, hereditary rights to land, birth-tie. Fàilte is furan: a warm welcome!
Geas: a spell or enchantment.
Slàinte mhath: good health, cheers! A toast to your health.
Read MoreAnnie and Jenny explore spunkie-haunted bogs, the natural phenomenon that has long been regarded in Scottish folklore as a forewarning symbol of danger. In the Highlands, we call them Spunkies, but you may know them as the Will o the Wisps!
These are thought to be caused by the spontaneous ignition of gas that has been produced by rotting marsh vegetation however folklore associated will o the wisp connected them with the spirits of the dead and even imps or fairies. They are known to be deadly, luring travelers to their doom.
We read from extracts in the Inverness Courier, Aberdeen Press & Journal, and Ada Goodrich Freer’s Folklore on the Hebrides.
Read MoreJoin Annie and Jenny on a Wild Prince Chase as they follow the path of Bonnie Prince Charlie after the Battle of Culloden. We meet the wonderful and romanticised Flora MacDonald, the young islander at the heart of a scheme to support Bonnie Prince Charlie’s escape.
We read from a letter from Charles Edward Stuart sent on 28th April 1646, and use accounts of his escape from The Lyon in Mourning by Bishop Forbes. Also, we quote from Flora MacDonald which was taken in Apple Cross Bay on July 12th 1746 on the UK National Archives website.
Read MoreJenny and Annie consider the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden and the brutalities committed by the Duke of Cumberland and the British Government forces on the people of the Highlands after 1746. We look into the events recorded in The Lyon in mourning; Jacobite Memoirs by Robert Forbes.
Trigger Warning: this episode contains discussion of murder, violence, and rape.
Stories of Scotland is a multi-award-winning Scottish history podcast, proudly recorded in Inverness in the Highlands. We research our heritage and mythology podcast using archives, books, museum objects, and oral histories from across Scotland.
Read MoreIn the first episode of a new series, Jenny and Annie have a look at the Battle of Culloden, and the background politics that lead up to it.
One of the most mythologised conflicts of all time, we try to piece together why so many raised their weapons to fight for Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Now managed by the National Trust, Culloden Battlefield is of huge significance to Scottish history.
Read MoreYoung fisher Mairi will do anything to return the sealskin to her almost-beloved selkie. The only problem is a few terrifying monsters stand in the way.
In this final episode of a three-part miniseries, Annie and Jenny of Stories of Scotland Podcast retell classic Scottish mythology with a queer twist. Join Mairi on her journey into love & lore.
Funded by the Edwin Morgan Trust Second Life Award, Queer as Folktales is a lighthearted look at how traditional folklore can be reimagined to incorporate the LGBT+ community of the Scottish Highlands and Islands.
Read MoreOn the advice of an old fisher, young fisher Mairi and her old terrier make a journey across the Pentland Firth from Orkney to Caithness. Their destination is the land of the fairies, inside Bruan Broch. But how can they enter the underworld? And will they escape?
In this second episode of a three-part miniseries, Annie and Jenny of Stories of Scotland Podcast retell classic Scottish mythology with a queer twist. Join Mairi on her journey into love & lore.
Funded by the Edwin Morgan Trust Second Life Award, Queer as Folktales is a lighthearted look at how traditional folklore can be reimagined to incorporate the LGBT+ community of the Scottish Highlands and Islands.
Listen to episodes in order for the tale to make sense.
Read MoreAn unnaturally strong storm rolls over Orkney on Spring Tide. In the morning a young fisher and her old terrier stumble across a washed-up seal, or is it a washed-up woman? Or could it be both?
In this first episode of a three-part miniseries, Annie and Jenny of Stories of Scotland Podcast retell classic Scottish mythology with a queer twist. Join Mairi on her journey into love & lore.
Funded by the Edwin Morgan Trust Second Life Award, Queer as Folktales is a lighthearted look at how traditional folklore can be reimagined to incorporate the LGBT+ community of the Scottish Highlands and Islands.
Listen to subsequent episodes in order for the tale to make sense.
Read MoreIn this episode, Jenny MacHaggis and Annie MacNeep explore the rich history of mythologies, legends and recipes of Scotland’s national dish: the haggis.
We look at the ingredients in a Victorian haggis and blether about what can folklore of the wild haggis tell us about Scottish identity? What is the old legend of how the haggis freed Scotland? Is that haggis related to the bagpipe? All this and more in our Burns Night Special.
Read MoreJenny and Annie take a dance across the mythologies of the northern lights of Scotland. Upon finding their Scots legends of the aurora borealis, they end up rather unexpectedly in the Battle of Flodden: a battle said to have been written in the sky.
For this episode, we used the books: Rock-bound: a Story of the Shetland Isles by Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby published in 1877 and Fatal Rivalry, Flodden 1513 by George Goodwin published in 2013. We read extracted from the Fife Herald published on 3rd May 1838, the poem of Flodden by W E Ayton from Harper's new monthly magazine volume 28, and the song Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen by Mary Webb.
We also retold this oral history from George Peterson: www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/77252
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