Scottish Studies
type: channel
description: Scottish Studies is the journal of the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh. The journal reflects the eight main research areas of the school: tales, custom and belief, material culture, song, instrumental music, place-names, dialectology and social organisation.
publisher: University of Edinburgh
language: en
publication name: Scottish Studies
issn: 2052-3629
items: Editor's Note
items: Abstracts
items: Borgstrøm's Word Lists: East Sutherland and Easter Ross Dialects in the Light of the Scottish Gaelic Dialect Survey
items: Giollas na gCos Dubh'
items: The Dead Bridegroom' (ATU 365) in Iceland
items: Ossianic Informants Named by the Rev. Dr Alexander Irvine (1773–1824)
items: Craobh nan Ubhal: A Gaelic Panegyric
items: Shades of Light and Darkness
items: An Cùbair Collach agus a' Chuibheall-Chnò'
items: Aspects of the Marine Otherworld of Rathlin Island
items: The Women of Islay and Issues of Gender in the Core Fairy Tale Repertoires of Scotland and Appalachia
items: A' Chluais-chiùil ann an Dualchas nan Gàidheal
items: The Fiddler and the Waterfall: The Quest for Inspiration in Norwegian Legends of Fiddlers
items: Maritime Folklore in the West Highlands: Some Mid-century Collectors and their Informants (1953–1970)
items: Music from the Source: Am Muileann Dubh and North Atlantic Supernatural Music Legends
items: A Song Remembered in Exile: Anna a Ghaoil, hao ill o, Fear chanaidh, agus Eòin G. MacFhionghain
items: Folklore Reminiscences' of John Lorne Campbell
items: Up in the Air' or 'The Grey Mare': A Scottish and English Prosimetrical Form of ATU 1540, 'The Student from Paradise (Paris)'
items: From Farm to Fork in South Uist
items: Oral Narrative and Propaganda
items: Publications of John William Shaw
items: John William Shaw: A Biographical Note
items: Front Matter
items: Obituary: Ian A. Fraser, 1941-2025
items: Understanding Scotland Musically: Folk, Tradition and Policy, ed. Simon McKerrell and Gary West
items: Gun Sireadh, Gun Iarraidh: The Tolmie Collection, ed. Kenna Campbell and Ainsley Hamill
items: Standing on the Edge of Being: Scotland 1850 to COP 26, by Richard D. Oram
items: The Order of the Elephant': Symbols and Power in the Policing of Land Agitation in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland
items: Why was Agnes Randolph 'Black'?
items: Join Together, Fight Together, Die Together: Scottish Sportsmen, the Great War and Enlistment

Editor's Note
type: item
subject: Editorial
  topic: section
subject: john shaw
  topic: keywords
subject: scottish studies
  topic: keywords
creator: Virginia Blankenhorn
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: v
ending page: v
doi: 10.2218/ncapyv37

Abstracts
type: item
description: Summaries of the articles in this volume.
subject: Back Matter
  topic: section
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 286
ending page: 290
doi: 10.2218/f7ev3g85

Borgstrøm's Word Lists: East Sutherland and Easter Ross Dialects in the Light of the Scottish Gaelic Dialect Survey
type: item
description: This article surveys points of similarity between the Scottish Gaelic spoken in Easter Ross – a distinct dialect area not covered by Børgstrom’s 1942 study of Skye and Ross-shire Gaelic – and the dialects of East Sutherland / Caithness, features of which were identified by Nancy Dorian’s 1978 study of East Sutherland Gaelic and subsequently brought together in the Scottish Gaelic Dialect Survey published in the 1990s. Basing his study on two of Børgstrom’s word lists, the author identifies isogloss boundaries in light of SGDS data to help us towards a better understanding of the dialects of the Eastern Highlands.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: analogical formation
  topic: keywords
subject: genitive singular
  topic: keywords
subject: morphology
  topic: keywords
subject: phonology
  topic: keywords
subject: phonological change
  topic: keywords
subject: plural formation
  topic: keywords
subject: verbal change
  topic: keywords
subject: verbal noun
  topic: keywords
creator: Seosamh Watson
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 260
ending page: 285
doi: 10.2218/y47j3h45

