Baobh-shìth, from the United Kingdom: what it is and what people believe

A figure from Gaelic storytelling in the Scottish Highlands: a woman of great beauty who draws men to her and then kills them. She is counted among the fairies, and writers also compare her with the succubus of European tradition.

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The Gaelic name means 'fairy witch' or 'fairy hag'; the plural is baobhan-sìth.
In most tellings the hunters wish aloud for company just before the women arrive.
One hunter escapes among horses; Katharine Briggs tied his luck to their iron shoes.
A man who sees deer hooves instead of feet flees and finds the others dead next day.
Macphee is saved by his black dog, which chases the women out of the cave.

What it is

The baobh-shìth belongs to Gaelic story from the Scottish Highlands. She is counted as a fairy, and she also carries traits that writers link to the succubus, a demon said to seduce men. In appearance she is a handsome woman; in behaviour she is a killer. The pattern in the tales is set: a party of men, usually hunters, is out in the wild overnight, and she arrives with companions. Some tellings give her deer hooves where feet should be. Nothing about her is kindly, and the tales are told as warnings rather than as records of encounters.

Where it comes from

The name is Gaelic and is glossed as 'fairy witch' or 'fairy hag'. Beyond the language and the Highland setting, the tales do not agree on a birthplace for her; this is story, not record. Versions were taken down by collectors, and one came from Mackenzie, who put four hunters in a lonely shieling, a hut used by people out in the hills. Katharine Briggs, working from the tales, proposed that iron explained why one man got away: horseshoes on the animals he hid among. Iron is traditionally held to be a weakness of fairies.

How it is done

The encounter has a shape. Men are camped or sheltering at night, and one of them says aloud that he would like company, or wishes a woman were present. Soon afterwards women come in, often four of them, and dancing begins. The killing follows. In the cave version, the men who wished for their sweethearts die, while Macphee, who asked for nothing, is spared. In the shieling version the fourth man runs to the horses. The spoken wish comes first in almost every telling.

Tools and materials

Two physical details carry weight in the stories. In one, a hunter looks down and sees that the women's feet are deer hooves, and that sign is what sends him running. In another, horses shod with iron keep a man beyond reach: Briggs read the metal as the reason the fairy could not follow. A black dog serves as protection in the cave tale, driving the women out. Beauty is the lure; hooves, iron and the dog are the marks by which the danger is read.

Baobh-shìth, drawn and placed

Emblem With the feather shape. Drawn from this page, not a photograph.

Living
Revived
Fading
Historical
Legendary
Performed

Standing: Legendary Known from myth, story and legend rather than from recorded practice. This says whether people still do it, not whether it works.

A feather: used in cleansing and blessing in some traditions, worn as a sign of office, and carried as a charm.

Lineage: Scottish Gaelic fairy lore of the Highlands
Timing: at night, while men are camped in the wild

Where it sits The tradition it belongs to, and when it is done.

At a glance: who, where and when

Peoples

Scottish Highlanders

What people believe

Behind the tales sits a rule about speech. Scottish custom held that a wish voiced at night, without also asking God's protection, might be granted, but in a dreadful form. The baobh-shìth is that rule given a face: the men ask for partners, and partners arrive. A second strand is the old notion that fairies cannot abide iron, which is why horseshoes matter in the shieling story. Both ideas are reported as belief within the tales.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Katharine Briggs worked from the collected variants and offered the iron explanation for the escape in the shieling tale. That tale reached print through Mackenzie, one of the recorders of Highland oral material. The stories are handled as legend, with one plot turning up in different settings: a hut, a cave, open ground. A recurring motif is the wish spoken just before the women enter, which is tied to the wider Scottish belief about careless wishes made at night.

Compare and confuse

The baobh-shìth is placed with the fairies, and is also described as sharing ground with the succubus, the seductive night visitor of European lore. Reference lists group her with other female figures of Gaelic and wider folklore: the banshee, the glaistig, the leanan sídhe, and beyond Scotland the hulder, the rusalka and the deer woman. The Gaelic plural is baobhan-sìth, and English retellings often spell the name baobhan sith.

Today

She has a life in modern fantasy. Two of Mark Chadbourn's sequences, Kingdom of the Serpent and The Age of Misrule, both use her. Raymond E. Feist put her among the Unseelie Court in Faerie Tale, and Amy Hoff made a character of her in the Caledonia series. Seanan McGuire's October Daye novels include a starving baobh-shìth, and the gamebook Vault of the Vampire sets one as an adversary. A character in the film Under the Skin is loosely connected to the legend.

Questions people ask about Baobh-shìth

What is a baobh-shìth?

A woman of the Scottish Highlands' Gaelic tales, counted among the fairies. She appears beautiful, joins men camped in the wild at night, and in the stories kills them. Writers also note traits she shares with the succubus.

Where does the story come from?

From Gaelic-speaking Highland Scotland, where collectors such as Mackenzie recorded variants. One is set in a shieling, a hut used by people out in the hills; others happen in a cave or in the open. The name itself is Gaelic.

How is she recognised in the tales?

By small giveaways. In one version a hunter notices deer hooves where feet should be, and in others the women come only after a wish for company is spoken. Iron, and a black dog, are what the stories give as protection.

Why do the women arrive when they do?

Scottish belief held that a wish made at night, without also asking God's protection, could be granted in a terrible way. The tales dramatise that idea: the men ask for partners and are answered.

Does she appear in modern fiction?

Yes. She turns up in Mark Chadbourn's fantasy sequences, in Raymond E. Feist's Faerie Tale, in Amy Hoff's Caledonia series, in Seanan McGuire's October Daye novels and in the gamebook Vault of the Vampire.

Good reading and sources

Where this page comes from

The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Baobh-shìth", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryJaadu rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.

It may contain mistakes. Names and customs differ from one community to the next, and some knowledge is closed to outsiders and left out here. This page describes belief and practice. It does not say that any of it works, it is not a how-to, and it is not medical advice. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-22.

Baobh-shìth