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In Gaels (Irish mythology, Scottish and Manx) myth, the Cailleach (, ) is a divine hag, associated with the Creator deity of the landscape and with the Weather god, especially storms and winter. The word literally means 'old woman, hag', and is found with this meaning in modern Irish language and Scottish Gaelic, (2025). 9780071426671, Hodder Education. ISBN 9780071426671 and has been applied to numerous mythological and Folklore figures in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man.Briggs, Katharine M. (1976) An Encyclopedia of Fairies. New York, Pantheon Books. pp. 57-60. In modern Irish folklore studies, she is sometimes known as The Hag of Beara, while in Scotland she is known as Beira, Queen of Winter.
The Cailleach is often referred to as the Cailleach Bhéara in Irish and Cailleach Bheurra in Scottish Gaelic. Gearóid Ó Crualaoich believes this comes from a word meaning 'sharp, shrill, inimical' – bior or beur – and refers to the Cailleach's association with winter and wilderness, as well as her association with horned beasts or cattle.
The 8th- to 9th-century Irish poem The Lament of the Old Woman says that the Cailleach's name is Digdi or Digde. In The Hunt of Slieve Gullion she is called Milucra, sister of Áine. In the tale of the Glas Gaibhnenn, she is called Biróg. Elsewhere, she is called Bui or Buach.Ó Cathasaigh, Tomás. "Knowth - The Epynom of Cnogba". In Manx language she is known as the Caillagh.Monaghan, Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore. Infobase Publishing, 2004, p.69
The plural of cailleach is cailleacha () in Irish, cailleachan () in Scottish Gaelic, and caillaghyn in Manx. The word is found as a component in terms like the Gaelic cailleach-dhubh ('nun') and cailleach-oidhche ('owl'), as well as the Irish cailleach feasa ('wise woman, fortune-teller') and cailleach phiseogach ('sorceress, charm-worker'). Related words include the Gaelic caileag and the Irish cailín ('young woman, girl, colleen'), the diminutive of caile 'woman', and the Scots language Carlin stone]] ('old woman, witch'). A more obscure word that is sometimes interpreted as 'hag' is the Irish síle, which has led some to speculate on a connection between the Cailleach and the stone carvings of Sheela na Gigs.Ross, Anne (1973, reprint 2004) "The divine hag of the pagan Celts", in The Witch Figure: Folklore Essays by a Group of Scholars in England Honoring the 75th Birthday of Katharine M. Briggs; ed. by Venetia Newall. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. .
The Cailleach displays several traits befitting the personification of winter: she herds deer, she fights spring, and her staff freezes the ground.
In partnership with the goddess Brigid, the Cailleach is seen as a seasonal deity or spirit, ruling the winter months between (5 November or first day of Samhain) and Beltane (1 May or first day of summer), while Brìghde rules the summer months between Bealltainn and Samhainn. Some interpretations have the Cailleach and Brìghde as two faces of the same goddess, while others describe the Cailleach as turning to Carlin stone on Bealltainn and reverting to humanoid form on Samhainn in time to rule over the winter months. Depending on local climate, the transfer of power between the winter goddess and the summer goddess is celebrated any time between Là Fhèill Brìghde (Imbolc, 1 February) at the earliest, Latha na Cailliche (25 March), or Bealltainn (1 May) at the latest, and the local festivals marking the arrival of the first signs of spring may be named after either the Cailleach or Brìghde.
Imbolc is also the day the Cailleach gathers her firewood for the rest of the winter. Legend has it that if she intends to make the winter last a good while longer, she will make sure the weather on 1 February is bright and sunny, so she can gather plenty of firewood to keep herself warm in the coming months. As a result, people are generally relieved if Là Fhèill Brìghde is a day of foul weather, as it means the Cailleach is asleep, will soon run out of firewood, and therefore winter is almost over. On the Isle of Man, where She is known as Caillagh ny Groamagh, the Cailleach is said to have been seen on Imbolc in the form of a gigantic bird, carrying sticks in her beak.
According to Mackenzie, Winter solstice of the year marked the end of her reign as Queen of Winter, at which time she visited the Well of Youth and, after drinking its magic water, grew younger day by day.
In Scotland, the Cailleachan (lit. 'old women') are also known as the Storm Hags, and seen as personifications of the elemental powers of nature, especially in a destructive aspect. They are said to be particularly active in raising the windstorms of spring, during the period known as A' Chailleach.
On the west coast of Scotland, the Cailleach ushers in winter by washing her great plaid (Scottish Gaelic: féileadh mòr) in the Gulf of Corryvreckan (Scottish Gaelic: Coire Bhreacain - 'whirlpool/cauldron of the plaid'). This process is said to take three days, during which the roar of the coming tempest is heard as far away as inland. When she is finished, her plaid is pure white and snow covers the land.
