The Cailleach is a primordial creation figure, our first ancestor. Her name is carved indelibly into our landscape. In our tales, she created the Western Isles, Loch Tay, Sliabh-na-Caillighe, and the Isle of Mull…. She is found at Beinna ‘Bhric in Lochaber; she keeps her cattle in a natural enclosure in Ardnamurchan in the Bathach na Caillich; she keeps sheep and goats in Buaile nan Drogh; she herds her deer and milks them in Glen Nevis; and her name is given to other breathtaking natural springs, lochs, and Munroes too numerous to mention. She creates the whirlpool of the Coire Bhreacain ( Corryvreckan, the Cauldron of the Plaid or Cauldron of the Speckled Seas) found between the islands of Jura and Mull because she is so massive no loch is big enough for her to wash her plaid in….The plaid eventually turns white, clean, and ready for winter. She created and shaped hills and Munros as she travelled across the country dropping stones from her apron….Beinn Naoimh (Ben Nevis, Holy Mountain) is one of her homes. Tales relate the snow encircling the Munro to the Cailleach’s petticoat and the long line of snow down her companion mountain to the beard of the Bodach. Her name, also given to spring storms today, demonstrates her abiding presence in our folk belief. We might have forgotten these stories, but the landscape does not forget.

Milldust and Dreaming Bread: Exploring Scottish Folk Belief and Folk Magic, Scott Richardson-Read, Cailleach’s Herbarium, 2025, p119