It's no mystery that the Orkney Gin Company are wildly inspired by - well, mystery! With the alluring dancing selkie folk taking centre stage on our award-winning bottles and designs. Orkney and its history and folklore are one of our favourite things to talk about and you can easily spot the influence within our in-house design, but this is just the surface of a much deeper story.
The untameable seas surrounding us hold a great deal of influence over the daily lives of many Orcadians, particularly those of us who make our living as seafarers and live across the Churchill barriers. The mysteries lurking beneath the waves have long been a source of fascination, as well as trepidation, with tales of Selkie Folk and even Crackens deeply ingrained in folklore all over the world, and the Orkney Islands are no different.
Orkney is home to many tales about the shape-shifting creatures known as the selkie-folk. They are considered gentle creatures who can transform from seals into beautiful humans.
In later folklore, there is no agreement on how often selkie-folk were able to transform. Some tales say it was once a year, usually on Midsummer's Eve, while others state it could be “every ninth night”. Regardless of how often they could transform, mythology tells us that once in human form, selkie-folk would dance on lonely stretches of moonlit shore or bask in the sun on outlying skerries. In many tales they were known to enchant, even have children with humans.
My belief is that tales such as Selkie Folk are the result of a highly imaginative mind. I still remember the first time I heard seals sing on the shore by the graveyard in Burray. The haunting notes were so close to the sound of a woman in distress, that it was quite frightening. It could be easy to confuse the two if you were alone on the shore or in a vessel near these creatures, particularly if you were exhausted after a long few days at sea.
I sometimes wonder if fear of the unknown, alongside coping strategies mixed with the sounds and visuals of seals could have been the basis of these magical and exciting tales. To begin with, these tales were often told of these creatures, creepy and mesmerisingly enchanting with malicious intent, moving towards friendly and often loved creatures in later tales. The origins of the stories may support the idea that it was a gentle way to tell those the terrible news of a family member lost at sea with a story of an enchantress in the form of a seal woman, who was responsible for the death (sadly sea related accidents were much more common with lack of guiding equipment in the past). If this was the case, much like the stories of Devils, Demons etc. in the graveyards surrounding churches were made to stop children and teens from playing amongst the headstones, these stories may too have been a lesson to stop young folk playing on the beach or getting too close to the seals, as they can sometimes be aggressive.
Our family has a long history of seafaring, which makes the concept even more intriguing. Designing the logo for our spirits was a joy, especially creating the seaweed that surrounds the selkie as she dances and enchants. We like to imagine her as a guardian of the spirits, enticing you to try them. We always knew it was important to create a bold, and memorable logo for our spirits/distillery. Something that highlights our family ethos and inspiration of old worldly stories and companies, which were often small, trusted family-run businesses who care about every small detail - just like our own. It's wonderful to be able to share Orkney's history and folklore through our spirits, and keep the mystery alive today!
No matter how they first came about, there is an exhilarating sense of magic associated with legends and tales. It is a fact that around 80% of the sea remains unexplored. We don't need to look far to find similar stories, like those of Crackens, which were once considered to be myths. Later found to be accurate and true, perhaps due to encounters with giant squids. I leave that thought with you...
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