Tradition: Scottish Mythology
Alternative Names: Great Hand
Category: House dweller
The Myth
Great-hand is a terrifying creature said to haunt the underground passages beneath Edinburgh’s Old Town. It dwells in a tunnel running beneath the Royal Mile, between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyrood. The passage was once used by soldiers to launch surprise attacks, but after it fell into disuse, Great-hand took up residence there. Its presence made the tunnel so feared that it was eventually abandoned entirely. According to the legend, nobody who entered ever came out alive.
The creature’s appearance is almost entirely unknown. The only part of Great-hand ever seen is an enormous, grisly hand with fingernails resembling the claws of an eagle. Whether the hand belongs to a larger body remains a mystery, as nobody has reportedly seen anything beyond this monstrous limb.
Eventually, a piper decided to challenge the terror surrounding the tunnel. He announced that he would walk through it while playing his pipes, allowing those waiting outside to follow his progress by listening to the music. He took his dog with him and entered through a cave near the Castle. As he descended underground, the sound of his pipes could be heard travelling beneath the city.
When the music reached the Heart of Midlothian, it suddenly stopped. The waiting crowd became alarmed and returned to the cave entrance. The piper was nowhere to be seen, but his dog came running out in absolute terror, having lost all its hair. Whatever had happened underground had frightened the animal so severely that it emerged completely hairless. After this incident, the tunnel was blocked up at both ends, sealing off the place where Great-hand was believed to dwell.
Great-hand belongs to a wider tradition of Scottish stories about haunted caves and dangerous underground places. Similar tales feature bold pipers who attempt to cross forbidden passages, only for their music to stop and their animals to return in a state of terror. These stories warn against venturing into places where the living world seems to give way to unknown horrors. Great-hand’s unseen body and monstrous hand make it especially unsettling: the audience is left to imagine the creature lurking in the darkness, beyond the reach of ordinary sight.
Sources
“Great Hand.” A Book of Creatures, April 5, 2019. https://abookofcreatures.com/2019/04/05/great-hand/