eBook: The Stories That Shaped The Land: Scottish Folk Tales to Read, Explore and Discover by Carol Murdoch

Please note: this is a digital copy of the book. 

What if the hills, lochs, woods and shores of Scotland could tell you their stories?

Step into a Scotland where giants throw stones across the sea, fairies hide beneath hills, rivers carry secrets, and the land remembers those who came before.

The Stories That Shaped the Land is a collection of 22 Scottish folk tales, retold for today’s young readers. From the Cailleach shaping mountains and the mysterious waters of Loch Ness to the fairies of Doon Hill, the Merry Dancers in the northern sky and the last wolf of Glen Sleddale, these are stories rooted in the landscapes of Scotland.

But this book is about more than reading stories.

Each tale invites you to look again at the world around you.

Every story is followed by activities to Discover and Explore, making, investigating, testing, noticing, listening, measuring and wondering. You might build a mountain, make a sound map, investigate how water moves, look for traces of the past, follow animal signs or discover how changing your viewpoint can change what you see.

You don’t need to visit the places in the stories. You don’t even need to be in Scotland.

All you need is somewhere to explore.

Because folklore isn’t something that belongs only to the past. Stories change as people tell them, retell them and make them their own. And sometimes, when we listen closely enough, the landscape around us seems to have a story of its own.

Read the stories.
Discover the ideas.
Explore the world around you.

For children, families, teachers and anyone who has ever wondered what might have happened here.

The land is alive. The stories are waiting.