The Last Wolf

 GHOSTS IN THE WOOD

the story of the last wolf in Moray

The First Lament

Who will chant the WolfWords now?

Who will speak the Wolf's Words?

Who will tell the Wolf's own story

Now the woods no longer sing?

There are “last wolf” accounts found all over the UK. From full scale dramatic descriptions to single sentnce in a history book, we have noted the departure of this iconic predator. Accounts are almost always congratulatory which might reflect the impact wolves had - or were blamed for having – or might have had - on local communities. Rarely is there any thought of what the bigger consequences of losing wolves might mean.

see note at end about pics!

19th Century accounts  (follow the link for a useful description of the situation) describe the killing of the last wolf in Moray in 1743. Somewhere on the banks of the Findhorn in current Darnaway Forest, MacQueen of Pollochoch claimed to have " buckled wi' him and dirkit him, and syne whuttled his craig and brought awa' his countenance". There is, however, a sense that, perhaps, the description is wrapped in later melodrama and the need for that romanticism of the highlands. (we have been using Jim Crumley's book The Last Wolf as a starting point)


But the story, however much the description of the events may be exaggerated, is intriguing, engaging and inspiring. With The Last Wolf project, we are using that account as a springboard for conversations about loss and extinction, about landscape change and our human responsibility. More powerfully, we hope the project will invite a deeper, personal, spiritual exploration of our relationship with the world around us. Hoping not to get too tangled up in rewilding, reintroduction and completely hysterical conversations, we want people to think about what all this: species loss, species change, and landscape changes, might mean for them on a deeper level.

Creatively, we will find ways of expressing those relationships: drawing, printing, model-making, writing and more. Starting as a collaboration between artists Caroline Bury and Gordon MacLellan, this work will grow into both physical and digital exhibitions, the former hosted by Løre Gallery in Forres as part of its Into the Wildwood Year in 2026 (see below for more on the partners here)

some of Caroline's artdolls

The Last Wolf is firmly anchored in landscapes. We can still walk the riverbanks and woodlands the Wolf visited. We can see the homes identified in that 18th Century account. We can meet trees standing now that were growing then, and we can linger by river pools mentioned so long ago. Wolf offers a wonderful opportunity to link past and present experiences and encourage people to look ahead, to build a vision of the future. From rewilded landscapes to new ways of living with and within our landscapes, Wolf can help people imagine the world they want to live in.


The Last Wolf relates to the landscapes of Moray and the eastern Highlands of Scotland – around the towns of Nairn and Forres and the Findhorn and Nairn rivers. If you are interested in hosting a workshop in that area please get in touch: we can tell stories, work with groups (schools, community groups, open public events) to create strange and wonderful creatures and characters, find the words that tell personal stories as tales and poems

As we get started, this post becomes another invitation…Caroline’s exhibition at Løre Gallery is set to run between 30th October – 1st January 2027. Creeping Toad(i.e.me!) is involved as a poet and storyteller, adding words to accompany Caroline’s visual storytelling. Like the leaves on the trees and the toadstools in the leaf mould, everything evolves slowly, at its own pace and in unpredictable directions.

Here, we encourage people to explore those reflections for themselves: thinking about species loss and landscape change, reflections upon those species that have gone, those who are in peril now and those who are returning (planned or not!)…or simply turning up…beavers, boars and dragonflies!

We would love to share images and links to other people’s posts and blogs (and, sorry, but we will exercise our own critical judgement on what we share). When we can, we will post snippets from those posts or add images to the galleries that will start developing as material comes in

Themes you might turn to:

• · Species loss
• · Landscape change
• · Climate change
• · Reintroduced species
• ·New species arriving in their own right
• · The consequences for an environment of the loss oof a single species
• · Keystone species: https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/why-rewild/reintroductions-key-species/keystone-species-and-trophic-cascades
• we ourselves, as people in a changing world: how do we feel, how do you feel...get out there, sit beneath a tree and feel the world living around you....

And where do the Ghosts come in?

Caroline and I are both exploring the idea of those others who witnessed that last hunt. Not always human, not even often human, the woodland watched its last wolf run. Their voices are inspiring us both: with characters and sculpture from Caroline and poems and chants and prayers and charms from me. Here are voices and people that linger in the quiet corners of woods along the Findhorn, whispers in the shadows: ghosts in the wood

With generous funding from the Pebble Trust, we are setting up a number of outreach events encouraging public participant in both the project itself and in those wider reflections of a changing world. Keep an eye on the Creeping Toad social media - and this blog- for news of events

The Last Wolf Team
Caroline Bury: an artdoll-maker and dancer, Caroline describes her work: "Living in our human world with such cruelty, terror and despair, I balance my art with wonder and delight...I love feeling inspired by nature and creating from that feeling. Much of my art work happens this way but sometimes a continuation of a dream, a poem or a bird call is enough."

