Creag na Cailliche

What can our place names tell us about our past, and how do they reveal stories of folklore and our historic ‘otherworld’?

This event – led by local enthusiast Michael Ansell – will lift the lid on stories and tales that can be revealed from looking closely at today’s Galloway place names.

This evidence come from place-names and stories which record belief in subterranean monsters, fairies, banshees, the cailleach, the deil and more besides. Galloway preserves a memory of Finn Mac Cool’s war-band, the Fianna in its place-names, stories about whom must have echoed around the Galloway countryside. We can imagine the weary traveller coming down the pack road to the inn at Polmaddy being asked the customary question of a stranger ‘A’ bheil dat agad air na Fèinn’ – ‘what stories have you about Finn Mac Cool and his band’ before a night of ceilidh.

Although all that was mostly swept aside by the reformation, some echoes of it survive and persist in the place-names and folk tales of Galloway. Michael Ansell will attempt to bring some of these superstitions back to life at least for a short while in a talk at the Smiddy, Balmaclellan,19:00 Friday 15th September.

This event supports the recent publishing of 'Galloway: The Lost Province of Gaelic Scotland' - more info + buy your copy: https://gallowayglens.org/the-galloway-the-lost-province-of-gaelic-scotland-book-is-published/.

To book your free ticket: visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-galloway-gaelic-otherworld-evidence-from-place-names-and-local-stories-tickets-680958584457

Update: Event already sold out of ‘in-person’ tickets but lots of spaces for online attendance, details sent out in 24 hours before the event.