A gruagach is a type of brownie in Irish and Scottish Gaelic traditions, sometimes seen as a giant or ogre, with characteristically long hair.[1][a]The Scottish Gaelic word gruag means “hair”.[2] Generally considered to be harmless, their role was to protect the cattle, but they were also believed to have the power to control the yield or quality of the milk. They carried a reed, wand or switch with which to strike anyone who mistreated the animals or otherwise displeased them.[2] In return for their labour, they expected to be offered a share of the milk produced by the cows, to be left for them at what were known as gruagach stones.[3]

A 1948 article in The Scots Magazine reported that:

In parts of the Western Highlands and in the Isles were to be found, until a generation or so ago, upright stones known as “Gruagach stones.” The Gruagach was a species of brownie who presided over the cattle of a farm, and a portion of the milk of a herd was invariably offered up to him by pouring some of it into a hollow in the top of one of these upright stones … Scarcely a district in the Western Highlands was without its “Gruagach stone.”[3]

Notes

Notes
a The Scottish Gaelic word gruag means “hair”.[2]

References

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Works cited

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