Hello,
My name is Rachel.
My country is Scotland,
A country steeped in fairy faith,
A place of mythical valleys,
Fairy glens and fairy pools and lochs,
And ancient Caledonian pine forests,
Where fairies or wee folk can be found.
In the tree hollows and abandoned birds' nests,
In the rivers and barns which flow through the mountainous valleys,
There are river sprites with webbed feet who ride on the back of the leaping Scottish salmon,
Tucked away inside unused teapots and empty shortbread tins,
Wee folk called brownies,
A sort of house fairy,
Live amongst the Scottish people inside their very homes,
Although most people never look close enough in the nooks and crannies to ever spot them.
Now I'm guessing you might like to join me on an adventure here in Scotland and hear more about these mystical wee folk,
Guardians of our hills,
Forests and homes.
So get comfortable,
Maybe have a little wiggle of fingers and toes,
Take a deep breath in to fill your chest full of air and a deep breath out again to relax your body down into whichever comfy spot you might be sitting or lying in.
Gently close your eyes and come with me to Scotland.
This is the story of Isla,
A wee girl of eight who lived in a cottage named Tyne-y-Caille,
Meaning house by the woods in Scots Gaelic.
As the name of her home suggests,
She lived beside an ancient Caledonian pine forest.
Isla had tumbling red hair,
Cheeks full of freckles and bright green sparkling eyes.
She loved to explore and she spent her days outside exploring the woods and the nearby Greenloch.
Isla's granny would say that she had been born with the gift of fairy sight and as Isla spent her days exploring,
She would often touch glimpses of the wee folk living in the woods,
Around the lake and in the nooks and crannies of her home.
The things Isla might spot were the wisp of a fairy's gossamer silk gown as she fluttered from view or the tumbling of an acorn which a pixie had dropped in haste as it scampered away as it scampered away or the shimmering scales on the wings of a river sprite as it dived back under the water.
Once Isla had sworn she had almost caught the foot of a house brownie as she rummaged under her bed for a misplaced book.
All of these sightings caused a bit of a stramash or a stir as you might call it amongst the fairies and wee folk.
The fairies and wee folk were in a bit of disagreement about what should be done with Isla and the fact she was getting so close to seeing them in plain sight.
Some of them thought it was fantastic that at last there was a human who they could talk to and who could maybe be their friend but others they were frightful of humans and they did not want Isla to be invited into their world.
There were arguments amongst them all.
The pixies,
Fairies,
Elves,
Brownies,
Leprechauns,
Dwarfs,
Sprites,
Gnomes,
Goblins,
Hobgoblins and imps and so eventually Morven the fairy queen called them all into her palace where she said they would have a meeting to discuss what would be done next.
So after much hubbub and excitement Morven declared to all the fairies and wee folk that they were to set a challenge for Isla.
If she could complete the challenges then it meant that she was no ordinary human,
That she had the gift and that she could be their true ally.
Morven,
The pixies,
Elves and leprechauns in charge of making up some magical clues for they were the creative ones.
The ones who could do riddles and rhymes The fairies were to then sprinkle their magic dust on these riddles and clues that had been made up by the others and then they were to go to the woods with a team of imps and hide them up high and down low and the brownies had a special clue to place.
Had a special clue to place within Isla's home.
The following morning Isla got up sleepily and went to put on her lamb's wool slippers but inside she felt the tiniest little prick.
She took her foot out and picked up her slipper and rummaged inside feeling all the inner edges with her fingers and what was this she thought as she pulled out something tiny and white.
It was like a miniature scroll of paper no bigger than a tooth.
As she fumbled to open it suddenly gold writing seemed to rise from her hand and form beautiful words floating in the air in front of her eyes.
The swirling gold writing read you have been set a challenge that the sacred fairy queen Morven has destined for you.
A treasure only to be discovered by a human faithful and true we beckon you to search for scrolls.
So tiny they are lost from view trust in your fairy sight and into our fairy world you'll receive an invite.