Giollas na gCos Dubh'
type: item
description: The author recorded the tale entitled ‘Giollas na gCos Dubh’ from Pádraig Ó Nia, originally from the island of Fínis, Co. Galway, in 1982. To date, only two other versions of the tale have been identified, although some motifs are found in other narratives. After introducing the storyteller and describing his community, the author transcribes the tale, in which the hero rescues a mortal held captive by the fairies, frees her from a sleep charm, and marries her. When Giollas again encounters the fairies, they ask him to help them abduct a mortal woman. He insists that they go first to Rome, where the fairies help Giollas persuade the Pope to allow Giollas’ local priest to resume celebrating mass. Returning to Ireland, Giollas sabotages the fairies’ planned abduction, and the woman is safe. This article is written in Irish.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Carna
  topic: keywords
subject: Conamara
  topic: keywords
subject: Connemara
  topic: keywords
subject: Feenish Island
  topic: keywords
subject: Fínis
  topic: keywords
subject: Galway
  topic: keywords
subject: Ireland
  topic: keywords
subject: fairies
  topic: keywords
subject: folktale
  topic: keywords
subject: legend
  topic: keywords
subject: mass
  topic: keywords
subject: otherworld
  topic: keywords
subject: Pope
  topic: keywords
subject: supernatural
  topic: keywords
creator: Ríonach uí Ógáin
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 251
ending page: 259
doi: 10.2218/884tvk50

The Dead Bridegroom' (ATU 365) in Iceland
type: item
description: The tale is familiar: A young woman is collected from her home and taken on horseback by a male figure known to her, but subsequently discovers that the rider is his ghost, and that the grave is their destination. While AUT 365 is known throughout Europe, this article traces the form and details of the story as they were localised to reflect the social reality of Iceland. Beginning with ‘The Deacon of Myrká’, collected by Konrad Maurer and included in his 1860 collection of Icelandic tales, the article discusses five further variants published by Jón Árnason beginning in 1862, and one collected in Canada by Torfhildur Hólm from a fellow Icelandic settler sometime after 1876. After discussing how these variants reflect the Icelandic context, the author suggests that they may ultimately derive from oral traditions disseminated by trade between Iceland and England during the fifteenth century.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Deacon of Myrká
  topic: keywords
subject: folktale
  topic: keywords
subject: ghosts
  topic: keywords
subject: Holland Handkerchief
  topic: keywords
subject: Konrad Maurer
  topic: keywords
subject: Icelandic
  topic: keywords
subject: Jón Árnason
  topic: keywords
subject: Suffolk Miracle
  topic: keywords
subject: supernatural
  topic: keywords
subject: Torfhildur Hólm
  topic: keywords
creator: Rósa Þorsteinsdóttir
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 239
ending page: 250
doi: 10.2218/fqpmhs89

Ossianic Informants Named by the Rev. Dr Alexander Irvine (1773–1824)
type: item
description: The Rev. Alexander Irvine (1773–1824), minister of Little Dunkeld, Perthshire (1806–1824), was an acknowledged Gaelic scholar and collector of Gaelic oral and written materials. Unlike many of his predecessors, he was careful to record metadata associated with his sources. This paper, which is based for the most part on key Irvine manuscripts, provides the names and further details of twenty-three tradition bearers or informants of Ossianic material named by Irvine, one of whom was a woman.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: collector
  topic: keywords
subject: eighteenth century
  topic: keywords
subject: fieldwork
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic literature
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic manuscript
  topic: keywords
subject: nineteenth century
  topic: keywords
subject: oral tradition
  topic: keywords
subject: Ossian
  topic: keywords
subject: Perthshire
  topic: keywords
subject: scholarship
  topic: keywords
subject: tradition
  topic: keywords
subject: transmission
  topic: keywords
subject: verse
  topic: keywords
creator: Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 224
ending page: 238
doi: 10.2218/p5zfr475

Craobh nan Ubhal: A Gaelic Panegyric
type: item
description: Craobh nan Ubhal forms part of the well-known corpus of Gaelic waulking songs. Drawing on the idea of the chief as a miraculously fecund apple tree, through fulsome praise, the female speaker bears witness to her patron’s prosperity, with exhortations to the elemental powers for his continued success. Both singers and audiences implicitly understood inherent concepts of kingship, sovereignty, charismatic personhood and leadership. Using nineteenth and twentieth century printed and audio texts, this paper examines links with early Irish tree lore, which continued to inform a Gaelic worldview for over a millennium. Popularised by the renowned Flora MacNeil, her family's views on ‘Craobh nan Ubhal’ testify to the song’s separate categorisation apart from other work songs. The exploration concludes that ‘Craobh nan Ubhal’ is an exceptional example of the continuity and dynamism of Gaelic tradition, continuously adapting to new and varied contexts.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Flora MacNeil
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: lore
  topic: keywords
subject: poetry
  topic: keywords
subject: praise
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: Scottish
  topic: keywords
subject: songs
  topic: keywords
subject: singing
  topic: keywords
subject: singer
  topic: keywords
subject: symbol
  topic: keywords
subject: symbolism
  topic: keywords
subject: tradition
  topic: keywords
subject: tree
  topic: keywords
subject: waulking
  topic: keywords
subject: work song
  topic: keywords
creator: Lillis Ó Laoire
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 212
ending page: 223
doi: 10.2218/hzgfhd91

