Tradition: Scottish Mythology
Alternative names: Tarbh Uirge
Category: Cow
The Myth
The Tarbh Uirge was a supernatural creature associated with small, lonely moorland lochs. Unlike the Water-horse, it was considered harmless and did not harm people who approached its haunts.
The creature normally remained in the lochs and emerged only at night. It could sometimes be heard lowing near the water before wandering among farmers’ cattle, although it was rarely seen.
Its presence was believed to explain a particular kind of unusual calf. Calves with abnormally short ears, as though the upper part had been cut away with a knife, were said to be the offspring of the Tarbh Uirge. Since the Tarbh Uirge itself was believed to have no ears, its calves supposedly inherited only half-sized ears. In Gaelic these calves were called Carc-chluasach, meaning “knife-eared.”
One account from the district of Lorn tells of a dairymaid and a herdsman who were preparing to leave a cattle fold in the evening. They suddenly saw a small, ugly, extremely black animal moving among the cattle. It had the shape of a bull, but its body was described as soft and slippery and its bellow was unnatural, sounding somewhat like the crowing of a cock.
Terrified, the two fled from the fold. When they returned the following morning, however, they found the cattle lying peacefully inside as though nothing unusual had happened.
The Tarbh Uirge was therefore a strange but essentially harmless creature of the Scottish lochs, associated particularly with nighttime appearances, unusual cattle, and an eerie supernatural bellow.
Sources
Campbell, John Gregorson. Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland: Collected Entirely from Oral Sources. Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1900.