Kelpie of the Scottish Lochs

The Kelpie is the water horse of the Scottish folk tradition — the most dangerous of the water beings of the British Isles, the most recognisable of the water-horse family of Northern Europe, and the most written about of the figures of the Scottish loch. The Kelpie appears at a loch side as a fine pony, sometimes saddled, sometimes not, and lures the unwary child or traveller to mount. The Kelpie’s skin becomes sticky as glue, and the Kelpie plunges into the loch, and the rider is dragged to a drowning.

The Kelpie is closely related to the mermaid of the sea-loch, the Norse nixie, the Nix of the German tradition, the Bäckahästen (“brook horse”) of Sweden, the Nøkken of Norway, and the each-uisge (water horse) of the western coast of Scotland. The Kelpie is the most familiar form in English, and the most vivid.

The shape of the Kelpie

The Kelpie is described, in the older Scottish tradition, as a strong, sleek, dark-grey or black horse, with a long mane and tail, and with a habit of appearing at the loch side in summer, sometimes in a thunderstorm, sometimes in the still of a summer evening. The Kelpie is sometimes a tame-looking pony, sometimes a wild-looking horse, sometimes a saddled pony with a bridle, sometimes a foam-flecked horse, sometimes a dripping horse, sometimes a man with a seaweed-mantle. The Kelpie is, in all of these forms, a figure of the loch — a figure that the loch produces, and the loch takes back.

The Kelpie of Loch an Ruathair (“the loch of the road”) in the Highland of Inverness-shire is one of the most famous of the Kelpie stories, and the most quoted. The Kelpie appeared as a fine pony at the loch side, a child of the village mounted the pony, the pony plunged into the loch, the child was dragged to a drowning, the Kelpie was not seen again. The Kelpie of the River Ness is the most famous of all, the Kelpie of Loch Morar is the most feared, the Kelpie of Loch na Beinne Brice is the most quoted in the Highland tradition.

The Kelpie’s skin, in the older tradition, is sticky as glue. The skin becomes a trap, and the trap is the Kelpie’s — a trap that the Kelpie makes, and the trap that the loch keeps. The glue is the loch water, and the trap is the older world that the new village has not yet entirely cleared.

The Kelpie as shapeshifter

The Kelpie is a shapeshifter, and the shapeshifting is the central feature of the figure. The Kelpie can be a pony, a horse, a fine young man, a wet man with seaweed in his hair, a black horse, a foam-flecked horse, a dripping horse, a man in a kilt, a man in a hat, a man in a coat, a man with a sack, a man with a bridle. The Kelpie can also be a woman — a fine young woman, a wet woman, a seaweed-woman, a combing-woman on the rock.

The shapeshifting is the figure of the Kelpie as the older world: the Kelpie is the older world that the new village has not yet entirely replaced, and the Kelpie is therefore the figure of the village — the figure of the old, the new, the boundary, the in-between. The shapeshifting is the figure of the Kelpie as the water — the figure of the lochs, the rivers, the sea, the medium of the in-between.

The Kelpie and the Norse nixie

The Kelpie is closely related to the Nix of the German, the Nøkken of the Norse, the Strömkarl of the Swedish, the Bäckahästen of the southern Swedish, the Nyk of the Estonian, the Vodník of the Czech, and the Vodyanoy of the Russian. The Norse nixie is a water-spirit, sometimes a beautiful man, sometimes a beautiful woman, sometimes a horse, and the nixie of the Norse tradition is a member of the alfr (elf) family of the Norse cosmology. The nixie of the Edda of Snorri Sturluson (c. 1220) is a being of the older world, and the being is closely related to the huldra of the Scandinavian forest tradition.

The Nix of the German tradition is a shapeshifting water-spirit, sometimes a beautiful man, sometimes a beautiful woman, sometimes a horse, sometimes a fish, and the Nix is a member of the nixie family. The Bäckahästen (“brook horse”) of the southern Swedish tradition is a small, white, four-legged creature that appears in the meadows near a brook, and that lures the unwary child to mount. The Strömkarl of the Swedish tradition is a water-spirit of the river, and the Strömkarl can play the fiddle so well that the listener is enchanted.

The Loch Ness kelpie tradition

The Loch Ness kelpie tradition is the most famous of the Kelpie traditions, and the most written about. Loch Ness is a long, deep, narrow, cold, dark loch in the Highland of Inverness-shire, and the loch is a place of kelpies, of water horses, of unexplained sightings, and of the modern monster of Nessie of the 1930s. The Kelpie of the older tradition is the older world that the new village has not yet entirely replaced, and the Kelpie is the figure of the loch.

The Loch Ness Monster of the 1930s is a figure of the modern world — a photographed creature, a sonar-detected creature, a sonar-plotted creature, a modern creature. The Loch Ness Monster of the 1930s is a figure of the modern world, and the figure is the descendant of the Kelpie of the older tradition, and the figure is the descendant of the nixie of the Norse, and the figure is the descendant of the water horse of the European.

The each-uisge and the western water horse

The each-uisge (pronounced each-kushk, the water horse) is the close cousin of the Kelpie, and the each-uisge is the water horse of the western coast of Scotland, the western Highlands, the Hebrides, and the western lochs. The each-uisge is larger than the Kelpie, the each-uisge is more powerful than the Kelpie, the each-uisge is more dangerous than the Kelpie, and the each-uisge is more strongly associated with the sea-lochs of Argyll and the western lochs.

The each-uisge is, like the Kelpie, a shapeshifter, and the each-uisge can be a fine pony, a black horse, a fine young man, a wet man with seaweed in his hair, a man in a kilt, a man in a hat, a man in a coat. The each-uisge is, like the Kelpie, a trap — a trap that the older world of the sea-loch makes, and a trap that the sea-loch keeps. The each-uisge is the figure of the older world of the sea-loch, and the figure of the western coast of the Scottish tradition.

The Kelpie in Robert Burns and modern Scottish folk-tale

The Kelpie is the subject of Robert Burns’s poem Address to the Devil (1785), the most famous of the Kelpie poems in the Scottish tradition. The Kelpie of the Burns poem is a figure of the older world of the Highland that the new village of the Lowland has not yet entirely cleared.

The Kelpie is the subject of a rich modern Scottish folk-tale tradition, and the Kelpie is a figure of the older world that the new village of the modern Scotland has not yet entirely replaced. The Kelpie of the modern Scottish folk-tale is the figure of the older world of the Highland, the figure of the modern world of the Lowland, the figure of the older world of the loch, the figure of the modern world of the road. The Kelpie, in short, is one of the most durable figures of the Scottish folk tradition, and one of the most emotionally powerful.

Sources and Further Reading

Briggs, Katharine M. A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language. 4 vols. Routledge, 1970–71.
Campbell, J. F. Popular Tales of the West Highlands (1860–62). 4 vols. ed. Norbert C. Shaske. Wildside Press, 2004.
Dorson, Richard M. The British Folklorists: A History. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968.
Henderson, Lizanne, and Cowan, Edward J. Scottish Fairy Belief: A History. John Donald, 2007.