Shades of Light and Darkness
type: item
description: Irish people, especially those living in rural areas, reflected their keen awareness of the passage of time in expressions describing the shortening daylight hours in autumn and the imperceptible advance towards spring in the winter months. The author examines several idioms tracking the sun’s progress – and that of time itself – and their linkage with calendar customs in the Irish countryside.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: autumn
  topic: keywords
subject: calendar
  topic: keywords
subject: Christmas
  topic: keywords
subject: custom
  topic: keywords
subject: Epiphany
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: idiom
  topic: keywords
subject: Ireland
  topic: keywords
subject: Irish
  topic: keywords
subject: New Year
  topic: keywords
subject: solstice
  topic: keywords
subject: Stephen’s Day
  topic: keywords
subject: time
  topic: keywords
subject: winter
  topic: keywords
creator: Séamas Ó Catháin
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 209
ending page: 211
doi: 10.2218/0w6dte27

An Cùbair Collach agus a' Chuibheall-Chnò'
type: item
description: In this article, the author presents a tale told by his grand-uncle Charles MacDonald (1874–1960), whose storytelling was part of his childhood in Tiree. The tale concerns Alexander Maclean (1776–1822), the ‘Cùbair Collach’, a Coll man whose reputation as a daring whisky-smuggler made him the subject of colourful anecdotes. In this one, the Cùbair persuades a mermaid to give him two devices: a ‘wireless’ that allows him to track the exciseman’s whereabouts, and a ‘smoke-screen’ that obscures his own. The author compares MacDonald’s narrative with an outline of the same story summarised by a Coll writer, Hector MacDougall (1889–1954), who says he heard it from a Tiree man. Although it relates to an early nineteenth-century character, the story’s technological references strongly indicate that it was first told in the early 20th century. This article is written in Gaelic.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Coll
  topic: keywords
subject: excise
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: gauger
  topic: keywords
subject: Hebrides
  topic: keywords
subject: Hector MacLean MacDougall
  topic: keywords
subject: morse code
  topic: keywords
subject: rope-making
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: Scottish
  topic: keywords
subject: smokescreen
  topic: keywords
subject: smuggling
  topic: keywords
subject: storytellingstorytelling
  topic: keywords
subject: Tiree
  topic: keywords
subject: whiskey
  topic: keywords
subject: whisky
  topic: keywords
subject: wireless
  topic: keywords
creator: Dòmhnall Eachann Meek
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 200
ending page: 208
doi: 10.2218/rywpzc70

Aspects of the Marine Otherworld of Rathlin Island
type: item
description: This article examines maritime stories and folklore collected in Rathlin Island. Located between Ireland’s north coast and southwestern Scotland, Rathlin has long connected the two countries while also developing its own distinctive culture. Just as its Irish Gaelic dialect shares a range of linguistic isoglosses with Scottish Gaelic, Rathlin’s heritage includes many maritime customs, stories and beliefs also found in Scotland. Seals, mermaids, sea monsters, supernatural boats, shipwrecks, fishing taboos, enchanted islands and other phenomena associated with the island’s marine otherworld have been central to Rathlin’s culture and its stories.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: belief
  topic: keywords
subject: fabulate
  topic: keywords
subject: fishing
  topic: keywords
subject: folklore
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: Ireland
  topic: keywords
subject: Irish
  topic: keywords
subject: legend
  topic: keywords
subject: maritime
  topic: keywords
subject: memorate
  topic: keywords
subject: narrative
  topic: keywords
subject: otherworld
  topic: keywords
subject: seal
  topic: keywords
subject: sea monster
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: Scottish
  topic: keywords
subject: shipwreck
  topic: keywords
subject: story
  topic: keywords
subject: supernatural
  topic: keywords
subject: taboo
  topic: keywords
creator: Séamus Mac Mathúna
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 190
ending page: 199
doi: 10.2218/kz694b43

