Traditional Scottish Selkie Stories

In recent years, Scottish Selkie stories have become some of the most popular folk tales told. These creatures of the sea have inspired more than just legends but also songs, romantic novels and plenty of modern artworks.

Scotland has stories of a wide variety of supernatural creatures, so what is it about Selkies that draw people in?

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What is a Scottish Selkie?

First and foremost, I had better explain just exactly what a Scottish Selkie is! The name is actually Orcadian for “seal” and so that should give you a good clue. While they’re in the water, they look like regular seals doing what seals regularly do. However, Selkies have the power to remove their sealskins and walk ashore in human form. If they should lose their skin for any reason, they find themselves trapped on land.

The exact details change from place to place, story to story. Some claim that they can transform at will, others that it’s only during full moons or just a limited number of times. One constant detail though, is that the Scottish Selkie is irresistibly beautiful while in human form. Relationships between humans and Selkies form the backbone of most of these stories. Unfortunately it rarely ends well.

That doesn’t mean that Selkies are necessarily malicious creatures, in fact they’re often on the receiving end of mistreatment from humans. Generally, they’re much gentler than other creatures of Scottish folklore, in a physical sense anyway. Selkie men were often the ones accused when a young girl ended up pregnant and abandoned.

The Selkie Wife

The story of the Selkie wife is the most common legend by far. It’s so popular that this tale doesn’t just relate to Scottish Selkies, it has even made its way to the Faroe Isles.

One night, a young man catches a glimpse of something strange happening down on the beach. As he creeps up behind a rock, he realises its a group of Selkies dancing in the moonlight. While the entire sight is captivating, there was one girl in particular that the man couldn’t keep his eyes off.

When the dancing is over, the Selkie folk wander back to where their sealskins are laid out, slipping them on and disappearing into the waves. The mesmerising girl is last to approach her skin, but right before she could touch it, the man rushed out and grabbed it himself. By this point the sun was rising and without the ability to return to the sea, she was resigned to follow the thief home.

Over the years the couple were married and even had children, but all the while the Selkie’s skin was hidden away. Until one day, while the Selkie wife was finishing her chores, her son approached with something strange in his hands. It was her sealskin, found buried away where nobody but a bored young boy would look.

The Selkie wife loved her children, but the call of the sea was too much. Just as her husband returned home, he saw her sprinting across the beach with the sealskin in hand. He never saw her again, but any time the children were down by the shoreline, a curious seal could be seen bobbing away in the distance.

The Selkie & The Hunter

This is my personal favourite Scottish Selkie story, although I’m aware not everybody believes in the creatures. That once included Donald the seal hunter from John O’Groats. Donald made his living hunting the seals around the coastline and never paid any attention to the old legends. To him, a seal was nothing more than a way to make money.

One day, Donald saw a huge seal stretched out on the rocks. He knew how valuable a skin of that size would be so he crept up with his sharpest knife and plunged it deep. His prey bellowed in pain before diving into the sea, taking Donald’s best knife with it.

Donald was furious at losing both his catch and his knife. He was still sulking about it that night when there was a knock at the door. A tall, handsome stranger stood outside and asked for the famous seal hunter. His lord had requested a large number of skins and would be delighted if Donald accompanied him to his hall.

Donald wasn’t going to turn down an opportunity like this! Without hesitation he leapt up on the strangers horse and off they sped. He started to get a little nervous when the horse took the cliff road. Those nerves turned to sheer terror as the horse galloped directly towards the edge and dived into thin air.

As they plunged into the sea, Donald was dragged far below the waves to a hidden door in the rocks. On entering he saw a great host of seals, with sad looks on their faces. The big seal from earlier was lying in the middle of the room with a horrendous gash in his side.

The stranger that Donald had arrived with then presented him with a blade and a cold dread came over him. He instantly recognised his best knife.

His host said to him, “Donald you will have guessed that we are no ordinary seals. We are Selkies and even though you have slain many of our kin, we mean you no harm. I brought you here because you are the only person who can save our King. Only your hands can close the wound they opened.”

Donald was distraught at the pain he had caused these creatures. He didn’t know what good it would do but he stepped up to the dying Selkie and reached out with his hands. Slowly and tenderly, Donald pushed the wound closed and as if by magic it started to heal over. The Selkies barked their approval as the King raised himself up and Donald sighed with relief.

Luckily for Donald, Selkies aren’t vengeful beings and allowed him to return home on one condition. He willingly promised never to hurt another seal in his life.

Selkie’s Grave

Probably the strangest Scottish Selkie tale I’ve found comes again from the far north coast. This one is a little different though, since it actually has a landmark for you to see. Inside Old Olrig Kirk near Castletown, hidden towards the back of the oldest graveyard, is the Selkie’s Grave

It’s said that one day in the distant past, an old fisherman found a baby girl wrapped up in a sealskin, abandoned on Castletown beach. He and his wife had no children of their own so it seemed like a blessing. They were delighted to take the baby in and raise it as their own.

But rumours surrounded the child all her life that she was a Selkie. It didn’t help matters that as she grew older, the girl began to see things that others couldn’t. Some consider what’s known as second sight to be a blessing, but when the girl claimed to see the Devil in the rafters of Olrig Kirk, she was banished from its walls.

People don’t need many excuses to avoid somebody who they think is different and it must have been a hard upbringing for the Selkie girl. One man must have seen past the rumours though, since the girl tragically died in childbirth.

This is her grave, a small stone with a hollow inside that’s said to never dry out even during times of drought. It was definitely soaking when I visited and as you can see, people like to leave gifts at the Selkie’s Grave, things from the sea to make her soul more comfortable.

I guess that it’s a small consolation the girl must have been welcomed back by the community to some degree if she was buried within the graveyard.

You can find lots more stories just like these in the Scotland’s Stories book, available here! If you enjoyed learning about Selkies then you might enjoy tales of the terrifying Cù Sìth!

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