Corrievrechan

Gulf of Corryvreckan

Nov 1

First Days of Winter

Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day

First Days of Winter

Corrievrechan

Today's Musings, History & Folklore

"Behind the hills of Craignish
Look Westward to the sea
Where cruel Corrievreckan
Shrouds many an argosy
Within its rocky caverns
Full twenty fathoms deep
The silent grave of sailors
Resting in endless sleep."

~ The Ballad of Corrievreckan, Highland Lore and Legend (1938)

Winter begins with a roar—and, in Scottish folklore, a rather formidable washday!

As Samhain marks the threshold of the dark season, the Cailleach Bheur, Queen of Winter, prepares to spread her great plaid over Scotland. Ben Nevis is counted among her mountain seats, a fitting home for an ancient figure whose presence is felt in gathering clouds, bitter winds, and the first whitening of the hills.

On the western coast, her enormous washtub is the Corryvreckan, the fierce whirlpool between Jura and Scarba. Its Gaelic name, Coire Bhreacain, has several interpretations, including “the Cauldron of the Plaid” and “Breacan’s Cauldron.” Here, the churning sea becomes part of the seasonal drama: the Cailleach washes her great woollen covering, readying it for winter.

The washing is heralded by three days of tumult, with the roar of the approaching tempest said to carry twenty miles along the coast. The cauldron boils, the waters foam, and at last her plaid emerges pure white. She spreads it over the mountains to dry, and the first snow settles across the land. As folklorist F. Marian McNeill described it, “the plaid of old Scotland is virgin white.”

Another legend gives the whirlpool a tragic human namesake. Breacan, a prince of Lochlann, seeks permission to marry the daughter of the Lord of the Isles. Her father sets a daunting condition: his ship must remain anchored in the whirlpool for three days and nights. Armed with three ropes—one of hemp, one of wool, and one woven from maidens’ hair—he attempts the ordeal. One by one, the ropes break, and the sea claims him. Love, courage, and carefully prepared anchor ropes prove unequal to the cauldron’s fury.

The Cailleach’s work extends far beyond the shore. Legends credit her with shaping hills and mountains as stones tumble from the creel on her back. In another tale, she rides out from Ben Nevis with eight sister hags to hammer frost into the ground. Even the red deer belong to her world: they are known as the Cailleach’s cattle, roaming the wild slopes under the old woman’s care.

And all that circling and churning finds its way rather neatly onto the dance floor in Corrievreckan, a 64-bar strathspey-and-reel medley for a four-couple square set, devised by Arthur C. Boswell. The dance is dedicated to the late Frank Riley, a former Chairman of the Lakes SCD Club—a forester, sailor, mountaineer, and much more besides—for whom Corrievreckan was a favourite place.

The choreography seems particularly at home in the Cailleach’s great cauldron. Men’s and ladies’ chains, rights and lefts, and great circles sweep the dancers alternately clockwise and anti-clockwise, echoing the swirling waters of the whirlpool and, perhaps, the endlessly turning cycles and circles of fate. 🕺 💃 💙 🤍 💙 🌀 🌀 🌀 🌨️ 🌨️ 🌨️

Corrievrechan

Today, November 1st, marks the arrival of winter, heralded by the arrival of the Witch of Winter, the Cailleach Bheur, who reigns over the land until the spring.

It was the belief that the Cailleach Bheur, also known as Beira, the Queen of Winter, had a firm hold on the country by raising storms thus preventing greenery to emerge. She was considered a tough and brutal old woman who stirred the deadly spiraling action of Corryvreckan whirlpool, ushering snow, as well as torrents resulting in the overflow of rivers. Even the creation of lochs and mountains were attributed to her.

The Corryvrecman whirlpool is said to be Beira's washtub. Washing her great plaid in the Gulf of Corryvrechan (Gaelic: Coire Bhreacain - 'cauldron of the plaid') is said to take three days, during which the roar of the coming tempest is heard as far away as twenty miles inland. When she is finished, her plaid is pure white and snow covers the land.

The Corryvreckan Whirlpool is the third largest whirlpool in the world. It is found in the Gulf of Corryvreckan, a narrow strait between the islands of Jura and Scarba, in Argyll and Bute, off the west coast of mainland Scotland.

To watch a video explaining the forces creating the whirlpool, click the painting of "The Corryvreckan," by Scottish Atmospheric Landscape Artist Kevin Hunter.

Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!