The Women of Islay and Issues of Gender in the Core Fairy Tale Repertoires of Scotland and Appalachia
type: item
description: An underappreciated aspect of John Francis Campbell’s Popular Tales of the West Highlands is the richness of its representation of the women storytellers of Islay. Although female narrators recorded outside of Islay account for less than four percent of Campbell’s published texts, women contributed more than half of the published Islay tales. This repertoire represents an otherwise hidden domestic tradition with strong links to women’s narrative traditions documented in the Scottish Lowlands in the nineteenth century and the Appalachian Mountains in the twentieth. Both Campbell and his star fieldworker Hector MacLean were Islay natives with lifelong ties to the narrators. This familiarity allowed the two men not only to record the women’s tales, but also to describe performance contexts and to show how one island community shaped a repertoire that is both distinctively Gaelic and demonstrably continuous with the female repertoires of Scots-speaking Lowlanders and English-speaking North Americans.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Appalachian
  topic: keywords
subject: Berea College
  topic: keywords
subject: Charles Perrault
  topic: keywords
subject: comparative
  topic: keywords
subject: fireside
  topic: keywords
subject: folktale
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: Grimm
  topic: keywords
subject: Hector MacLean
  topic: keywords
subject: John Francis Campbell
  topic: keywords
subject: Kentucky
  topic: keywords
subject: Leonard Roberts
  topic: keywords
subject: Margaret Conal
  topic: keywords
subject: narrative
  topic: keywords
subject: nursemaid
  topic: keywords
subject: nursery
  topic: keywords
subject: oral tradition
  topic: keywords
subject: Popular Tales of the West Highlands
  topic: keywords
subject: Robert Chambers
  topic: keywords
subject: women storytellers
  topic: keywords
creator: Carl Lindahl
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 175
ending page: 189
doi: 10.2218/wq70ck88

A' Chluais-chiùil ann an Dualchas nan Gàidheal
type: item
description: In generations past, Gaels had difficulty separating melody from words. When discussing a song, for example, someone who knew the air to a song was thereby assumed to know the words as well. A wide range of evidence also points to a pervasive cultural tendency to mix instrumental music and song. Lastly, music and song are frequently conflated in Gaelic traditional narrative – most apparently in tales of the cluas-chiùil (‘musical-ear’), the ability to transmit and receive messages through instrumental music, with many such narratives serving as aetiologies for well-known pipe tunes and dance songs. While the cluas-chiùil may be regarded as a supernatural trope, these tales – coupled with linguistic evidence – point towards an earlier cognitive configuration that entails a very close relationship between words and music. This article is written in Gaelic.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: bagpiping
  topic: keywords
subject: cognition
  topic: keywords
subject: fiddle
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: language
  topic: keywords
subject: learning
  topic: keywords
subject: memory
  topic: keywords
subject: music
  topic: keywords
subject: narrative
  topic: keywords
subject: otherworld
  topic: keywords
subject: pibroch
  topic: keywords
subject: pìob-mhòr
  topic: keywords
subject: piper
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: song
  topic: keywords
subject: supernatural
  topic: keywords
subject: story
  topic: keywords
subject: tradition
  topic: keywords
creator: William Lamb
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 161
ending page: 174
doi: 10.2218/6c51bb04

The Fiddler and the Waterfall: The Quest for Inspiration in Norwegian Legends of Fiddlers
type: item
description: Tracing cultural affinities between stories recorded in the Northern Isles of Scotland (especially Shetland) and those found in the wider Nordic world, the author examines legends and beliefs connecting fiddle music and the supernatural. Tales tell of would-be musicians learning tunes from supernatural masters, and in some legends these are demonic figures with whom the musician must fight for his life. Many stories suggest a belief that running water – a stream, a mill, a waterfall – can provide artistic inspiration, and that such environments possess a liminal quality where natural and supernatural worlds meet. The author argues that stories asserting the supernatural origins of fiddling skills and tunes likely go back to a shared Nordic, rather than mainland Scottish tradition.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: belief
  topic: keywords
subject: fairy
  topic: keywords
subject: fairies
  topic: keywords
subject: fiddling
  topic: keywords
subject: Finland
  topic: keywords
subject: Iceland
  topic: keywords
subject: learning
  topic: keywords
subject: legend
  topic: keywords
subject: music
  topic: keywords
subject: Norway
  topic: keywords
subject: Orkney
  topic: keywords
subject: otherworld
  topic: keywords
subject: Shetland
  topic: keywords
subject: story
  topic: keywords
subject: supernatural
  topic: keywords
subject: teaching
  topic: keywords
subject: tune
  topic: keywords
subject: tradition
  topic: keywords
creator: Terry Gunnell
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 151
ending page: 160
doi: 10.2218/8mcnmb26

