The Fairy Pools
In 1595, William Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Whilst the play is primarily set in Classical Greece the woodland scenes including Oberon, the fairy King, Titania, the fairy Queen and the mischievous spirit, Puck, are deeply routed in the folklore of Elizabethan England.
Whilst in many places that folklore has been forgotten or overwritten by new narratives, in some of the more remote places the memories remain strong.
In his 1935 book about Skye, ‘The Misty Isles’, the author J A MacCulloch notes:
But if fairies do not abound, stories about the do, and are firmly believed…
The Fairy Pools are a series of waterfalls at foot of the Black Cuillins near Glenbrittle on the Allt Coir’ a’ Mhadaidh.
The pools have a bright aqua hue – which gives them their supernatural association.
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All images © W N BISHOP