If you were in Edinburgh last Sunday, you may have witnessed the Riding of the Marches. You may also have run into this lot galloping around the city centre. Samhuinn 2015 Faerie Porters Group Organisers, Nick and Neil, explain. Sort of…

Very quietly and subtly, the Faerie Porters have taken their first hesitant steps into the human realm over the last two weeks. First, it was the drained swamps of the Boroughloch and the Museum of Untold Wonders, then the Consulat General de France and Edinburgh’s secret river with tales of Sumo Vampires, Mermaids, and Cat People.

Our educational visit to a mortal farmers market at the Stock Bridge was both eye-opening and traumatic, with many puzzling customs including money that doesn’t physically disappear the next morning even while its value does, and also the sad recognition that our dear friend Jeremiah appeared to have been turned into some kind of ceremonial pouch for Scottish men.

We have also floated unladen and in total sobriety at dusk along the paths that others have only climbed in the wee hours of the new seasons, laden with drums, cloaks and wine. We have played the highest ever game of Splat!, and we have looked down upon our city and seen that it is good.

As we learn more about this city that we share with human beings, we learn more about our responsibility to it. We learned that “anyone who regularly made use of the Common Land, possessed a horse, and failed to take part in the inspection [of the bounds and methis] was liable to be fined.” Being responsible citizens, we therefore mounted up and joined this year’s Riding of the Marches.

We can report that we have surveyed the routes for the coming Samhuinn and found them to be passable, whole, and without hindrance, at least to our kind.

We look forward to learning more about the mortal realm as the veil gets ever thinner and the year draws to a close. In the coming long night, when the clouds draw down into a thick mist upon the streets and closes, if you hear hooves clopping away behind you somewhere, it’s probably just us, looking for the way to Samhuinn.

PS. To the BFS members who have asked to be given a horse as an inducement to join various groups: you should have been a Porter. Just sayin’…