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Family story of a visit from a fairy begging milk, near Whit...

Date 09 August 1972
Track ID 30698
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1972.154.B5

Original Tape ID

SA1972.154

Summary

Family story of a visit from a fairy begging milk, near Whithorn.

A forebear of the Misses McGaw, perhaps a great great grandmother, was at work at Longhill Farm near Whithorn when a fairy came in and offered her a whelk shell in exchange for a taste of milk for a back-gaen wean [a child who was not thriving]. The woman asked the fairy to rock the cradle for her own child while she went to the dairy, but she declined to touch it, though she said she would see no ill befell it. There was a fairy mound near the farmhouse. The fairy left a blessing.

Recently the sisters were at Glasserton and spoke to a gravedigger in the churchyard who knew the story of the Longhill fairy and told them they were standing on the very spot where the woman was buried.

Item Notes

Transcribed in School of Scottish Studies.

Recording Location

Village/Place - Galloway

Item Location

County - Wigtownshire

Parish - Whithorn

Village/Place - Longhill

Language

English

Genre

Story

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good