nternational a.k.a. Dunardry Heritage Association supports Clan MacTavish interests worldwide and includes both the Dunardry and Stratherrick Clan MacTavish sites.

MacTavish International a.k.a. Dunardry Heritage Association supports Clan MacTavish interests worldwide and includes both the Dunardry and Stratherrick Clan MacTavish sites.

deep caves and may well have been practised contemporary with the paintings. Arising from thiscame stories of beings which were part animal, part spirit and part man which were later to be formalised into vampires, werewolves and the like. Perhaps the best known of these in Britain is Hern the Hunter who is still supposed to haunt the Great Park at Windsor Castle, and whose memory is assured continuance by inclusion in a play of Skakespeare's.

This ritual was known as the wild rout or "wilde Jagd" (a term still used for a night of revelry) and the tradition was particularly strong in the area which now may be described as Germanic or Teutonic. Jakob Grimm (of Grimm's fairy tales), wrote, "Down to the latest period we perceive that in the whole of witch-buisness a clear connexion with the sacrifices and spirit world of the ancient Germans."

The wild rout was a weird group or procession of creatures which banded together on certain nights (especially All Hallow's Eve), and, led by a spirit, careened wildly about the countryside devasting and destroying. Any unfortunate person who met with them was promptly killed, abused and eaten. Could these ideas have had been influenced to or by the story of Sawney Bean? Remenber the incident where the woman is pulled off the horse and attacked and disembowled and eaten before her husband's eyes? This common thread runs throughout the stories of witches and ghouls -- usually with cannabalism at the heart of the stories.

The "Sabat" of the formalised witchcraft beliefs was partially based on the wild rout. In this the witches were supposed to gather together and feast on horrible meats, meet and worship their master the Devil and indulge in licentious revelry. (I think I've been to a few parties like that in the '70's -- joking! >:) After the 10th century most accounts of a "Sabat" suggested that they were held in one particular spot and that the aspects of "..women travelling long distances to kill Christians and eat them" was practically forgotten. The following traditional tale owes more to the wild rout than the sabat, and indicates that the cultural heritage of the area contained a great deal that was rooted in the beliefs of their forefathers who had immigrated from Scandinavia and northern Germany.

The Glenluce Witches

"An ingleside story of the period, handed down as literally true, is that of a labouring man's wife -- a sensible, descent woman -- having been detained late from home, was returning about the witching hour (midnight); and --

"When the grey howler howlet had three times hoo'ed

When the grimy cat had three times mewed,

When the tod had yowled three times in the wood,

-- at a spot known as `Clay Slap' (near Glenluce), she met face to face with a group of females, as to whose leader being clovenfooted she could not be mistaken. Her consternation was the greater as, one by one, she recognised them all, and among them the ladies of the manor. They stopped her, and in her terror she appealed to one of them by name. Enraged at being known, the party declared that she must die. She pleaded for mercy, and they agreed to spare her life on her taking an awful oath that she would never reveal the names of any as long as they lived. Fear prevented her from breaking her pledge, but as one by one the dames paid the debt of nature, she would mysteriously exclaim, "There's anither o' the gang gone!" She outlived them all and then divulged the secret; adding that on the dreadful night, after getting to her bed, she lay entranced in an agony as if she had been roasting between two fires."