The Legend of Ardnamurchan - Kay Gill - Bog

There is a place where land meets sea and truth meets legend...

Silkies are men on land and seals at sea, mythical creatures that live around the shores of the Ardnamurchan. In human form, they are tall and beautiful with long, silky raven hair and larger-than-human eyes. The Ardnamurchan people believed in them, their heroism in rescuing humans in danger at sea. But, the waters of silkie folklore became muddied with modern, scientific thinking, and silkies were reclassified as 'the mythology of the ancestors' and packed off to fairyland where all make-believe things go. Ashamed of their imaginary status, they retreated behind a veil to live in virtual anonymity: unseen, but not unreal.

Eventually, something happened. When an evil entity threatened the life and soul of the Ardnamurchan, the banished creatures - that is, the silkies, and some others called the sea hounds - returned from 'behind the veil' and united with the land folk (as they called them) to do something pure-dead-brilliant that healed the land.