Magic Island Storytelling Theatre: Strange Tales From The Isle Of Arran: Ghost & fairy tales & more.

Final episode of this classic tale of lycathropic terror as an isolated family on the high moorlands here on the Isle of Arran are beset by a fearsome supernatural beast. Those who heard the preceding episodes will need no warning that this contains some seriously macabre storytelling elements.

Here's the second part of this tale just perfect for spooky season. Gruff Angus has softened his heart sufficiently to find a new bride in Christina, who came into the lives of him and his children one snowy night. But something bestial prowls the snowy forests and moorlands around their cottage.... (Contains some scary & violent scenes).

Here's a tale just right for Halloween time, or winter nights generally - my Scottish version of a traditional lycanthropic tale of horror, which I've relocated here to home territory in the high moors and forests of Arran. Rest of the story coming very soon!

The final part of this occasionally rather scary folk tale. Peter has run out of magic bullets - just ahead of the hunting test which might win him the hand of Moira and the post of Ghillie on the Duke of Hamilton's estate on the Isle of Arran. So he's crept up into mysterious Bogle Glen to try and forge some fresh bullets for himself by way of a pact with sinister, supernatural forces. This final episode contains some elements which might frighten the very, very nervous - BEWARE THE BOGLE MIDGES!

So Peter seems set for a happy ending - with the discreet help of magic bullets gained from a strange old man in the forest, he now seems set to replace old Andrew as chief Ghillie on the Hamilton estate on the Isle of Arran... and to win the hand in marriage of Andrew's daughter Moira. But what happens when he runs out of magic bullets. Scary things happen, that's what!

Here's the first part of a story I performed several times last year in the woodlands of Arran as part of Scotland's Year Of Stories and also in the grounds of Brodick Castle. It's a story you'll encounter in many variants all over the world but I first encountered a version of it in the German Harz Mountains where I used to work. But this version of the story relocates it decisively here to the shores of Arran, for a tale of frustrated love, the urge to hunt, and some distinctly supernatural intervention in both....

I was recently off Arran, visiting old haunts in the Scottish Highlands - particularly the wild Rogie Falls & Blackwater River north of Inverness, one of the places where I first practiced the art of storytelling. And here's a story I used to tell on the banks of that wild, tumbling river....

Second, and concluding, part of this improvised telling of a classic, and occasionally rather macabre, folk tale. Heroine Katy has supposedly escaped her murderous husband (after having previously cut off his hand) and now starts a new life right here on the beautiful Isle of Arran, where she is on a course for a very romantic happy ending. Unless, that is, her murderous husband has caught up with her....

Here's my version - in an unscripted, improvised performance - of an enjoyably gruesome, Grand Guignol-ish traditional folk tale, set in this episode on the Ayrshire mainland - though things will shift across the water to Arran for the next, concluding, episode -- which shall follow shortly!

Well, here we are with the final episode of this dramatic tale (originally performed last year, live in the Roots of Arran woodland as part of Scotland's Year Of Stories), an eco-Gothic folk horror tale of the consequences of an attempt to drive the route of a modern road straight through an ancient woodland with a disturbing history - and prehistory. WARNING: contains a scene of strong bloody violence.

OK, we know by now what a Dryad is & what the stakes are in the fight to save our destroy the ancient forest. Which means the scene is set for the dramatic penultimate act of this 5 Act folk-horror drama. WARNING: contains scenes of violence and psychological intensity throughout. You have been warned!

The third act of this dramatic narrative, originally performed last year in an actual ancient woodland here on the Isle of Arran as part of Scotland's Year Of Stories. Now we move deeper into the forest still, to learn more about Jim's (Jamie's?) past and to learn what exactly a Dryad is.... - Contains some elements not ideal for younger or more sensitive listeners.

The second part of my 5 part exercise in eco-Gothic, as previously performed in the ancient woodland of the Isle of Arran, as part of Scotland's Year Of Stories. We've seen Jim take up his new job as security guard in the ancient forest that's to have the route of a modern road ploughed straight through it. And we've heard hints that there might be more to this forest's history, and to Jim's relationship with it, than is immediately apparent. But enough of that... it's the next morning - time to start seriously digging a chainsaw a path through the forest, with Jim and the other security guards there to make sure the protesters keep their distance.....

Here's the first episode (of five) of an audio fiction version of one of the main stories I performed live this summer in the ancient woodland cared for by Roots of Arran, as part of our participation in 2022's being Scotland's Year Of Stories. It's an Eco-Gothic, folk horror tale of the strange things that go wrong when a modern construction company attempts to force a modern road through an ancient forest. More background is in the intro - which if it goes on a bit for you, gives way to the story proper at 9m 40s! Just imagine you're here on Arran and it's a summer evening, and I'm telling you this story as I lead you deeper and deeper into the forest....

