Ghillie Dhu Ghillie Dhu In Scottish folklore the Ghillie Dhu or Gille Dubh () was a solitary male fairy. He was kindly and reticent yet sometimes wild in character but had a gentle devotion to children. Dark haired and clothed in leaves and moss, he lived in a birch wood within the Gairloch and Loch a Druing area of the north-west highlands of Scotland. "Ghillie" is an English equivalent of the Scottish Gaelic word ; Edward Dwelly, a Scottish lexicographer, lists "gille" as a "lad", "youth" or "boy" with "dubh" translating as "dark" or "dark-haired". According to folklorist and scholar Katharine Briggs
Ghillie Dhu Dhu was never seen again. After researching folklore traditions gathered primarily from Gaelic areas of Scotland, an authority on congenital disorders, Susan Schoon Eberly, has speculated the tale of the Ghillie Dhu may have a basis in a human being with a medical condition; other academics, such as Carole G. Silver, Professor of English at Stern College for Women, agree and suggest he was a dwarf. Eberly maintained several other solitary or individual fairies, including the Brownie and the Manx Fenodyree, could also have a medical, rather than supernatural, explanation. Citations Bibliography Ghillie Dhu In Scottish folklore the Ghillie Dhu