Maritime Folklore in the West Highlands: Some Mid-century Collectors and their Informants (1953–1970)
type: item
description: The article focuses on the oral maritime heritage of the West Highlands and Islands of Scotland, discussing legends and stories collected in the mid-20th century and maintained in the School of Scottish Studies Archives at the University of Edinburgh. Items include omens warning fishermen of adverse conditions at sea, premonitions of future disasters, and lore involving seals, water horses and mermaids. The contributions of some of the School of Scottish Studies’ outstanding informants, including Kate Dix of Berneray and Nan MacKinnon of Vatersay, are featured.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Calum Maclean
  topic: keywords
subject: collectors
  topic: keywords
subject: each uisge
  topic: keywords
subject: fishing
  topic: keywords
subject: Hebrides
  topic: keywords
subject: Ian Paterson
  topic: keywords
subject: James Ross
  topic: keywords
subject: Kate Dix
  topic: keywords
subject: lore
  topic: keywords
subject: maritime
  topic: keywords
subject: mermaid
  topic: keywords
subject: Nan MacKinnon
  topic: keywords
subject: omen
  topic: keywords
subject: oral
  topic: keywords
subject: premonition
  topic: keywords
subject: seafaring
  topic: keywords
subject: seal
  topic: keywords
subject: taboo
  topic: keywords
subject: tradition
  topic: keywords
subject: water horse
  topic: keywords
creator: Maxim Fomin
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 134
ending page: 150
doi: 10.2218/aw921z15

Music from the Source: Am Muileann Dubh and North Atlantic Supernatural Music Legends
type: item
description: This article examines legends of supernatural music associated with the Scottish Gaelic reel tune Am Muileann Dubh ('The Black Mill') across the North Atlantic. Drawing on Prince Edward Island, Shetlandic, Hebridean, Highland, and Cape Breton material alongside Christiansen's Migratory Legend type 4090, it traces a legend complex in which supernatural beings at water sites bestow music upon human recipients. The article considers the mill as a site of encounter in Gaelic tradition, the polysemy of muileann dubh across musical, ritual, and social registers, and the cosmological dynamics of bodach and cailleach as figures of cyclical death and regeneration. Three Cape Breton variants preserve structural features absent from recorded Scottish and Irish sources but cognate with Norwegian tradition, suggesting that a related Gaelic legend type was carried from the Highlands and Hebrides during the era of emigration. The community's continued performance despite diabolic associations and clerical prohibition enacts a vernacular resistance through collective discernment.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: black mill
  topic: keywords
subject: Canada
  topic: keywords
subject: Cape Breton
  topic: keywords
subject: fiddle
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: grain
  topic: keywords
subject: learning
  topic: keywords
subject: migratory legends
  topic: keywords
subject: mill
  topic: keywords
subject: ML 4090
  topic: keywords
subject: music
  topic: keywords
subject: polysemy
  topic: keywords
subject: quern
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: Scottish
  topic: keywords
subject: spirits
  topic: keywords
subject: supernatural
  topic: keywords
subject: thirlage
  topic: keywords
subject: tuition
  topic: keywords
subject: tune
  topic: keywords
subject: water
  topic: keywords
subject: watercourse
  topic: keywords
creator: Tiber Falzett
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 99
ending page: 133
doi: 10.2218/rzpny992

A Song Remembered in Exile: Anna a Ghaoil, hao ill o, Fear chanaidh, agus Eòin G. MacFhionghain
type: item
description: Visiting Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, in the 1930s, John Lorne Campbell became aware of the rich heritage of Gaelic song and culture brought to Canada by Scottish settlers. This article examines Campbell’s relationship with an industrious and influential Canadian Gael: Jonathan G. MacKinnon (Eòin G. MacFhionghain, 1869–1944), writer, translator, and editor of the Gaelic weekly Mac-Talla. In addition to describing their friendship, the author discusses a fragmentary waulking-song, Annag a Ghaoil, hao ill o(‘Anna my love, hao ill o’), which Campbell recorded from MacKinnon in 1937 –a song that he later mentioned in the first volume of Hebridean Folksongs(1969), and eventually published as the first item in his anthology of Cape Breton songs, Songs Remembered in Exile(1990). This article is written in Gaelic.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Campbell
  topic: keywords
subject: Canada
  topic: keywords
subject: Cape Breton
  topic: keywords
subject: emigration
  topic: keywords
subject: Fear Chanaidh
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: Gael
  topic: keywords
subject: immigration
  topic: keywords
subject: John Lorne
  topic: keywords
subject: Jonathan MacKinnon
  topic: keywords
subject: Mac-Talla
  topic: keywords
subject: milling
  topic: keywords
subject: Nova Scotia
  topic: keywords
subject: publishing
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: song
  topic: keywords
subject: waulking
  topic: keywords
creator: Robert Dunbar
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 84
ending page: 98
doi: 10.2218/sdjd8p83