Løre Gallery: "the carved Tree of Life is at the heart of the Gallery’s identity. Like the tree itself, we are grounded in the past while reaching toward an unknowable future. Our work is a tribute to the enduring beauty of nature and the shared threads of humanity, seen through the artistic legacy of three ancient cultures: Pictish, Norse, and Celtic.
This is more than a gallery. It is a celebration of heritage, sustainability, and the living bond between art and nature."

Gordon MacLellan: and I come into this work as a storyteller and poet. I am an ecologist and a teacher and a shaper of celebrations, but mostly I am a storyteller, using stories and creativity to inspire relationships with the world around us. Helping people find their own creative connection to the world we live in is central to my work in the belief that we will work hardest to protect and enhance the things we love and watching people remember they love the places around them and respect and value the everyday plants and animals is what gives me hope for positive environmental change.

Next Steps

This project is now gathering speed (our wolves are starting to run!) and we are keen to talk to interested people: other artists, venue managers, exhibition hosts or simply keen and helpful people! Contact Gordon at creepingtoad@btinternet.com

Who will chant the WolfWords now?

Who will speak the Wolf's Words?

Who will tell the Wolf's own story

Now the woods no longer sing?

from Lament, Gordon MacLellan

Pictures and other images: no! these are not from the Findhorn River and Darnaway Forest. these are places and ideas that resonate with me as I get started on my contribution to all of this...so, from the top

• the Blackwater below Rogie Falls at Contin,
• a old, old Scots Pine in Glenmor, Cairngorms
• some of Caroline's work from her website
• the Blackwater below Rogie Falls at Contin
• a visiting boar - an illustration for my book Sacred Animals
• an ancient Oak in Richmond Park, Surrey
• Tree of Life carving from the Løre Gallery website

Frogsong in February

 Frogsongs in February

A cold February afternoon and the ponds are, thankfully, silent. A watchful, but frogless, heron took off as I arrived. Friends have seen them taking frogs already this year - from ponds in those warmer garden microclimates "just down the road" but here in this hollow of the hills on the edge of town, the cold still holds them all, frogs, toads and newts, asleep. 

But it IS February and further south and lower down, the frogs have started moving, the Toadwatchers of the Toad Patrols are polishing their boots and filing road closure requests (and getting national headlines!). Here I just hope the cold holds for a few weeks more: too often in recent years, there is a flurry of early wakefulness, and a hasty spawning before March snow or late frosts interrupts everything....

But it IS February and there have been those mornings when I wake up and the world smells full of the promise of frogsong and jellied spawn....

FROGSONG

Gordon MacLellan 

It is March and

This morning held a cold smell of spring

Of frogsong and wonder.

Reflections of blue skies and

Willow trees are

Broken by the weeds that break

The pond’s mirror.

There is movement,

A small turning, splashing

Disturbance,

But there is no-one to see.

The wind across the water

Traces deceptive arrows

And by the far bank,

A bigger movement

Sends a ripple, a wave spreading outwards

But still there is no cause to see,

No culprit to celebrate.

 

The pool settles again,

And me, I rest

Here on the grass, watching.

It is March and

I am still hoping for frogs.

 

NOTES

Frogsong was published as "A Pond in March"in Froglife's Autumn/Winter 2-024 edition of Natterchat

Froglife organises the national Toads on Roads initiative: https://www.froglife.org/what-we-do/toads-on-roads/

Words and journals

 Where are Toadwords going?

Fossicking in the undergrowth of ideas 
and swapping stories with 

rooks and rats and midwinter wrens
....that's part of what writing is for me...

and music...working with Gifts from Crows

 

Adventures in print....the last couple of years have been lively for keyboards and scribbling pads (I usually write long-hand first, or at least cover an A3 sheet with notes!). I paused to look at where my writing had gone in these months. There are my new books: Waiting for the Snow and Baba Yaga: tales of an old witch that came out this year and Sacred Animals from last year. And then there are reviews, articles, poems and bits in all sorts of other publications....These pick up that Creeping Toad principle of looking creatively and emotionally at the world around us and explore past projects or unpack ideas and possibilities or are just delighted* wanders through the woods of imagination

 

Forget-me-Not Press: online art and poetry journal from Canada: I have work in Issues 4, 5, 6 and 7

Touchstone: the journal of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids

Faith Initiative: Issue 47 June 2023: the aim of the magazine is to open windows on the beliefs and practices of people of different faiths and cultures to foster understanding and reduce racially and religiously motivated violence. 

