The peat-fire flame : folk-tales and traditions of the Highlands & Islands

THE PEAT-FIRE FLAME
Breadalbain, concerning a ferryman, who lived on the north
side of Loch Tay, and who one evening heard a shrill
whistle as of someone wanting to cross the loch from the
opposite shore. He immediately made for his boat, and
rowed over toward the usual ferrying-place on the south
side. However, on his arriving there, not a soul did he find.
But, as he rested for a moment, an ungainly object,
resembling a large sack of wool, came rolling down the
brae, and toppled into his boat. Too terrified to examine
the nature of his cargo, he proceeded to row home again.
Immediately the boat touched the north shore, the ungainly
cargo assumed the form of a huge, white bird, which, with
a great screeching and flapping of wings, soared away to
the burying-place of Lawers.
Only a day or two after this, the ferryman found himself
conveying across Loch Tay from the south side the corpse
of a young woman who died suddenly, and who was interred
duly in the old burying-place of Lawers.
Two Breadalbain Ghosts.
There is told among the clachans fringing the shores of
Loch Tay, and indeed throughout Breadalbain, the story of
a ghost that haunted the farmhouse of Claggan, on the south
side of the loch. On one occasion at least, this ghost, when
on its nocturnal errands, assumed the form of a dog. So
disturbed became the countryside as the result of ghost
rumours, that the inhabitants eventually refused to pass
anywhere near Claggan after dusk. One evening an
elderly man crossed Loch Tay from the Lawers side, with
the intention of paying a visit to his sister, who was married
to a tenant-farmer at Ardtalnaig. No sooner had he
reached within shouting distance of the farmhouse of
Claggan than a huge, grey dog appeared by a heap of stones
known locally as An Cam Mor, the Big Cairn. The old
man did his best to continue his journey without showing
any fear ; and he observed that the dog moved forward with
him in a parallel line, some yards away, that it stopped when
he stopped, started again when he started, and hastened
when he hastened, for all the world like an ominous
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