Folk Tales of Galloway & Dumfries: Folk Tales of Scotland Series

Folk Tales of Galloway & Dumfries: Folk Tales of Scotland Series

Between the Solway Firth and the Galloway Hills lies Scotland’s wild southwest—a country where saints once landed in currachs, smugglers lit false beacons, and the wind still carries the sound of unseen hooves. In this haunting and lyrical collection, the folklore of Galloway and Dumfriesshire comes vividly alive: witches tried in Kirkcudbright, brownies working unseen in the barns of Bladnoch, and ghostly riders circling the Devil’s Beef Tub before storms and tragedy. Each tale is retold in rich, evocative prose that captures the spirit of the southwest—half sanctified, half bewitched. From “The Witch of Kirkcudbright” and “The Brownie of Blednoch” to “The Bells of Sweetheart Abbey” and “The Laird of Dalbeattie and the Dead Man’s Bargain,” these stories move between sea and moor, faith and superstition, the sacred and the uncanny. The people of this region lived with one foot in the kirk and the other in the bog, accepting that miracles and omens, saints and spirits, were part of the same world. Through its eighteen tales and reflective afterword, Folk Tales of Galloway & Dumfries reveals a moral landscape shaped by endurance, humility, and wonder. These are not fairy stories for children, but timeless narratives of love, loss, and redemption, drawn from centuries of Scottish oral tradition and the writings of collectors such as Alan Cunningham, John Train, and William McKerlie. Beautifully written and deeply researched, this volume belongs on the shelf of anyone who treasures Scotland’s heritage of story and song.