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00:10 Here I am in beautiful Glenlion. The sun is out, the river is running, everything's green.
00:18 Really feels that all elements of spring are kind of coalescing here. It really is a beautiful day.
00:23 I have come to Glenlion to find Teign na Caleach. Now Teign na Caleach is a shrine to a very powerful
00:32 goddess in Gaelic mythology and this shrine is put out every May Day by game keepers that live in this
00:40 Glen and it's a tradition as I believe that's been carried on since the 1700s. So I've come
00:46 into Glenlion and I hope today that the tradition is stuck and that I will come across this amazing
00:52 shrine which really takes us deep into the heart of Scotland and the belief here and the belief in
00:58 the power of this figure. Now I came across Teign na Caleach and its existence through
01:06 James Crawford's book Wild History which really is a fab book. It's kind of taking you to historic
01:12 sites way off the beaten path and I interviewed James about this book and he said if there's one
01:18 place you go, go to Teign na Caleach. He said it is a commitment to get there. I'm kind of feeling that
01:24 already because we've really gone into deep country here. I've driven down from the northeast
01:29 of Scotland. I mean it's been a beautiful drive but I really feel like I'm heading to the interior.
01:34 So who was the Caleach? Well Caleach in Gaelic translates as old woman or hag perhaps even
01:42 and she had a very strong place in Gaelic mythology and for years she was described,
01:48 as James Crawford puts in his book, as a kind of divine giantess who was held responsible for the
01:54 creation of Scotland's landscape itself. One myth surrounding her, as Crawford says, is that she
02:01 brought over stones from Norway to create Scotland and on her way she dropped stones out of her creel
02:08 and these created the Hebrides. There was another stone that fell out of her apron and that created
02:13 Ailsa Craig. So she's really loomed large in Gaelic lore and over time she became more of a nature
02:21 spirit presumably as people's beliefs started to change over time and she's had a very strong
02:28 association with winter, a harbinger of winter no less, and she was able to kind of hammer mountains
02:36 and take axes to ice and she really became like a figure, like if a gamekeeper was to meet her out
02:42 on the hill it was very bad luck and he would kind of go home empty-handed. Now there have been,
02:50 as beliefs continued, there have been sightings of the Caleach over time and some folklore books
02:57 suggested that even up to the late 19th century she was seen in Lachaber. There was another sighting
03:03 in Cora but the reason that the shrine is in Glen Lyon is that there's a very strong local tradition
03:10 which existed up to the 1970s that she was seen coming over the hill with a man and she was,
03:17 this was on a very wintry, stormy night and she had blue skin and grey hair and she came off the
03:23 hill looking for shelter and was kind of received warmly by local people who tried to help her.
03:28 She ended up staying in the Glen as the story goes and from the moment she arrived the summers
03:35 got better, crops fared well, animals were healthy and safe. Right I think we might nearly be there
03:42 so that was, yeah, maybe four or five mile there across a wee river, got my feet wet but I don't
03:50 mind because it's so warm and we're now at Glen Calnewch and I think we are really not far away,
04:04 maybe about 15 minutes.
04:06 Oh here we are!
04:18 Look at that in that setting. Oh so today's May the 2nd, it said that the gamekeepers
04:27 come here on May the 1st to put the figures of the Calnewch
04:32 and her family out and it looks certainly like there's been some little offerings made here.
04:39 Wow!
04:47 Wow! Look at that!
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