Isla heard her mother call for breakfast and still in shock she made her way down the wooden staircase.
Isla sat silently eating her porridge topped with juicy sweet brambles.
Her mother wondering what on earth had caused her daughter to sit there so quiet and glassy eyed.
Usually Isla was a right fidget tapping her foot and her spoon and blethering away about all her ideas for this and that.
Isla's thoughts were whirring around in her head.
What did this mean?
Was this a trick?
Or did this mean fairies were real after all?
Surely no human could cause writing to float up in the air.
What was she to do next?
Isla decided she needed a quiet spot to think.
Her favorite spot was a mossy bank just at the entrance to the woods beside her house.
She walked over there still in a bit of a daze.
And lay her head down on the soft moss bank looking up at the golden light as it dappled through the trees.
Listening to the birds and their merry morning tunes.
Looking out for wee folk and any signs of magical goings on.
She lay there for quite a while not really seeing anything unusual.
A little bit of frustration started to build up inside of her.
She thought maybe it is a trick or maybe I'm just not special enough to find these clues the fairies were talking about.
But just as she started to feel a bit disheartened her eyes caught sight of a tiny flicker of white way way up in a tall pine tree.
She wasn't sure could that little scroll like the one I found in my slipper.
However the more she stared the more her eyes struggled to find that little glimmer of white that she first saw.
She didn't know what to do but Isla she was a brave and tenacious girl.
Quite unwilling to accept defeat or to stop doing something.
So she decided to go and find out what was going on.
She must get up there to see for herself.
Now pine trees are notoriously difficult to climb.
They have tall thin trunks and they have short quite sharp stubby branches on the way up.
It was a real challenge even to get that first few meters off the ground.
In fact she had grazes aplenty on her arms and knees and she almost ripped her trousers a few times.
Unfortunately where she had seen the glimmer of white was impossible to get up to.
She'd got to a certain point quite high but then there were no more branches to use like rungs of a ladder.
What was she to do?
She'd got this far she couldn't give up.
So standing on a very short and stubby branch she managed to break off another and holding on to the trunk with one hand and right up on her tippy toes on that little branch she poked up with the branch that she'd pulled off in her hand.
She was jabbing it into what looked like a tiny hole.
Much smaller than that that a woodpecker would make.
She really couldn't see.
Oh this is near impossible she thought.
I don't even know where I'm aiming for.
But then like a feather fluttering down came a tiny piece of white and then as she stood on the branch gold letters appeared in the air above her.
The gold writing red.
We might be dull or vibrant red growing on a rotting root or in an autumn leaf bed.
We talk to animals and the trees via our underground web.
So please look down below your knees.
The fairies would be very pleased.
Isla watched as the last embers of the gold writing faded and dropped away before excitedly making her tricky descent back down the tree branches.
She jumped the last bit landing softly on the moss before reciting the words out loud to herself for fear that she might forget them.
Dull red on rotting roots and leaf beds talks to the trees and animals with its underground web.
Oh this is tricky.
Oh no I've got it.
The clue must be about fungi.
A fungus can be brown like mushrooms and truffles or vibrant or vibrant red like a toadstool.
Also a fungus creates a huge underground network of near invisible threads that connect with all the roots of the plants and trees so that they can all talk to each other.
Imagine that she chuckled.
A toadstool acting like a telephone line for trees to talk to each other.
Fungi are in fact more like people than they are plants.
So Isla began her search of the leaf litter and fallen trees.
Isla was very wise and she knew that the fungi don't like sunny places much because they don't photosynthesize like plants that use sunlight for energy.
Instead they are the forest recyclers flourishing in dark spots where they can break down the fallen leaves and branches for food.
Isla also knew she shouldn't touch the fungus she found so she wasn't sure how on earth she would find the message.
Then she noticed the most glossy red toadstool standing up proud in the green moss like a magical red stop sign.
Begging in her closer she just knew in her heart that this was the one.