Here's the dramatic conclusion of this four part ghostly thriller set here on the Isle of Arran back in Victorian times. Homeless Mary's dream come true of being offered shelter for the holiday season in a grand house on the island has turned to nightmare....

Continuing this repeat performance for my Victorian ghost story, set here on the Isle of Arran. Homeless Mary has accepted an uncommon offer of hospitality in a snowbound house on the island. But there's a catch to her host's generosity... encounters with terrible dangers, both human and supernatural.

Continuing this repeat performance of my Victorian ghost story set, by this stage in the tale, on snowy Arran. Homeless Mary has accepted an offer of shelter from a mysterious benefactor, who has taken her to his isolated home on the Isle of Arran, where he has a story to tell about his reasons for extending such uncommon hospitality....

Haven't had the chance to create any new episodes - sorry - I'm up to my neck in work as a writer for Audible, dramatizing Charles Dickens for exec producer Sam Mendes and co. - Oliver Twist out now, starring Brian Cox, Daniel Kaluuya and Nicola Coughlan, with two more to follow. In the meantime, as compensation, here's a second outing for my somewhat Dickensian Christmas ghost story set in Victorian Glasgow. It's in four episodes, and here's episode one....

And here it is, the dramatic and downright horrific final episode of my three part contemporary Glaswegian version of a classic tale by Edgar Allan Poe. Our backdrop is Glasgow's contemporary art scene, but the outcome of the story is as dark and Gothic as the E.A. Poe original....

Here's episode 2 of my three part reimagining of a classic tale by Edgar Allan Poe, shifting the setting to the modern art scene in contemporary Glasgow. This is the audio version of a show I performed to great acclaim at the London Horror and Edinburgh Fringe festivals to considerable acclaim. But you can enjoy the drama and chills in your own private headspace by way of this audio version....

Here's a second go round for my radically modernized version of a classic tale by Edgar Allan Poe - reimagining it in the modern art scene of contemporary Glasgow, but still offering the plentiful chills & Gothic drama of the original. I performed this show to great acclaim at both the Edinburgh Fringe & London Horror Festivals, as well as in theatrical spaces elsewhere. But here's the three part audio version....

This time round I translate a classic Russian folk tale into a very Scottish idiom - as a little gesture of my love for Russian culture at a time when we are sorely reminded how tragically unfortunate it can be in its leadership (though scarcely alone in world history, in that regard). Here's a tale of a heroic young woman taking on an arrogant demon intruding into her space....

This story is improvised from one of the tales in J. F. Campbell's classic collection West Highland Tales, our Scottish equivalent of The Brothers Grimm, a story that appealed to me for its sheer surreality. A fairy tale about three sisters who venture out into the world to discover the character building qualities of hardship, it has some striking twists and turns. (I should also say that the story contains male nudity --- but not the sort you're thinking of right now...)

As I explain in the intro, I was out walking the dog on the beach and came across a whole cluster of the seals who've taken up residence in the bay here recently. Suitably inspired, I rushed home to tell, unscripted and impromptu, an old favourite story based on the legends of the Selkies, seals in the water, somewhat more human up on dry land.

Just in time for Hogmanay - the final episode of this seasonal ghost story, in which we finally get to hear the real story of what happened three years before our late Victorian "present tense", the story that has lurked like an undefined shadow behind all the story we've heard so far. And then, after that journey into the depths of a disturbed mind, we take a journey into the literal depths where the dead and a dramatic climax are waiting for us....

In our previous two episodes, homeless Mary has been offered shelter for the Christmas season in the snowbound Arran home of good Samaritan Dr. Craigie. But she's encountered some strange things in and around the snow - a walking snowman, a strange doll's house and its inhabitants, plus a very mortal but also very dangerous trespasser out in the woods. But that only sets the scene for our story getting seriously weird and creepy in this penultimate episode....

Continuing our Christmas chiller in the classic Victorian Gothic manner. Homeless Mary has been offered shelter in Doctor Ewan Craigie's isolated house on the Island of Arran. It seems a Christmas dream come true, overshadowed only slightly by a mysterious snowman that almost seemed to move in the moonlight, and by the revelation that, three Christmases ago, the good Doctor lost his wife and children. Now, encouraged by a sympathetic Mary, he decides to tell his story.... (previously heard on ArranSound radio - arransound.com)

It's the time-hallowed season for ghost stories - so here's the first part of a seasonal, snowbound chiller, in the grand tradition of Dickens & M.R. James, being presented in tandem with its being broadcast on ArranSound radio here on Arran. This first episode begins in the meaner streets of Victorian Glasgow but then shifts across the water to Arran. For a happy ending? Well, even a seeming island paradise can have its shadows. What, for example, is going on with that strange little snowman standing just outside? And does the generous soul who offers our heroine safety and shelter for the Christmas season have more complicated motives than simple charity? 

