The Ghillie Dhu, sometimes called the Gille Dubh for his black hair, is a solitary member of the Folk, rather than a type of fairy. If you are fortunate, you may encounter him in the birch woods and thickets around the southern end of Loch a Druing, a few miles from Gairloch in Scotland.
The Ghillie Dhu has the appearance of a young man, slender and not especially tall, with black hair and clothes made of tree leaves and green moss. The ghillie suit, a type of camouflage clothing typically used by soldiers, hunters, or nature photographers may draw its name from the Ghillie Dhu.
The Ghillie Dhu is gentle and kind, particularly to children, but you are unlikely to hear him speak - indeed, he has only spoken to one person, that Edith has been able to uncover. You should be careful not to confuse him with others of the Folk who are strongly connected with nature and may be dressed in a similar style - for example the Brown Man of the Muirs, who is a guardian spirit of wild beasts in the border country and much less kindly disposed towards humans.
The Ghillie Dhu is not known to be dangerous, although he may be a little wild, and may help those who come across him, particularly children and those who are lost.
STORY TIME
Jessie McRae and the Ghillie Dhu
This story is drawn in part from ‘Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend’ by Alexander Mackenzie (1917), and in part from Katharine Briggs’ Encyclopaedia of Fairies.
The Ghillie Dhu was well known around Loch a Druing, but although many people had come across him, he never spoke to anyone but young Jessie Mcrae.
One summer evening, in the late 18th century, young Jessie Mcrae was wandering in the woods and became lost. As it began to grow dark she became afraid, but try as she might she could not find the path home. Eventually, footsore and weary, she sat down beneath a fir tree and began to cry.
Suddenly, a voice asked her why she was crying and when she looked up she saw what seemed to be a young man, with black hair, warm brown eyes and a kind smile, and clothes all made of leaves and moss.
“You have been walking every way but the right way,” the Ghillie Dhu told Jessie, “but do not cry, I shall lead you through the wood. I know every path - the rabbit's path, the hare's path, the fox's path, the goat's path, the path of the deer, and the path of men.”
The Ghillie Dhu looked after Jessie with great kindness all night, and in the morning he took her safely home. Sometimes as she followed him he moved so fast through the forest that she thought she would lose him, but he always allowed her to catch up, dancing as he waited. Both Jessie and her family were most grateful.
Many years later, when Jessie was a grown woman and married to John Mackenzie, Sir Hector Mackenzie, the owner of much of the land around Gairloch, invited the other Mackenzies - including John - to join him in a hunt to try to destroy the Ghillie Dhu. They spent some time in John Mackenzie’s barn before heading out into the woods to hunt. Although they searched all night long, they never found a trace of the Ghillie Dhu - and we must imagine Jessie was most relieved. But although the Ghillie Dhu was commonly encountered for many decades before this hunt, he has not been seen around Gairloch since that day.