Folklore of the Scottish Highlands

By Anne Ross

The folklore of the Scottish Highlands is unique and very much alive. Dr Anne Ross is a Gaelic-speaking scholar and archaeologist who has lived and worked in crofting communities. This has enabled her to collect information at first hand and to assess the veracity of material already published. In this substantially revised edition of a classic work first published 30 years ago, she portrays the beliefs and customs of Scottish Gaelic society, including: seasonal customs deriving from Celtic festivals; the famous waulking songs; the Highland tradition of seers and second sight; omens and taboos, both good and bad; and, chilling experiences of witchcraft and the Evil Eye Rituals associated with birth and death. Having taken her MA, MA Hons and PhD at the University of Edinburgh, Anne Ross became Research Fellow in the School of Scottish Studies, Edinburgh. She then rapidly established herself as one of Britain's leading Celtic scholars. Her seminal work is "Pagan Celtic Britain" and she has also published "Druids - Preachers of Immortality" with Tempus Publishing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Nov 1, 2000
• ISBN: 9780750952453

Anne Ross

Anne Ross has been drawn to the Maine scene as have many other artists. She has traveled the country widely with her camera which has changed from a Polaroid to a 35 mm SLR and now to a digital camera. Over the years her work has been published by The Smithsonian, UNICEF, and a N.Y. Times book cover. In 2006, over 30 of her photos were published in a book about the Reeves – Reed Arboretum in Summit, N.J., now listed in the National Historic Register. Beauty abounds.

Reviews for Folklore of the Scottish Highlands

[zymmer4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dr. Ross has a handle on all things Celtic..This volume is no exception..Her sources may be from "the whence and the hither" and she is well known in those regions. It makes me proud to know that she is "out and about"

[Suresh Ramaswamy Mjf · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Having been interested in mythology and folklore since my pre-teens I was quite informed about Norse and Greek Mythology well before my high school days. As I grew up, the challenges of career and profession reduced the time I could spend on reading, and it was restricted to flights (2/3 hours or overnight train journeys). It was just recently about 4 / 5 years back, with the easy availability of free e-books and low priced sites (monthly subscription of a few dollars), I have been able to spend time once again poring over digital books, and reading between two to three books, every month.

About three months back, I read my first book by the author Anne Ross – “Druids : Preachers of Immortality” and was impressed by the style of writing, variety of information and depth of research. I gave a rave review and rated the book 5 star.

Then about ten days back, I picked up this book – “Folklore of Scottish Highlands”. After going through the book, my ardour diminished. The book has some interesting information about early highland superstitions, culture, and traditions. With such a rich a vibrant subject matter, this book could have been better written and not as dry as it was. It rambles around Gaelic customs, folklore and beliefs in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and is more a reference work on the works of Pennant, Carmichael and other eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century writers and collectors of incidents of ancient Celtic and Scottish customs, and Anne Ross is the compiler / editor. Though she claims Gaelic Highland descent and that whatever she has included in the book has been verified by field studies by herself, still the book falls short of expectations. Her contribution to the subject matter is in this book is practically zero. I wonder why she claims to be the author and copyrights the book, it is after all a compendium with a few comments from the editor – Anne Ross.

This is not to say that book did not contain much information, but it would have made better reading , if more tales could have been included and quotations from Carmichael, Pennant and others reduced.

In spite of the wonderful and deep wide spectrum of the subject, the book leaves much to be desired.