Concluding part of this rough and tumble, improvised, unscripted performance of a classic Scottish fairy tale, a sort of Beauty-and-the-Beast variant. The curse of the Bogle has been lifted! A shaggy haired Highland bull has been restored to human form! Unfortunately, he's also been rendered invisible and inaudible to Jessie, the woman he loves - which means she now has to go on a long and difficult quest to reunite herself with him. (Originally performed on my radio show for ArranSound, Winter's Tales). 

Here's another of my improvised, unscripted fairy tale performances, as first heard on my ArranSound radio show here on the Isle of Arran earlier this year, a Scottish variant on the Beauty & the Beast tradition. Part Two to follow!

To wind up the stories from what was my first "season" as storyteller on ArranSound radio here on the Isle of Arran, here's a light-hearted (though not entirely un-spooky) fairy tale that originally came between Ballad Of The Driftwood Mermaid & The Unburying in the sequence, presented in a script-free improvised performance (I've performed this story a lot on my travels). Two foolhardy young fellows learn, through an encounter with the fairy folk in the mountains of Arran, learn to have more respect for "Old Wives Tales"....

Final episode of this spine chilling tale which transports a traditional Japanese Kwaidan to the shores of the Isle of Arran, producing a very Scottish tale of terror. Alec and Alice have escaped the manse haunted by a demonic presence. But up on the misty hillside, they find escape isn't going to be as easy as hoped. And what happened to the Reverend Galt after his own encounter with a monstrous shadowy presence at the end of the last episode? Previously heard on ArranSound radio, where it formed the final episode of my first season as their resident storyteller.

Continuing a very eerie tale which relocates a Japanese Kwaidan to right here on the Isle of Arran. Alec has stumbled upon the household of the Reverend Galt and his niece Alice, only to find himself attacked by the demonic force that nightly ravages the graveyard. Can he survive? You'll need to listen to find out....

Here's a spooky tale which began life, as I explain in the intro, as a Japanese folk tale - but not being Japanese I've transposed the tale, lock, stock and barrel to our native shores here on the Isle of Arran, thus making a very Scottish chiller of the story. A young man visiting the island encounters a young woman and her Uncle, a Presbyterian Minister. But in the dark of the night, something strange and terrible plagues their little kirkyard, eating of the dead....

Final episode of this intense and uncanny drama. Can Doug and Sarah escape the haunted shipwreck - or will they be condemned forever more to... "Kiss The Sea... Breathe The Sea... Be The Sea....." ?

Okay - things have got pretty darned serious & scary in our dramatic tale of the Scottish south west coast. Doug, with the help of old Pete, has to do what he can to rescue Sarah from the haunted shipwrecks -- while Sarah herself, hand in hand with mysterious Finn, is about to make a perilous descent into the magical underwater world of the Sidhe....

Doug has rescued the unconscious Sarah from the surf down on the beach, carrying her home. A happy ending? Oh, I don't think it's going to be quite that simple, in the weirdest creepiest episode yet...!

So, dream home or not, things are not going too smoothly between Doug and Sarah. She has run out into the night and had a nocturnal encounter on the beach with handsome, mysterious Finn, who has finished his sculpture of her. Doug, meanwhile, remains in the pub to drown his sorrows - but an encounter with old Pete, who has personal experience of the dangers presented by the spirits haunting the nearby shipwrecks, gives Doug a sudden sharp sense of the danger Sarah might be in....

Continuing this very contemporary version of a classic folk tale of Scotland's south west coast. Doug and Sarah have moved into their dream home on the Galloway coast - but the troubled past of their relationship has not been put entirely behind them and Sarah, shocked, turns to the company of Finn, the sculptor down on the beach, who has come up with just the piece of driftwood for carving a perfect image of Sarah...

Here's a story inspired by a classic folk tale of the south west coast of Scotland, but given a very contemporary dramatization. Sarah & Doug have moved to their dream home on the Galloway coast, but an encounter with an enigmatic young sculptor on the beach begins a very strange tale of magic and mystery, of desire and danger, of beauty and terror....

Another tale of the coast here. My relationship with this story goes way back to my days of guiding walks all along the British coast paths - it was nice to return to the story here in an Isle of Arran context. It's a bittersweet tale, with a quality - I think - of an old Celtic ballad.