Homecoming: Aurochs 1, 2 (2023) and 3 (2024): journal of new animist writing

Primary Geography, Autumn 2024 the Geographical Association's journal for all Early Years and Primary Teachers and is published three times a year

Northern Earth, September 2024: exploring earth mysteries in Northern UK - and further afield

Pagan Dawn: the journal of the Pagan Federation

Magnet: 2024, an article on gardens as sanctuaries - both for humans and other-than-human people. Magnet seeks to nurture Christian faith in thoughtful, challenging ways, encouraging, enabling and equipping people of all faith traditions for life. 

Natterchat: the magazine of Froglife: I've hopped (and crept) into most of the latest issues

If you are associated with a publication and would like a Toad-piece, get in touch! Email is probably easiest: creepingtoad@btinternet.com

 

And there is music! a collaboration growing over the last year with the wonderful trio Gifts from Crows has grown into a release on bandcamp of "Whisper along the wind" combining Gift's music with my words and the beautiful images of Johanna Ronn

 

* delighted: at least I enjoy writing! hope other people enjoy the reading of it all!

Opening image: a white-faced owl who spent a day with me (recovering from flying into a window!) in Malawi in about 1984!

 

 

Witches, snow and wonderful creatures!

Waiting for the Snow and Baba Yaga: tales of an old witch
New Books from Gordon MacLellan

Where would you hide a witch?

Where would you hide THIS witch?

Because when the witch in question is magnificent, ancient and flies through the old woods of the world in a mortar, rowing herself along the winds with pestle, and when her house is likely to wander off on its own and play with the capercaille in the shadows...hiding isn't really the idea....

 

Anyway, I've got two new books out now. One ( small spellbook of a booklet) is about Baba Yaga, that wonderful old witch who challenges, tricks, confronts and transforms just about anyone who survives the encounter (and if you don't, never mind, your long bones and skull will feature in the Yaga's garden fence!). The other book is gentler (perhaps). Waiting for the Snow is a new collection of recent poems of mine

 

From the cold stillness of a woodland in winter, to the wonder of bluebells, the perils of still water and the richness of orchards, Waiting for the Snow invites a different connection to the world around us.

Look outward, walk on the riverbank with open eyes and a willing heart. Turn inward and step carefully around the cracks in the pavement. There are mysteries here as well, watchful shadows lurking. Threatening, they still hold their own promise and the possibility of change.

Step out. Step away from the familiar and let Waiting draw you into a world of enchantments.

 

In Waiting you will find charms from birch trees and the wild frolics of the Birken Hoss. There are quiet reflections among bluebells and a dark, cold brooding menace that sits behind the Arctic nights. One of my personal favourites is Vigil that grew out of regular visits to the windswept, story-shrouded hilltop of Fin Cop here in the Peak District

 

BUYING COPIES (yes, please do!)

LINKS TO SALES ON EBAY:

Baba Yaga: tales of an old witch

 12 pages, 80cm x 150cm

Waiting for the Snow, 40 pages, A5 sized

If you would like a full set of recent books: Baba Yaga, Waiting... and Sacred Animals, message me directly and I'll send payment details and post the set to you directly

There is also a set of colourful postcards for sale if you want that extra touch of something tree-ish to send a friend or convince a foe that you're really a very nice (if rather leafy) Person....  

Hide a witch,

Inside a house,

Inside a wood,

Inside a beck,

Inside a bog,

Inside a crag,

Inside a world,

Inside a doll.

 

 

Sacred Animals: new book

Sacred Animals: 

reconnecting with the natural world

 

Gordon MacLellan

ISBN 978-1-915580-07-8

Green Magic Publishing, https://greenmagicpublishing.com/

 

GET A COPY NOW AND BE READY FOR AN ANIMAL-RICH SUMMER!

TO ORDER:

Sacred Animals: 1 copy, £15:00 includes postage

Sacred Animals + 2 Creeping Toad postcards: £16:00, includes postage

Email: creepingtoad@btinternet.com

FACEBOOK:  Gordon MacLellan or Creeping Toad 

DETAIL: your name, address, email and how many copies

PAYMENT:

PAYPAL: creepingtoad@btinternet.com

BACS: I can email details

CHEQUES: to Creeping Toad, 51-d West, Rd, Buxton, SK17 6HQ

 

BULK ORDERS through your own book distributors 

INTERNATIONAL ORDERS: contact me directly or go a local bookseller

EBAY: Sacred Animals will shortly be available through ebay and the (new, when I get it sorted) shop on the Creeping Toad website

PUBLISHER: Green Magic Publishing website

 

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

How do we refresh, renew, replenish, revitalise our connections with the animal worlds?  

