IN THE HIGHLANDS 233 



of iron and steel going on. Moreover, every now and 

 then, in the gloaming, a couple of com mhora hhreaca 

 (big spotty dogs) tied together would rush past their 

 door ! 



Some years after our house was finished we decided to 

 build an addition to it, and instead of quarrying the 

 stones for it in a distant quarry, as had been done before, 

 we thought we could get the material we required by 

 breaking up some big boulders of good quality just below 

 the site of the old herd's bothy. So for many weeks 

 there was a continuous din of iron and steel, and of 

 hammers and crowbars and jumpers boring into and 

 breaking up these boulders. At the same time I had 

 started a big kennel of black-and-white setters about 

 half a mile away, and these fifteen or twenty dogs were 

 let out on couples for exercise on the shore twice a day. 



Now, the dogs knew quite well that since the Plocaird 

 point had been enclosed and planted there were more 

 hares and grouse, etc., in it than anywhere else near at 

 hand, so whenever the keeper's attention was taken off 

 them for a moment a couple of the older and more 

 cunning ones would give him the slip, and make tracks 

 for the Plocaird, and in their regular course would rush 

 past the very site of Domhnall Aireach's bothy on 

 their couples. Does it not seem, therefore, that these 

 events which were to take place, and did actually happen, 

 had been supernaturally heard and seen by old Donald 

 and his wife more than a hundred years beforehand ? 



The best-known Gairloch fairy of modern times went 

 by the name of the Gille Dubh of Loch a Druing. How 

 often did I hear of him when I was a boy ! His haunts 



