author
James M. (James Murray) Mackinlay
d. 1916
A careful student of Scottish folklore and church history, this late Victorian writer explored the beliefs, place-names, wells, and saints that shaped Scotland’s cultural memory. His books remain valued for the way they gather tradition, antiquarian research, and local history into readable, richly detailed studies.
1 Audiobook
Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs
by James M. (James Murray) Mackinlay
About the author
James Murray Mackinlay was a Scottish author and antiquarian best known for books such as Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs (1893), Influence of the Pre-Reformation Church on Scottish Place-Names (1904), and the two-volume Ancient Church Dedications in Scotland (1910–1915). Title pages and contemporary notices describe him as M.A. and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London and Scotland.
His work focused on the meeting point of landscape, religion, and popular tradition. Rather than writing fiction, he collected and interpreted old customs, sacred wells, saints' dedications, and place-name evidence, building a picture of how belief and local history shaped everyday life in Scotland. A 1915 notice in The Spectator praised him as a "painstaking and trustworthy student of Scottish antiquities," which fits the patient, documentary character of his books.
Mackinlay died in 1916. Though biographical details are scarce in the sources I could confirm, his writing still offers a vivid guide to Scottish folklore and ecclesiastical history, especially for listeners interested in traditions rooted in real places.