Folklore Reminiscences' of John Lorne Campbell
type: item
description: A leading Gaelic scholar and fieldworker of the twentieth century, the late John Lorne Campbell’s writings on traditional Gaelic song and his groundbreaking editions of the stories and reminiscences of islanders have become standard works. Describing himself as a ‘folklorist’ before that term was widely used, he formed a strong bond with Seumas Ó Duilearga, director of the Irish Folklore Commission, a relationship which inspired him to campaign for the creation of a similar institution that would record andconserve the songs, stories, and lore of Gaelic Scotland. Unaffiliated with a university, Campbell lamented the public neglect of the Gaelic language, and was fiercely critical of Scottish universities’ failure to record (or even teach) popular tradition.Eventually, his persistent campaign helped to build momentum for the founding of the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh in the 1950s. Campbell’s ‘Folklore Reminiscences’ –private notebooks held in the library at Canna House –offer rich background to his public life and legacy, from his early determination to learn Gaelic to his growing understanding of ‘folklore’ as a discipline, and ultimately to his many contributions to Gaelic scholarship as author, editor, technical innovator, indefatigable fieldworker, commentator and critic.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Alan Lomax
  topic: keywords
subject: audio
  topic: keywords
subject: Barra
  topic: keywords
subject: Canna
  topic: keywords
subject: Cape Breton
  topic: keywords
subject: culture
  topic: keywords
subject: Delargy
  topic: keywords
subject: dialects
  topic: keywords
subject: ethnology
  topic: keywords
subject: Fear Chanaigh
  topic: keywords
subject: fieldwork
  topic: keywords
subject: Folklore Institute of Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: folklorist
  topic: keywords
subject: folktale
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: Kist o’ Riches
  topic: keywords
subject: Irish Folklore Commission
  topic: keywords
subject: Ó Duilearga, oral
  topic: keywords
subject: recording
  topic: keywords
subject: School of Scottish Studies
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: Scottish
  topic: keywords
subject: Sea League
  topic: keywords
subject: South Uist
  topic: keywords
subject: Tobar an Dualchais
  topic: keywords
creator: Hugh Cheape
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 68
ending page: 83
doi: 10.2218/kxzd1v51

Up in the Air' or 'The Grey Mare': A Scottish and English Prosimetrical Form of ATU 1540, 'The Student from Paradise (Paris)'
type: item
description: A Scottish lawyers’ dramatic entertainment known in the eighteenth century contained a song which Allan Ramsay revised as ‘Up in the Air’ in his Tea-Table Miscellany (1723). The traditional song and air as found in Scotland and a related prose text published in an English newspaper are explored here. They provide an unusual prosimetrical form of a jocular tale which has a wide international currency but is rare in Britain.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Adam
  topic: keywords
subject: chantefable
  topic: keywords
subject: comedy
  topic: keywords
subject: drama
  topic: keywords
subject: international
  topic: keywords
subject: lawyers
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: Scots
  topic: keywords
subject: Scottish
  topic: keywords
subject: story
  topic: keywords
subject: tale
  topic: keywords
subject: Tea-Table Miscellany
  topic: keywords
subject: tradition
  topic: keywords
subject: traveller
  topic: keywords
creator: Katherine Campbell
creator: Emily Lyle
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 56
ending page: 67
doi: 10.2218/y9mfar62

From Farm to Fork in South Uist
type: item
description: Drawing from her diary of summer stays in South Uist in the 1970s, the author focuses on those aspects of crofting life having to do with food production. Having grown into a comfortable relationship with a crofting family in Howbeg, the author witnessed and participated in many of the summer’s chores, including lifting peats, haymaking and sheep-shearing, and recorded how the croft’s livestock and wild resources provided essential elements of its larder.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: black pudding
  topic: keywords
subject: butchery
  topic: keywords
subject: butter
  topic: keywords
subject: carragheen
  topic: keywords
subject: cooking
  topic: keywords
subject: crofting
  topic: keywords
subject: dairy
  topic: keywords
subject: fank
  topic: keywords
subject: food
  topic: keywords
subject: foodways
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: Howmore
  topic: keywords
subject: Howbeg
  topic: keywords
subject: livestock
  topic: keywords
subject: recipe
  topic: keywords
subject: sheep
  topic: keywords
subject: shearing
  topic: keywords
subject: slaughtering
  topic: keywords
subject: tradition
  topic: keywords
subject: white pudding
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: Scottish
  topic: keywords
creator: Virginia Blankenhorn
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 42
ending page: 55
doi: 10.2218/abmhnj96

