Hi 👋

We’re delighted to be back with a new ‘Hidden Scotland Weekly’. We really hope that you enjoy reading.

As always we welcome you to provide feedback, you can find this at the bottom of the email.

Have a great Sunday!

The Edinburgh Guidebook has arrived!

We are pleased to announce that the Edinburgh guidebook has returned from the printers, and we will start dispatching copies next week.

To ensure your copy is included in next week's shipment, please place your order by 4pm on Monday, March 11th

The Ghillie Dhu – Scotland’s Kindest Fairy

Fairies have a terrible reputation for stealing children away to their hidden kingdom and leaving a changeling in their place. However, the Ghillie Dhu was known for doing the very opposite, as the legendary guardian of lost children.

He was a solitary fairy, with dark hair and clothed in nothing but leaves and moss, leading to the name Dhu, Gaelic for black. Nobody knows if there were once lots of these creatures or if this was a specific individual, but the Ghillie Dhu has only ever been seen in one location. He made his home in a quiet birch wood around Loch an Draing near Gairloch.

The Ghillie Dhu was sometimes wild and aggressive to adults who trespassed in his territory but was always very kind and protective of children. In the 18th Century, a young girl called Jessie Macrae wandered off on her own, getting hopelessly lost in these woods. As darkness began to fall, she sat down and started to cry.

Out of nowhere, the Ghillie Dhu appeared. This gentle fairy calmed the child down and guarded her while she slept amongst the trees for the night. In the morning, he led her back home to her worried parents, safe and sound.

The Ghillie Dhu was supposedly seen on numerous occasions however he refused to speak with anybody apart from Jessie. By the time she was a grown woman, the laird of the area, Sir Hector Mackenzie had decided to hunt down this strange fairy. He gathered a party of men to help with the sport and Jessie's husband was given the honour of hosting a feast for them the night before.

For some reason, over the next few days, the hunting party couldn't find any trace of their prey. It appears that Jessie had used the feast as a distraction to warn her old friend about what was coming for him. The Ghillie Dhu has never been seen since that day, possibly scared away from Gairloch for good.

Words by Graeme Johncock 

Ayrshire

Ayrshire is a land where wide green pastures dolloped with outcrops of oak and birch unfold and unfurl, eventually tumbling onto stretches of volcanic rock and sandy beach that go on and on. Many of the beaches are hugged by coastal outposts that enchant with lively harbours and centuries-old street plans. Inland, red sandstone mining cottages with bay windows are lined up like dominoes throughout villages.

Robert Burns was born in a modest cottage here, and he’s not the only ultra-famous name from this unassuming region. Ayrshire is the birthplace of thinkers, poets, scientists and warriors – names like Robert the Bruce, Sir Alexander Fleming and Henry Faulds, the scientist who discovered fingerprints. An engaging network of castles and birthplaces and museums is testament to this startling sort of regional lineage.

Geographically, Ayrshire is spread between Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway, with the River Clyde marking its northern border. To the west, it plunges into the twinkling Firth of Clyde. You wouldn’t think you were only 40 minutes from Glasgow. The views from this stretch of mainland are devastating. The ghostly outlines of island upon island rise from the water, a sort of mirage. Bute to the north, its gentle folds blended to near invisibility above Cumbrae, soft beside it. The apparition-like granite hump of Ailsa Craig rises to the south, and suspended in between, the iconic outline of the Isle of Arran. Portencross Castle near Ardrossan has undoubtedly the best views.

Here are 5 places worth visiting in Ayrshire

Robert Burns Birthplace Museum

You can feel Robert Burns around you in the pretty village of Alloway – not only in the white-stone thatched cottage where he was born (and you’ll find some 5,000 artefacts, including handwritten manuscripts). It’s also home to Brig o’ Doon and the ruins of 16th-century Alloway Auld Kirk, where Burns’ father and sister are buried, and where Tam (o’ Shanter) first spots the witches and warlocks who chase him.

Culzean Castle

The turrets of Culzean Castle poke up from conifers and beech atop a rocky outcrop above a shawl of golden sand – simply spectacular. Designed in the 18th century for the flamboyant 10th Earl of Cassillis, the centrepiece is an oval staircase, perhaps just overshadowed in opulence by the lavish gardens with a swan pond. It would have been a rather more rustic existence in the caves uncovered below the castle, thought to have been used by humans since the Iron Age and haunted by tales of ghosts, smugglers and fugitives.

Greenan Castle

In 1601, this fortification, probably used since the Iron Age, bore witness to inter-clan fighting and ambush. It’s tranquil today, the skeletal ruins of the 16th-century tower house balancing so close to the cliff edge they look as if they may topple at any minute. You can park nearby, or it’s a scenic two-mile beachside walk from Ayr.

Dunure Labyrinth

Atop a small sandy cove in the grounds of the ruined medieval Dunure Castle, this community-funded labyrinth takes on a mystical quality as you navigate it to the sound of the sea.

Electric Brae

The Victorians gave this cliffside road its name for a phenomenon that makes cars appear to freewheel uphill. Back then they thought the cars were pulled by the “electricity” of Arran, out over the horizon, but it’s now known to be a gravity hill – a type of natural optical illusion caused by the inland stretch of road being higher than the coastal end.

Cafes, Restaurants and Shopping Recommendations

1. Thyme Cafe

2. Narture

3. The Coo Shed

4. The Fox & Willow

5. West Kilbride Craft Town

6. Poosie Nansies Inn

7. Dunlop Dairy

8. Nardini’s

Some Extra Interesting Facts

There are well over 60 statues dedicated to Robert Burns around the world – after Queen Victoria and Christopher Columbus, more than any other non-religious figure.

Burns into space

In 2010, a tiny book of Robert Burns poetry was blasted into space. Donated by a distant relative of the Bard, the book, containing 14 poems and songs, accompanied a NASA pilot on the Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station.

Did you know?

In the late 1870s, Ayrshire man and medical missionary Henry Faulds noticed fingerprints on ancient shards of pottery – a discovery that led him to pioneer the use of fingerprints to catch criminals. Faulds was born in 1843 in Beith.

Stay at Alexander Fleming’s childhood home

The discoverer of penicillin, Sir Alexander Fleming, was born at Lochfield Farm near Darvel in 1881. These days, the beautiful white stone farmhouse with black window trims offers self-catering accommodation.

Taking temperature

In recognition of his work developing the idea of absolute temperature, the Irish-born mathematician William Thomson was ennobled as Baron Kelvin of Largs. In the 1870s, he built the turreted red sandstone mansion Netherhall in Largs and lived there until he died in 1907. The house is now divided into private apartments.

Twelve Triangles - Edinburgh

Sourdough and sandwiches – the doorstop variety. The first branch of this artisan bakery-cum-cafe opened in 2015 just off Leith Walk. Now there are eight across the city and one down in the Borders. Twelve Triangles specialises in slow-fermented sourdough but you can also bag a black charcoal loaf along with gourmet doughnuts and pastries.

Follow them on Instagram

Luskentyre Beach- Taken by Sam Rogers