Scottish Stories Of The Cat Sith – Scotland’s Fairy Cat

Scotland has a lot of mysterious folk creatures, but the Cat Sith might well be the most mysterious. Is it a physical beast or a malicious spirit? Supernatural fairy creature or something far more dangerous in cat form?

Stories of the Cat Sith are most commonly found in the Scottish Highlands, along with its cousin the Cu Sith or Fairy Dog. So what exactly is the Cat Sith and why is it considered so unsettling?

What Is The Cat Sith?

The name Cat Sith translates literally from Scottish Gaelic as Fairy Cat. It’s pronounced cat shee (unless there’s plural and then it’s Cait Sith pronounced catch shee.

As you might expect, the Cat Sith appears as a cat – as large as a dog and black as night, but with a white spot on its chest. Its eyes often glow supernaturally and while it walks on four legs in front of humans, it can strut on two if it thinks nobody is watching.

Like many creatures from Scottish Folklore, the Cat Sith is usually considered one of the wide bracket of fairy creatures. That brings with it an element of danger, fairies can rarely be trusted. However, there may be a more logical explanation of these unusual Scottish felines.

There’s truth in every story and a strong possibility that the Cait Sith are actually based on Kellas Cats. These are hybrids created by Scottish Wildcats breeding with domestic cats and the description might be familiar. Kellas Cats are much larger than regular cats, almost entirely black but with a white patch on their chest…

The Soul-Stealer of the Dead

One of the most chilling beliefs in stories of the Cait Sith is its connection to death. According to Highland tradition, the creature could steal the souls of the recently deceased before they were safely buried in the ground. If Cait Sith managed to walk over a body lying in wake, then their soul now belonged to the fairies.

It was such a real fear, that somebody would guard the corpse at all times. Windows were sealed shut to stop any Cait Sith entering and fires extinguished to discourage any cats from warming themselves in the room. Having no fire also made a lot of sense when you wanted to stop the body starting to smell!

Stories Of Cat Sith & Witchcraft

Not everybody believed that the Cat Sith was actually a fairy spirit though. They’re also strongly associated with witchcraft and you may well recognise a few of these traditions. It was a common belief that witches were able to transform into black cats, a feature of many Scottish folk stories.

However, they could only make that change nine times. On the ninth transformation, the witch would be stuck in the form of a Cat Sith forever! That’s the reason we like to say cats have nine lives and why witches gained a reputation for having black cats.

The King Of The Cats

Stories tend to get a bit blurred after centuries of oral tradition, but there’s a chance that the Cat Sith is linked with the King of the Cats. He’s a character that appears in some of my favourite Scottish folktales like this one:

A gravedigger comes home late from his work one day, bursting in on his wife sitting with their housecat and shouts “Mary, do you know who Tom Tildrum is?”

Both his wife and the cat look surprised at the strange question. Mary replies that she doesn’t have the feintest idea! Then he explains that while getting ready to come home, he caught sight of a strange procession walking into the graveyard.

8 cats, all jet black but with a white patch on their chest, green glowing eyes and walking on their hind legs. To top things off, they’re carrying a small coffin. If that wasn’t strange enough, the gravedigger tells his wife that one of the cats turned and looked him dead in the eye before saying:

“Tell Tom Tildrum that Tim Toldrum’s dead”

All of a sudden, the couple’s old housecat leaps off Mary’s knee. Suddenly he’s twice the size he normally is and shouts out: “Tim’s dead? That makes me King of the Cats!”

With that shout, he disappears up the chimney never to be seen again!

There’s much more than Cat Sith to find in Scotland, so why not read some stories of terrifyng Kelpies? Or you could discover the legend of a hound from Scottish Folklore – Macphie’s Black Dog!

If you enjoy Scottish folklore and historical stories, then you’ll love my book – Scotland’s Stories Historic Tales For Incredible Places