The Man with the Horse - In Search of Skye Kelpie Tales

In the Spring of 2023, poet Tony Bonning and his sturdy Grey Cob horse ‘Chief’ set out on to walk round Skye to collect stories of Kelpies and other local folktales. It turned out to be a rewarding and unforgettable adventure, marked by challenging weather, rough terrain, the satisfaction of reaching places associated with ‘Each-uisge’ (water horse) traditional Gaelic stories, moments of unexpected beauty and reflection, and above all the unstinting generosity of the many wonderful people he met along the way.

This is the story of Tony and Chief’s epic journey, told in Tony’s own words with many stunning photos and a compendium of over a hundred Skye folktales. People from all backgrounds turned out to welcome and support ‘The Man with the Horse’, sharing food, shelter, friendship, and their own folktales.

About the author

Tony Bonning was born into a farming family in the hills of south-west Scotland. From an early age he was a keen amateur naturalist with a great love of poetry, song and story, inherited from his parents and grandparents. He has been a collector of folklore and folktales for fifty years, ran the Play it by Ear pre-school music group for twenty-five years, the popular Galloway Children’s Festival, with its focus on storytelling, for eighteen years and was a co-founder of The Wickerman Festival. His first major trek with Chief was in 2022 when they walked the length of Scotland. To date they have covered well over a thousand miles, storytelling in dozens of locations, including schools and care-homes, on the way.

ISBN: 978-1-917834-02-5