21/06/2026
Summer Solstice in the Highlands.
There are many tales of fires being lit on the highest hills on midsummer in the North of Scotland and an Act was passed in 1581 prohibiting them. Even so, Notes from the Presbytery Records of Inverness and Dingwall from 1655 stated that “the several brethren initmate to their congregationes that they desist of the superstitious abuses used on St Johnes day by burning torches through their barnes, and fyres in thar towns and thaire after fixing thair staicks in thar kailyards“. This demonstrates not only the use of fires but also the walking of the bounds with torches and leaving them in the kaleyards at home to bless them. Peat and wood would be collected from the village and surrounds running up to the night of the solstice so that the fire would burn from sunset to sunrise. Because we have such short nights and the sun doesn’t set far north this would have been easy to do. It also suggested that folks might put a bone in the base of the fire. Reminiscent of the sacrifices of old perhaps?
Solstice Blessings to all from us.🔥
Source: cailleachs-herbarium.com
*Kailyard is the Scots word for a small vegetable patch.
