Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Hebrides by the Tuatha de Danaan and were also believed to represent the same race of
pigmies. The Firbolg were also thought to have been the first inhabitants of St Kilda.
W.C.Mackenzie concluded that while Highland folk-lore wasfull ofthe Famhuirean
(the Irish Fomorians) or giants, he observed that there was a curious absence of the
complementary Luchrupain or dwarfs and wondered how this could be accounted for?
His belief was that they were represented by the fairies (our old friends as he described
them), who were sometimes called Daoine Beaqa, also the ancient name of the Pigmies
Isle. It was a bit of a stretch to make the connections that Mackenzie was suggesting.
However he was to make one more concerning the Lewis fairies. One of their names
is Muinntir Fionnlagh, often translated as the Finlay people, a title which, as applied to
fairies, has baffled scholars of Lewis folklore. He suggested that this name meant 'the
little Finn people', and that it linked the Finnish aborigines with the 'good little people'
of fairy lore who dwelt in the bowels of green hills like Luchruban.
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The subject of the missing lightkeepers having become prey to some malevolent force
cience which basically covers a quest or search for animals whose existence has not
beenproven.ItcoversareassuchasthehuntforBigfootandtheYetiandothercreatures
whose existence is anecdotal and reports of sightings lack solid evidence. The person
who is often attributed to having expanded the usage of the term cryptozoology, Bern-
ardHeuvelmans, feltthatalthoughmuchoftheanecdotal evidence andstoriesoriginat-
inginfolkloremaynothavehadasolidscientificbase,hefeltthattherewasanelement
of truth in many sightings and that this could form the basis for moving the study for-
ward with a more scientific approach. The animals studied by the cryptozoologists are
known as cryptids.
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There is no shortage of these cryptids in the islands of the north-west and north of
Scotland. Sea monsters in particular have been sighted on numerous occasions off the
coast of Lewis. One notable sighting took place in 1882 when the crew of a German
ship, 9 miles (15km) off the Butt of Lewis, reported seeing a giant sea serpent approx-
imately 131ft (40m) in length with a series of bumps along its back. The Butt of Lewis
is only 50 miles (80km) from the Flannan Isles, and it was at this location the
Archtor
was to pass eighteen years later after passing the darkened lighthouse on Eilean Mor.
There have been other sightings of sea serpents in the seas off Lewis, notably on the
off Barra.
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it was sighted nearer to Orkney. The beast was first sighted at Stronsay, Orkney, on 25
September 1808, lying on rocks on the south-east of the island on Rothiesholm Head.
