In Scottish folklore the Ghillie Dhu or Gille Dubh (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [ˈkʲiʎə ˈt̪u]) was a solitary male fairy. He was kind and reticent, yet sometimes wild in character. He had a gentle devotion to children. Dark-haired and clothed in leaves and moss, he lived in a birch wood within the Gairloch and Loch a Druing area of the north-west Highlands of Scotland. Ghillie Dhu is the eponym for the ghillie suit. [1]
Ghillie is an English equivalent of the Scottish Gaelic word gille; [2] Edward Dwelly, a Scottish lexicographer, lists gille as a "lad", "youth" or "boy" [3] with dubh translating as "dark" or "dark-haired". [4]
According to folklorist and scholar Katharine Briggs the Ghillie Dhu was a gentle and kind-hearted mountain spirit, [5] or a "rather unusual nature fairy." [6] The Ghillie Dhu was an individual male modern day fairy described by Osgood Mackenzie, a Scottish landowner and horticulturist, in his memoirs that were published in 1921. [5] [7] The fairy was generally timid, yet he could also be "wild". [8]
Residing in the birch woods near Loch a Druing, [9] in the north-west Highland area of Gairloch, [10] he was mainly seen in the latter part of the 18th century. [5] The woods are in a dip alongside a hilly area [11] around 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) from where Rua Reidh Lighthouse was later built. [9] One summer evening a local child named Jessie Macrae wandered into the woods and became lost. [9] Jessie was found by the Ghillie Dhu who looked after her until the next morning when he took her home. [9] Over a period of four decades the fairy was frequently seen by many people but Jessie was the only person he conversed with. [9] Generally of a dishevelled appearance, [12] he used green moss and leaves taken from trees as clothing. [9] As implied by his name, he had black hair; [9] he was of a small stature. [13] His fondness of children is similar to that displayed by the little known Hyter sprite of English mythology. [14]
Shortly after the Gille Dhu rescued Jessie, a group of Mackenzie dignitaries were invited by the landowner, Sir Hector Mackenzie of Gairloch, to get together to hunt and capture the Ghillie Dhu. [9] The team of five hunters congregated at the home of one of Mackenzie's tenants where they were provided with a complimentary evening meal before setting off on their mission to shoot the child-rescuing, kind Ghillie Dhu. [9] Despite searching extensively throughout the night, the hunters could not find their prey; [15] according to Patricia Monaghan, a writer on Celtic mythology, the Ghillie Dhu was never seen again. [12]
After researching folklore traditions gathered primarily from Gaelic areas of Scotland, [16] an authority on congenital disorders, Susan Schoon Eberly, has speculated the tale of the Ghillie Dhu may have a basis in a human being with a medical condition; [17] other academics, such as Carole G. Silver, Professor of English at Stern College for Women, [18] agree and suggest he was a dwarf. [13] Eberly maintained several other solitary or individual fairies, including the Brownie and the Manx Fenodyree, could also have a medical, rather than supernatural, explanation. [19]
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