Fairy Dogs (‘Cu Sith’)

On the north shore of Tiree there is a beach of more than a mile in
length, called _Cladach a Chrògain_, well calculated to be the scene
of strange terrors. The extensive plain (about 1500 acres in extent),
of which it forms the northern fringe, is almost a dead level, and in
instances of very high flood-tides, with north-west gales of wind,
the sea has been known to overflow it, and join the sea on the south
side, three miles away, dividing Tiree into two islands. The upper part
of the beach consists of loose round stones, a little larger than a
goose’s egg, which make, when the tide is in, and under the influence
of the restless surf, a hoarse rumbling sound, sufficiently calculated,
with the accompaniment of strange scenery, to awaken the imagination.
An old woman, half-a-century ago, asserted that, when a young girl, she
had heard on this beach the bark of the Fairy hound. Her father’s house
was at a place called Fidden, of which no trace now remains beyond the
name of the Fidden Gate (_Cachla nam Fidean_), given to a spot where
there is no gate. It was after night-fall, and she was playing out
about the doors, when she was suddenly startled by a loud sound, like
the baying of a dog, only much louder, from the other end of the shore.
She remembered her father having come and taken hold of her hand, and
running with her to the house, for if the dog was heard to bark thrice,
it would overtake them. It made a noise like a horse galloping.