Been slightly remiss with these stories (originally broadcast on my show Thursdays and Sundays @8pm on ArranSound radio) in not yet presenting a tale of the sea, what with living here on an island, but here's a favourite - a funny / creepy tale of an encounter with a Merrow, a frankly rather ugly and dangerous Celtic version of a merman. 

The dramatic conclusion to my radical contemporary (and very Scottish, indeed very Glaswegian) re-imagining of a classic tale by local Ayrshire boy (by fostering at least) Edgar Allan Poe. It all comes to a very creepy climax in this one folks and I'd better forewarn you this is more in-your-face horrific than some of the other stories on this podcast. Enjoy!

Continuing my very contemporary update of a classic tale by local Ayrshire boy (well, by fostering at least - see intro to the first episode) Edgar Allan Poe, as originally presented on stage at the likes of the Edinburgh Fringe, London Horror Festival & Southside Fringe). After a fallout with her brother, narrator Ed Allan escorts Madeline Usher home to the Usher twins' very unusual residence on the Glasgow quayside.

This story began life as one of three very radical, very contemporary, very Glaswegian updates of classic tales by Edgar Allan Poe (who, as the introduction explains, had strong connections with Ayrshire, immediately across the water from me as I sit here on Arran), which I performed very successfully at the likes of the Edinburgh Fringe (5 star reviews!), London Horror Festival and Glasgow's Southside Fringe. This three parter takes, of course, Fall Of The House Of Usher and relocates it to modern Scotland. You have an invitation to attend the opening of the latest show by those masters of macabre conceptual art, Roderick and Madeline Usher, where an old friend from art school is about to stray into the troubled private life of the twins.... "Ross has great aptitude for suspense and terror" (Scotsman review of the stage version).

Here's a rather romantic story which I performed on ArranSound radio for Valentine's Day, a tale of rather lycanthropic romance set in Lochranza at the north of Arran and in the wild mountainscapes overlooking it. 

Back in time to my very first show for ArranSound radio here on the Isle of Arran, as broadcast for Halloween 2020, a ghost story inspired by our local legend of a ghostly White Stag haunting the mountain passes above Brodick Castle - the very sight of which could traditionally mean death for the island's lords and masters.

Last time round, a tale of love mysteriously lost. This time - love regained? Well, only after a fierce battle with the Bogle of Glen Rosa! (As originally performed on my storytelling show Winters Tales on ArranSound.com here on the Isle of Arran.)

A magic tale of love lost and found - though not without a lot of sometimes scary dangers inbetween. This story was originally performed on my storytelling show Winters Tales here on ArranSoundcom

And now the climax of our dark adult fairy tale, as Heather gains entry to the secret kingdom of our Baobhan Sith, Scathach or Shona, buried deep within the mountains of the Isle of Arran. But the hardest, most terrifying challenges yet lie ahead as she fights her way past demonic forces to a final confrontation, a last chance to free the soul of her lost James.... (As originally heard on my radio show Winters Tales on ArranSound radio here on the Isle of Arran (at arransound.com)

Heather now knows the dangerous journey she must begin to save the lost soul of her husband James, a journey into the sheerest wintery mountainscapes of the Isle of Arran. But the very supernatural force she seeks to defeat is waiting for her.... (As originally heard on my radio show for ArranSound, Winters Tales.)

After narrowly surviving the horrors of the night of the scarlet moon, Heather learns more about the force she is confronted with, the power of the supernatural Baobhan Sith, and learns what she must do to challenge it, for her own sake and the sake of the man she loved. (As originally heard on my radio show Winter's Tales on ArranSound here on the Isle of Arran.)

And now the moment has come for the mysterious Shona to lead James out into a sensuous and dangerous and haunted dance beneath a snowy scarlet moon. Heather has one chance to save the man she loves before the supernatural forces at work turn their full power upon her.... (Originally broadcast in my radio show Winter's Tales on ArranSound here on the Isle of Arran.)

The mysterious Shona has come between honeymooning couple James and Heather. Or has she? The next morning, all seems back to normal as James & Heather set out on a walk to the prehistoric Giants Graves on the Isle of Arran. But there another strange encounter opens the way to a deadly dance indeed. (As first heard on my radio show Winters Tales on ArranSound).

Continuing with this dark fairy tale set on the Island of Arran (and originally performed & broadcast on my storytelling show Winters Tales on ArranSound Radio) -- Heather and James have settled into their honeymoon home on the island, but they've taken in a mysterious young woman called Shona, who is set to bring temptation and ultimately terror to their marriage. (Contains mild sexual situations).

The first episode of a very dark and grown up Scottish fairy tale, set on the Isle of Arran. James & Heather arrive on the island for their honeymoon, but an ancient and deadly force upon the island has its eyes upon them. (As originally broadcast on ArranSound radio show Winter's Tales.)