In Scotland and Ireland, the first farmer to finish the grain harvest made a corn dolly, representing the Cailleach (also called "the Carlin or Carline"Frazer, The Golden Bough 1922, ch. 45.), from the last sheaf of the crop. The figure would then be tossed into the field of a neighbor who had not yet finished bringing in their grain. The last farmer to finish had the responsibility to take in and care for the corn dolly for the next year, with the implication they'd have to feed and house the hag all winter. Competition was fierce to avoid having to take in the Old Woman.McNeill, Vol.2 (1959) pp. 119-124.
Some scholars believe the Old Irish poem "The Lament of the Old Woman of Beara" is about the Cailleach; Kuno Meyer states, "she had fifty foster-children in Beare. She had seven periods of youth one after another, so that every man who had lived with her came to die of old age, and her grandsons and great-grandsons were tribes and races."
Labbacallee wedge tomb () is located near Glanworth, County Cork and is, according to folklore, the Cailleach's grave and former dwelling where she lived with her husband, Mug Ruith, who she threw a boulder at, pinning him to the floor of the River Funshion.
There is a rock on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork at Kilcatherine said to resemble the Cailleach. In mythology she is said to have leapt across the bay from Coulagh to its present location.
The megalithic tombs at Loughcrew in County Meath are situated atop Slieve na Calliagh () and include a kerbstone known as "the hag's chair".Cochrane, Andrew (2005) " A taste of the unexpected: subverting mentalités through the motifs and settings of Irish passage tombs". p.4: "To the north of Cairn T and on the exterior is located K29 or the ‘Hag’s Chair’. This kerbstone has visual imagery on its front and back face. The top of the central part of this kerbstone is believed to be artificially cut to create the chair appearance (Shee Twohig 1981, 217; contra. Conwell 1866, 371)". Cairn T on Slieve na Calliagh is a classic passage tomb, in which the rays of the equinox sunrise shine down the passageway and illuminate an inner chamber filled with megalithic stone carvings.Documented in photos and videos taken on site for six years running.
The summit of Slieve Gullion in County Armagh features a passage tomb known locally as the 'Calliagh Beara's House'. There is also a lake, where the Calliagh is said to have played a trick on the mythical warrior, Fionn mac Cumhaill, when he took on the physical appearance of an old man after diving into the lake to retrieve a ring that the Calliagh fooled him into thinking was lost.
Aillenacally ( Aill na Caillí, "Hag Cliff") is a cliff in County Galway.
The Carrowmore passage tombs on the Cúil Iorra Peninsula in County Sligo, are associated with the Cailleach. One is called the Cailleach a Bhéara's House.Meehan, Padraig. Listoghil, A Seasonal Alignment, 2014, Gungho Publications, William Butler Yeats refers to the Sligo Cailleach as the 'Clooth na Bare'.Jeffares, Alexander Norman. A Commentary on the Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats, 1968, Stanford University Press In County Sligo she is also called the River Garavogue Cailleach.
She is also associated with other Scottish mountains. Ben Nevis was said to be her "mountain throne". The two mountains on the Isle of Skye named Beinn na Caillich (western and eastern) after her, from which fierce storms of sleet and rain descend, wreaking havoc and destruction upon the lands below.
in Perthshire, Scotland]]There is a Gleann Cailliche in Glen Lyon in Perthshire with a stream named Allt Cailliche which runs into Loch Lyon. This area is famous for a pagan ritual which according to legend is associated to the Cailleach. There is a small shieling in the Glen, known as either Tigh nan Cailleach (Scottish Gaelic for house of the old womenMacLennan, Malcolm, Gaelic Dictionary, Acair and Aberdeen University Press, 1985 photolithographic reprint of 1st edition, 1925) or Tigh nam Bodach, (Scottish Gaelic for house of the old men), which houses a number of heavy water-worn stones, resembling miniature human beings.McKerracher, Archie, Perthshire in History and Legend, 1st edition 1988, John Donald Publishers, , pp55-56 Roughly rectangular, the building originally measured 2m by 1.3m by 0.4m high with a stone roof. National Record of the Historic Environment (Canmore), Tigh Nam Bodach, Archaeology Notes
According to local legend the stones represent the Cailleach, her husband the Bodach, and their children Sacred stones out in the sun, Daily Record
/ref> A replacement roof of a wooden pallet having collapsed and the whole building having become somewhat ruinous it was rebuilt by a local dyker in 2011. Tigh nam Bodach stones of Glen Cailliche get makeover from dyking expert, Daily Record
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/ref> and the site may represent the only surviving shrine of its kind in Great Britain. The local legend suggests that the Cailleach and her family were given shelter in the glen by the locals and while they stayed there the glen was always fertile and prosperous. When they left they gave the stones to the locals with the promise that as long as the stones were put out to look over the glen at Beltane and put back into the shelter and made secure for the winter at Samhain then the glen would continue to be fertile. This ritual is still carried out to this day.
In popular culture
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