The Fachan and Other Spirits
Springtime brings subtle changes to the countryside
around Aberlour. Take Ruthrie Glen, the wooded valley up behind
the distillery, for instance. When the leaves appear on the trees,
it becomes a shadier and more mysterious place than it was in
winter, and even the roar of the waterfall is muffled. I'm not
a superstitious man, but it's easy to imagine there are spirits
about.
The Celts who lived here over two thousand years
ago believed in all kinds of strange and magical creatures. Some
of them sound pretty creepy. There's the fachan - described as
having "one leg out of his haunch, one eye out of the front
of his face, one hand out of the ridge of his chest, and one tuft
out of the top of his head, and it were easier to take a mountain
from the root than to bend that tuft."
The fachan was not just ugly, but vicious. It chased
travellers in lonely places, jumped on them from behind and killed
them. Equally nightmarish was the falin, a mountain demon with
a head twice as large as its body. Then there was the baobhan
sith, a spirit that sometimes appeared as a beautiful girl, seducing
young men only to suck their blood.
However, not all Celtic spirits were gruesome monsters.
Some were benign, like the glastig, who helped with housework
and was kind to the old and feeble-minded. And I have a soft spot
for the urisk, a mystical shaggy beast that brought luck to farmers.
The poor thing was driven out into the wild by the first Christian
missionaries, but continued to haunt desolate places and was particularly
fond of waterfalls. So maybe there is a urisk up in Ruthrie Glen
after all - which would account for the supernatural flavour of
Aberlour whisky!
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