This is part of our ongoing project, The Learning Lore. The Learning Lore Project celebrates the enduring power of folklore, using traditional stories to foster connection with nature, heritage, and place through outdoor learning. By blending storytelling with educational resources, it invites learners to step outside, explore the landscape, and uncover the lessons the land still holds.
You can access the story and learn more about her below.
Additional lessons to accompany this are:
Creative Creatures
Connection: Links perfectly to folklore and allows children to explore their own mythical figures. They could create beings like the Cailleach, her daughter, or guardians of seasonal change.
Use: Extend the story into the learners’ local environment, imagining what spirits or beings might shape their own landscapes.
Create an Assault Course
Connection: Encourages mindfulness and awareness of the land beneath our feet, much like the Cailleach, who shaped and watches over the land.
Use: A great follow-up after discussing how the Cailleach values the natural world. You could frame the course as moving through a landscape she once shaped.
Outdoor Adventure: Mapping Our Playground with Personalised Names
Connection: The Cailleach is tied to real Scottish places — Ben Cruachan, Glen Lyon, Rannoch Moor. This activity connects with place-naming, ownership of space, and landscape stories.
Use: Let children name parts of their playground or outdoor space as if the Cailleach had shaped it — “The Sleeping Hill”, “Stone of the Storm”, etc.