Isla knew she shouldn't touch it so she was a bit puzzled as to what to do next but she listened to her heart and it told her to crouch down gently and whisper,
Hello it's Isla I believe you have a message for me.
The moss around the toadstool seemed to shrink down almost flattening itself before springing up like a sponge pushing up with it a tiny white scroll.
Isla had to chuckle this was all pretty weird it was like the toadstool had stored the message from the fairies in the soil and then popped it up to her like a delivery person.
She unraveled the tiny scroll again only the size of a kernel of corn and the gold writing began to swirl and form above her.
The writing said we give we give a violet glow to woodlands and hedge grows which are our favorite places to grow.
Our nickname is crow's toe.
Please listen carefully for the tiny din of our bells as we cast our fairy spells.
Isla smiled to herself as she knew this one straight away violet with bells it had to be blue bells the most magical of the flowers steeped in fairy folklore.
There are countless Scottish folklore tales surrounding blue bells many of which involving darker fairy magic.
Blue bell woods are believed to be woven by fairy enchantments but blue bells are also meant to be a symbol of love and that if you turn a blue bell flower inside out without ripping its delicate petals you will win the one you love and if you wear a wreath of blue bells you will only be able to speak with truth and honesty for the rest of your days.
Isla was not quite sure where to find the blue bells for it was June and usually the blue bells were out in springtime April and May usually in May the small blue bells would become almost like a dazzling carpet transforming the woodland floor into a shimmering blue.
No matter how far Isla went into the woods she could not see blue bells anywhere.
She was feeling quite tired by this point having already climbed one of the really tall trees searched everywhere for the fungus and so she decided to sit down against a tree and take out her lunch from her pocket.
There she had a sandwich or a pizza as we might say in Scotland and she started eating it quietly while still scanning around with her eyes to see if she could see a hint of blue anywhere.
She didn't see blue but she felt her ears prick up.
Could she hear the tiny wee din of a bell?
She quickly finished her piece pulling apart the crusts and scattering them on the forest floor for the birds and other wee creatures and she started slowly and quietly walking towards the tiny sound that she could hear.
She had to tread ever so lightly as if she made too much crunching in the leaves she would lose the sound of the little bell.
The bell sound started to become a little louder and then in a small clearing she saw it.
A single stem of blue bells with dark green leaves and dark blue bell-like flowers that were narrow with a tight curl in the fronds at the end of each bell.
She ever so carefully knelt down to the flower because Isla knew that blue bells are a protected flower because they take a very long time to establish.
Seven years from seed to bloom,
Almost as long as her whole life before they would flower and she knew that standing on them can shock their roots so that they can never grow again.
She gently touched the biggest bell flower with six petals and upturned tips.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six and as she touched the sixth petal the bell moved ever so slightly and out from it dropped another tiny scroll.
Isla picked up the tiny scroll from the forest floor and began to carefully open it.
Once again the gold letters swirled and formed above her.
They read,
We're Fairy Folk Play.
A good old splash at the end of the day and as they did the day gives way to night it becomes a magic mirror in the soft moonlight.
Isla thought for a wee minutey about the words splash magic mirror and then she knew she needed to go to the Fairy Loch.
As she made her way out of the forest and onto the path that led down to the water's edge her heart was racing.
She could feel it in her chest.
What was she going to find there?
Isla searched the pebbly bank of the loch for what felt like an age.
She felt like she'd turned over nearly every stone in her quest to find another scroll but she could not see anything anywhere.
Eventually she went to the water's edge to dip her fingers in to the cool fresh water and then gold writing appeared just on its surface.
It said,
As day gives way to night and then the gold writing disappeared again as if absorbed back into the water of the loch.
Isla knew then what she must do.
She must come back to the loch when the moon was full and so off she walked back to her little cottage full of excitement for what would come next.
Now how about you drift off and dream sweet magical things about what Isla will see as she creeps out in the moonlight to visit the Fairy Loch and then join me next time as we find out.
Good night.
