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| Sandwood Bay, Sutherland. CC image by Manico. |
The burn running down to the sea from the loch [Loch Sandwood] is silted up with sand; beyond the sandbanks lies the bay, about two miles wide, with at one end a great stark rock pointing up like a poplar tree. On the other side Cape Wrath is visible beyond the cliffs. Not a soul is in sight. The waves break endlessly on the sand reef, over many an old wreck. On the cliffs to northward are the apparent remains of two old hut circles.
Numerous stories of mermaids appearing in these parts are inevitable. One such came from Sandy Gunn, a name with suitable "Treasure Island" overtones. On Old Christmas Night, January 5, 1900, Mr. Gunn, who lived at Kinlochbervie, was looking for sheep between Sheigra and Sandwood Loch, when he saw a mermaid at the bottom of a gully. She was clearly marooned by the high tide.
In 1939 a lady staying at the Garbet Hotel in Kinlochbervie, while out fishing on Loch Inchard, saw a mermaid; and on another occasion, when they were rowing just south of Cape Wrath, Mr. John Falconer and two fisherman friends saw a merman of horrible aspect rise straight up out of the sea. They were all terrified and rowed away fast; the two fishermen died soon afterwards.
In the Birmingham Daily Post, 17th March 1961.
Yes these are quite vague stories and evidently much retold. I'll have to try and find Mr Gunn's story (reputedly told to R MacDonald Robertson). I love the north west of Scotland. I wish I'd kept better tabs on where we'd stopped and stayed on our tour of it. Well, I guess we'll just have to go back. Sandwood Bay certainly looks almost as remote as it's possible to be in the UK.
It's quite interesting that in the last story the two fishermen die - it reminds me of stories about the (not as nice as you think they might be) fairies.
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