Oral Narrative and Propaganda
type: item
description: This article examines some inconsistencies among narratives relating to the dispute between Angus MacDonald of Islay and Sir Lachlan MacLean of Duart over possession of the Rhinns of Islay in the late sixteenth century. While the historicity of the events is not in dispute, local accounts, both written and oral, tended to alter their chronology or other details in order to provide a reading of those events that favoured one side or the other – in other words, propaganda, or as some would say, ‘fake news’, albeit well after the event.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Dewar
  topic: keywords
subject: Duart
  topic: keywords
subject: historical
  topic: keywords
subject: Islay
  topic: keywords
subject: Kerr
  topic: keywords
subject: Livingston
  topic: keywords
subject: MacDonald
  topic: keywords
subject: MacLean
  topic: keywords
subject: Mull
  topic: keywords
subject: narrative
  topic: keywords
subject: Rhinns
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: Scottish
  topic: keywords
subject: tradition
  topic: keywords
subject: traditional
  topic: keywords
subject: West Highlands
  topic: keywords
creator: Ronald Black
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 25
ending page: 41
doi: 10.2218/fy9vh142

Publications of John William Shaw
type: item
description: A list of published works by John Shaw, Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh.
subject: Editorial
  topic: section
creator: Tiber Falzett
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 21
ending page: 24
doi: 10.2218/207fez16

John William Shaw: A Biographical Note
type: item
description: A review of the life and accomplishments of John Shaw, Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh.
subject: Editorial
  topic: section
subject: John Lorne Campbell
  topic: keywords
subject: Canna
  topic: keywords
subject: Cape Breton
  topic: keywords
subject: Canada
  topic: keywords
subject: Comunn na Gàidhlig
  topic: keywords
subject: School of Scottish Studies
  topic: keywords
subject: Tobar an Dualchais
  topic: keywords
creator: Virginia Blankenhorn
creator: Robert Dunbar
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
starting page: 1
ending page: 20
doi: 10.2218/sjgq8b44

Front Matter
type: item
subject: Front Matter
  topic: section
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-03-20
publication date: 2026-03-20
doi: 10.2218/ap8t3835

Obituary: Ian A. Fraser, 1941-2025
type: item
subject: Obituaries
  topic: section
subject: Ian Fraser
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: Scottish
  topic: keywords
subject: place-names
  topic: keywords
subject: placenames
  topic: keywords
subject: obituary
  topic: keywords
creator: Jacob King
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-02-25
publication date: 2026-02-25
starting page: 125
ending page: 127
doi: 10.2218/1qsmd044

Understanding Scotland Musically: Folk, Tradition and Policy, ed. Simon McKerrell and Gary West
type: item
subject: Book Reviews
  topic: section
subject: Scottish
  topic: keywords
subject: music
  topic: keywords
subject: practice
  topic: keywords
subject: musicians
  topic: keywords
subject: media
  topic: keywords
subject: policy
  topic: keywords
subject: folk music
  topic: keywords
subject: tradition
  topic: keywords
subject: traditional
  topic: keywords
subject: politics
  topic: keywords
subject: authenticity
  topic: keywords
subject: folk revival
  topic: keywords
subject: Simon McKerrell
  topic: keywords
subject: Gary West
  topic: keywords
subject: Jo Miller
  topic: keywords
subject: David Francis
  topic: keywords
subject: Fiona Mackenzie
  topic: keywords
subject: Mairi McFadyen
  topic: keywords
subject: genre
  topic: keywords
subject: hybridity
  topic: keywords
subject: Joshua Dickson
  topic: keywords
subject: David McGuiness
  topic: keywords
subject: Morag Grant
  topic: keywords
subject: Stuart Eydmann
  topic: keywords
subject: Simon Frith
  topic: keywords
creator: Jane Pettegree
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-02-25
publication date: 2026-02-25
starting page: 120
ending page: 124
doi: 10.2218/weqpqa13

Gun Sireadh, Gun Iarraidh: The Tolmie Collection, ed. Kenna Campbell and Ainsley Hamill
type: item
subject: Book Reviews
  topic: section
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: Scottish
  topic: keywords
subject: Skye
  topic: keywords
subject: Hebrides
  topic: keywords
subject: Western Isles
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: song
  topic: keywords
subject: Frances Tolmie
  topic: keywords
subject: collection
  topic: keywords
subject: Kenna Campbell
  topic: keywords
subject: Ainsley Hamill
  topic: keywords
creator: Virginia Blankenhorn
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-02-25
publication date: 2026-02-25
starting page: 114
ending page: 119
doi: 10.2218/3x5bm818

Standing on the Edge of Being: Scotland 1850 to COP 26, by Richard D. Oram
type: item
subject: Book Reviews
  topic: section
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: environment
  topic: keywords
subject: Richard Oram
  topic: keywords
subject: climate change
  topic: keywords
creator: Fredrik Albritton Jonsson
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-02-25
publication date: 2026-02-25
starting page: 112
ending page: 113
doi: 10.2218/k6xdwv93

