Here’s a poem I wrote, on the edge of Loch Garten in the Cairngorms, when tasked by, and with, the creative PeatSense team, to think about what my formulation of a bog monster would be. I couldn’t think of a monster … so I wrote about faeries.

Faeries of the bog

Job description: to keep the bog together,

                                                                        And to blether…

… With their Sphagnum pals,

                        Leagues of hard-working bog-builders,

                                                                        In reds and greens,

                                                Some full-bodied, some lean,

                        Laying layers of peat.

… And with the cotton grasses,

                        Proud above the other classes,

Signalling good health and

                        Opportunities for stealth hunters above shallow waters.

… And with the sundews,

                        Magical beings, pitching far above their height;

                                                                        Insects’ plight.

… And all the while, keeping rank and file

                        Of the passers by, and over;

The dragonflies in the skies;

Taking beef with the heath if it oversteps its mark,

And communing with the water gods if the flows are low.

The faeries know the balance of the beings in the bog,

Who guard the gold,

‘Sold’ or not.

The faeries keep watch.

Abernethy Forest, September 2026