Or how do we simply recognise our relationships with the world around us?

 

Sacred Animals is a book about inspiration and exploration, inviting readers to reflect upon their relationships with animals and explore that relationship creatively and practically. Written from an animist perspective (Gordon is an animist, an artist and a zoologist), this is a book about personal spirituality that encourages readers to find their own language to express their connections with animals. Activities are designed to challenge and be flexible: from simply sitting and watching the world around us to writing our own poems, designing our own ceremonies, or committing to action on behalf of particular species, Sacred Animals offers no ready-made totem-packages or guaranteed spells, prayers or enchantments.

 

Readers can adapt activities to suit their own philosophical stance. Those animist principles of shared consciousness and ceremony run through the book but there is no assumption that this should be how the reader uses the book: activities should suit you whether you follow a pagan practice, belong to an organised religion or encounter the world through a faith-free stance. It would work just as well for the animal-lover who simply wants to look at different ways of expressing their feelings for the animals they care about.

 

Sacred Animals asks us to look at the animals we care about, to deepen those relationships, and to find new ways of supporting those animals and through our connections with them, the wider world we all live in. A book that mixes creativity, spirituality and environmental commitment. A book to keep you busy….

 

This is a new edition of Sacred Animals first published in 1997 by Capall Bann

Chapters and topics include

• Hop, crawl, slither, fly and swim
• Trees of the First Forest
• Totems and etiquette
• Asking permission
• The importance of integrity
• Becoming active
• Shaping a ceremony

IMAGES

• front cover
• line drawings are illustrations by G MacLellan from within the Sacred Animals text 

where does enchantment wait?

Where does enchantment wait?

One of the positive things about this strange summer has been a rediscovery of local landscapes, with people taking the time to walk half-forgotten paths, to find lost corners of just down the street or up the road. We have remembered that home territories hold their own delights

In my continuing Between 2 Worlds story poems for Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, now we pick up the question “what adventures do ordinary places hold?” or maybe “what enchantment waits on the other side of this tree”

I have a long-standing love-affair with trolls. Not excluding other members of the world of Faerie, and not meeting them as lumbering carnivorous horrors (or 21^st Century tech-driven idiots) but as the slow unfolding of a rock into a character, a figure made of rock and earth, grass and pool and flower, for me this holds a special affection

Gritstone skin on a stoneface troll, folded down here with grass in the creases of her joints and something scrabbling holes in a nostril. She basks here on the ridge above the Moss, lumpen nose raised to the sun and eyes closed deep in those stone folds. But ravens come and whisper into her sleep, sharpening their beaks on the edge of a finger. In that sleep, she feels the crow who flies by on lazy wings, a curlew’s call echoing across the landscape of her dreams. And once in a whole, just now and then, in the slow breathing of a hill-shaped troll, a hen harrier will rest on a head-rock and watch the Moss for movement.

For us, as human people, our connection to place often gets overlooked. We know we like this place or that place is special. But a walk is often taken over by a conversation with friends, by a dog’s excitement, or even by looking through a lens. We often forget – or don’t think about – just enjoying a place for its own sake

For me this is important: getting outside and having a walk, with friends, with a dog, with a camera, with a bucket for rescuing toads, are all good and rewarding and renewing activities. But there is a different treasure to be found in just going out to wander. To stop. To appreciate a place because it is there. It might not be some wild, dramatic landscape. It might be the municipal park in the middle of town. It might be your own garden. Sometimes it is be there and simply stop. Breathe. Watch. Listen, Touch, Smell, Feel. For some people this approach is mindfulness. For others, it is prayer. For me, it simply is.

Take it a little further, or maybe a bit too far, and, like the person in the Earth Trolls film, maybe you’ll become entrolled and stay there. For everyone else, let the earth in. Let a flower open inside your heart. A hoverfly buzz through. Let a breeze carry a scent and an echo from the worlds where the horns of Faerie still blow

Relax. Remember the wonder of everyday places. The treasures of the familiar

Becoming the place where I sit,
Old stone and tree roots,

A grassy heap,

A shadow on a park bench,

I stop trying.

Just sit. 

Breathe.

A wind blows round the edges of me,

Me, green as the grass,

Me, brown as the earth,

Bristling beech husks, that’s me

And the river runs through the hollow shape of me,

Here I stop.

Here I let go

Here I can be still.

Here I become my own troll.

If you have enjoyed the Earth trolls film and these various blogs, why not sink a little deeper. My book "Old stones and ancient bones: poems from the hollow hills" is still available. £5.00 (inc 2nd class postage) in UK. Overseas contact me direct.  You can also get it on Amazon (costs a bit more there). Message me for order details: creepingtoad@btinternet.com