selkie

[andrew1]

i got a reply from castletown which made me remember me of going there with my mates.we always seemed to end up at olrig cemetry and the story of the selkie the story i got told was of a minster finding a bairn on the shoreline half girl bottom half seal.the gravewas behind the old kirk and it had a glass init which was never ment to dry up the grave had a hole shaped like a foot which if you put your foot or hand in it you were ment to break a bone in the future. myself and my friends always said we did not believe it but nobody ever put a foot in it .does anyone else remember this or any other storys like this in caithness:D

[katarina]

I have heard a similar story, and the grave faced the sea, and there was always a small puddle of water on the stone that covered the grave. And it was a selkie not a slinky - whatever that is.

[brandy]

a slinky is the toy.. you know the coiled spring *grins* a selkie is the sea creature.. that are seals in the water .. but that they can shed their skin and become human. if you find a selkie skin and wrap it up from them they are indentured to you.. and can not go back to the sea until they find their skin..
and will oft waste away from longing to be back in the sea.

[codex]

Another story which is so enchanting ;)

I love this

The piper of Windy Ha

One sunny tranquil day in the leafy month of June, a cowboy called Peter Water (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Water&action=edit) stopped to drink and linger at the well, while on his way home to Windy Ha (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Windy_Ha&action=edit). He rested and slept till near sunset, when he was awakened by a touch on his shoulder. A young lady was beside him, dressed in green, her eyes blue and her hair in golden ringlets. Peter was bashful and felt himself blushing.
"I have come to make a man of you" the lady said. Peter mistook her meaning and demured. She laughed and continued with her offer: "I will put you in the way of rising in the world and making your fortune" she said, and she asked Peter to choose between a book and a pipe.
Both were magical. In the book Peter saw the status and fortunes of a popular preacher. In the pipe he saw those of a popular musician. He was attracted by both but, though he had never fingerd a pipe before, the pipe is what he chose. He found he could play the pipe immediately, and play it well. One condition was attached to the lady's gift: that he swear by the well to return in moonlight on the same evening seven years hence. Peter promised that if alive he would do so.
Peter was soon a popular and properous musician, growing in fame and fortune throughout the next seven years. Then he was true to his word and returned to the well of Sysa. Peter has never been seen since, but still his pipe is sometimes heard in Olrig. (The skeptical attribute the sound however to the wind playing though the radio masts on top of the hill.)