The Order of the Elephant': Symbols and Power in the Policing of Land Agitation in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland
type: item
description: The Crofters’ War of the 1880s saw widespread protest at the unequal and exploitative modes of land management used in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. In this article, a study is made of medals awarded by William Ivory, the Sheriff of Inverness-shire, to police in the Isle of Skye for their involvement in the arrest of land agitators. Using a material culture approach, the medals are analysed in terms of their symbolism and placed in the context of the Highlands and Islands, Britain and its Empire. The main source is a memorandum on the medals compiled by Sheriff Ivory, encompassing letters and statements intended to defend them, as well as an extant medal awarded by Sheriff Ivory and communication on the design of a second. The biases of the memorandum are balanced with primary source material from newspapers and Gaelic songs that reveal contemporary views on the issues discussed. The discussion offers insight into the power dynamics involved in the policing of land agitation, and how the role of the police was perceived at the time.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: landlords
  topic: keywords
subject: Crofters War
  topic: keywords
subject: Sheriff
  topic: keywords
subject: William Ivory
  topic: keywords
subject: medals
  topic: keywords
subject: awards
  topic: keywords
subject: military
  topic: keywords
subject: police
  topic: keywords
subject: politics
  topic: keywords
subject: Skye
  topic: keywords
subject: Inverness
  topic: keywords
subject: Gaelic
  topic: keywords
subject: song
  topic: keywords
subject: media
  topic: keywords
subject: Norman Stewart
  topic: keywords
subject: Garalapin
  topic: keywords
subject: uniforms
  topic: keywords
subject: civilian
  topic: keywords
subject: Alexander McHardy
  topic: keywords
creator: Grace Wright
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-02-25
publication date: 2026-02-25
starting page: 83
ending page: 111
doi: 10.2218/xbqgz695

Why was Agnes Randolph 'Black'?
type: item
description: This study focuses on Agnes Randolph (1312–1369), famous for her defence of Dunbar Castle in 1338, and the origins of her nickname, ‘Black Agnes’. Nearly without exception, authors of the last two centuries explain the name as a reflection of her physical appearance, stating that she had a dark complexion. But is this explanation anachronistic? This article argues that the nickname ‘Black Agnes’ would have had significantly different connotations in the fourteenth century, with ‘black’ carrying political, literary, and even folkloric nuances. Arguing from detailed analyses of evidence adduced from literary sources, contemporary chronicles, medieval agnominal practices, and overlooked manuscripts, this article casts new light on the many shades of meaning that combine to constitute Agnes’s ‘Black’.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Dunbar
  topic: keywords
subject: castle
  topic: keywords
subject: Black Agnes
  topic: keywords
subject: Black Douglas
  topic: keywords
subject: Robert Bruce
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
subject: Scottish
  topic: keywords
subject: history
  topic: keywords
subject: politics
  topic: keywords
subject: feminism
  topic: keywords
creator: Shelley Morwenna Williams
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-02-25
publication date: 2026-02-25
starting page: 56
ending page: 82
doi: 10.2218/9nz0sr43

Join Together, Fight Together, Die Together: Scottish Sportsmen, the Great War and Enlistment
type: item
description: Significant numbers of amateur sportsmen in all sports enlisted, and their sacrifice had an effect on sporting engagement and sporting communities across Scotland for many years. The Pals Battalions of The Great War have been the subject of increasing research in recent years. Within this research into enlistment the Sportsmen’s Battalions have been less of a focus, despite sport being an embedded social and cultural presence in Scottish communities. While the main focus in Scotland has been the professional footballers of McCrae’s Battalion, few have examined the contribution of other sportsmen to the war effort. This paper explores the nature of enlistment and experiences from other sports such as athletics, rugby and shinty, as well as amateur football, through media representations by drawing on contemporary sources and archive material of various clubs. In addition to considering the narratives prevalent at the time regarding the contribution of sportsmen and enlistment, the paper also examines the competing discourses associated with social norms associated with signing up, and the wider need to preserve morale during a time of national crisis.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Great War
  topic: keywords
subject: World War 1
  topic: keywords
subject: WW1
  topic: keywords
subject: military
  topic: keywords
subject: recruitment
  topic: keywords
subject: sports
  topic: keywords
subject: football
  topic: keywords
subject: shinty
  topic: keywords
subject: amateur
  topic: keywords
subject: media
  topic: keywords
subject: propaganda
  topic: keywords
subject: McCrae's Battalion
  topic: keywords
subject: rugby
  topic: keywords
subject: Pals battalions
  topic: keywords
subject: athletics
  topic: keywords
subject: Scotland
  topic: keywords
creator: Hamish McD. Telfer
creator: Jonathan M. Thomas
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
date: 2026-02-25
publication date: 2026-02-25
starting page: 35
ending page: 55
doi: 10.2218/3bc36d47