Cat Sìth – The Dark Fairy Cat of Celtic Folklore
Cat Sìth. Puuurfectly terrifying…
The Highlands are home to much wildlife. Grand stags, nature’s monarchs, roam the land their heads adorned with crowns of antlers; grouse take to wing should people draw too near to their hiding places; and the nocturnal pine marten slinks its way through the heather. But there is one creature not fully of this realm — a strange beast that some say is kin to fairykind, whilst others claim it is the form of a shapeshifting witch — and this beast is the Cat Sìth.
The Cat Sìth is a creature whose origins stretch back into Celtic mythology. It is said to resemble a huge black cat — the size of a large dog — with a white patch upon its chest. Yet this feline is said to walk upon its hind legs when it believes no one is watching. It is an intelligent creature, and, I am sorry to say, one driven by malice.
Cat Sìth comes from Gaelic: cat meaning cat, and sìth (or sidhe) meaning fairy mound or fairy being. Roughly translated, its name means “Fairy Cat”. It was much feared in the Highlands, for it was believed to steal the soul of a corpse before burial. For this reason, people would keep watch over the bodies of the newly deceased, a tradition which seems connected to the older Celtic belief in the soul’s journey.
During Samhain (Halloween), when the boundary between worlds was believed to grow thin, the Cat Sìth was thought to roam freely. On this night, some Scottish households would leave out saucers of milk as an offering to the mythical moggy. The hope was that, if the furry villain was pleased, it would bless the house. Failure to provide this offering could see the Cat Sìth exact revenge by drying up the milk of the household’s cows.
There is also a strong connection to witchcraft. In some traditions, the Cat Sìth is believed to be a witch with the power to shapeshift. According to this lore, if a practitioner transformed into feline form nine times, they would become trapped as a cat for the remainder of their days.
The Cat Sìth is also found in Irish folklore. In her book The Schools’ Collection: County Kerry, Margaret Doyle recounts the following tale:
Once upon a time there was a man living near Ballymalis Castle called Jeremiah Carter. One day he went to Killorglin to buy sheep. When he came home, his wife told him that the cat had been making mournful noises around the house all day. He went to hunt out the cat but could not find it. The next day his sheep strayed away and he did not know where to find them. At last, he said he would go towards the castle in search of them. When he reached Ballymalis Castle, he heard a great wailing within. He waited for an hour, and at last a big cat came out on top of the castle. The cat spoke to him and told him to tell her sister at home that her mother was dead. He gathered his sheep and went home. When he reached home, he told his wife what the cat had said. When the other cat heard the news, she went away and was never seen again. It is said those two cats were witches.
To those who dabbled in the occult, it was said to be possible to summon a demonic Cat Sìth named Big Ears. The ritual required to do this was a long one, taking four days and four nights to complete, so the black-hearted magician who undertook it would need considerable commitment. Worse still, the ceremony required the practitioner to burn the bodies of cats. I shall include nothing more of this cruel ritual here — neither the words of power nor the key semantic gestures required to invoke the entity — lest one of my more unscrupulous readers be tempted down a dark and unpleasant path.
Today, folklorists believe that the legend of the Cat Sìth may have been inspired by the Kellas cat, a rare hybrid between domesticated cats and the wildcats of the Scottish Highlands. I, for one, can only hope they are correct.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, dear friend. If you enjoy a frightening tale, why not try my horror trilogy, The Wendlelow Mysteries? The final, thrilling conclusion, A Crow’s Scream, is set to be unleashed upon the world in the coming months. It will be available on Amazon and Audible - links below.
Stay spooky
