Skye's Feathered Weavers of Worlds: Dream Carriers, Winged Messengers, and the Liminal Magic of Migrating Birds

Isle of Skye Photo Credit: Kevin Lofthouse on Unsplash

I love these jagged iconic pinnacles surrounded by mist which make up the dramatic landscape of the Isle of Skye.

For those of us witnessing the cooling of the landscape in the Northern Hemisphere, if we follow nature’s lead, we may also choose to slow down and prepare ourselves for that long season of rest. . .and dreams! A perfect time for a folktale like “The Makers of Dreams”, an ancient folktale from the Isle of Skye beautifully retold by Scottish Storyteller Daniel Allison in his book Scottish Myths and Legends, which he retells also orally on his own HouseofLegends podcast (Episode 10, July 1, 2019) . I highly recommend listening to his version, because I did not do it justice in my brief summary below:

The story is about a young girl who gets lost in the misty mountains on the Isle of Skye while absorbed in the work of picking wild berries. Though frightened at first as the sky darkens and the mist thickens, she soon hears the sound of clanking antlers and discovers a herd of deer who lead her to an elderly couple who live in a cave who welcome her in. Though at first they appear to be simple folk who make cheese from deer milk, she eventually discovers they are older than the span of several geological ages and that they are the Makers of Dreams. Every day as the sun begins to set they sit in the cave next to a pool of water, the pool of life, and there they mould the cheese into shapes which they offer to the wild birds who then fly away with these “dreams” and deposit them inside children’s heads as they sleep.

This is such a beautiful story with rich meaning on so many levels!

Woven through the threads of this old tale is the quiet knowing that birds and dreams are kin — that our feathered companions move not only through the skies above but through the hidden paths within. They belong to both realms, outer and inner, and it is they who guide us across the veil between waking and wonder, earth and soul. They whisper a quiet knowing, the soul’s forgotten threads, hinting that we belong not just to one place, but to many. Perched between worlds, these feathered wanderers soar in the threshold loom of the open sky, their feathers and wings thread landscapes together and weave us all into belonging with the earth itself.

The fact that the elderly couple are deer herders is significant alongside the migratory birds. Archeological evidence has found artifacts, including distinctive stone tools like tanged points and blades, which are associated with the Ahrensburgian culture, known for their reindeer hunting prowess revealing that reindeer herding was practiced in Scotland including Isle of Skye

That the elder couple in this tale are deer herders is no small detail — it hums with ancient meaning, especially when set beside the migratory birds. Archeological evidence reveals that long ago, in the shadowed hills and windswept moors of Scotland — even upon the Isle of Skye — people of the Ahrensburgian culture once lived and followed the great reindeer herds. The old stones speak of it still: tanged blades and flint points, tools known for their deep knowledge of reindeer and the rhythms of their roaming. These were not people bound by fences or fixed place — they moved with the land, not over it.

These stories remind us of something older than any nation — a memory tucked deep in the bones of many peoples across the world. Whether your ancestors once followed caribou, wildebeest, whales, or wind itself, the deeper truth holds: we are not strangers to migration. They carry us back to a time when humans lived in rhythm with the migrations — of hoof and wing — faithful not to borders, but to the turning of seasons, the paths of beasts, the pulse of the wild. In this story, where birds bring dreams and deer nourish the soul. This tale of wing and hoof, of birds who carry dreams and deer who nourish, invites us to remember that belonging may not mean being still, but being in right relation — to the land, the season, and the unseen paths that call us home.

And the tale deepens still. . .There’s an old weight to the presence of cheese in this tale of migrating birds and dreams — not just as food, but as a sign of slow transformation. Cheese, after all, is born through the quiet work of time and fermentation, turning fresh milk into something richer, stronger, and easier to take in. The old folk might not have spoken of modern psychology, but they understood in their bones what dreamers like Carl Jung later echoed: that some truths arrive too raw for waking life. So the spirit offers them softened, shaped by night, the way milk is turned to cheese — through patience, hidden process, and care. That dreams in this story are fed by cheese hints at something deep: that dreaming helps us carry what we cannot yet name, giving form to what would otherwise be too heavy to hold.

Included in this handmade linocut print are: the feathers of a snow goose, merlin, osprey, crow, snowy owl, bald eagle and peregrine falcon (some native wild birds from the Isle of Skye), along with the dramatic iconic spiky pinnacles of The Old Man of Storr, a herd of deer and the Makers of Dreams!

Though I have never been to the Isle of Skye myself, hearing this story definitely beckons me towards those sea-misty mountains, and the sound of clanking antlers and the warm, wrinkled faces and white wispy hair of the Dream Makers who live there in deep time. Though I may never get to visit that magical island in my lifetime, it warms my heart to know that every night, a dream will come to me riding on feathered wings of a bird from the Isle of Skye!

References:

Allison, Daniel (2020). Scottish Myths and Legends. Nielson ISBN Store.

Boyce, Danica (Host) “The Dream Makers: Daniel Allison Scottish Storyteller & Author” Fair Folk Podcast. (October 20, 2020).

Blog Cover Photo Credit: Kevin Lofthouse on Unsplash

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