J.F.Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands describes a Bauchan who was a kind of tutelary spirit of the Macdonalds of Morar, but who was extremely hostile to anyone else in the neighbourhood.

He hovered about Morar House, which is on the mainland just opposite the point of Sleat on Skye, but at night he commonly haunted 'the Smooth Mile', a path which ran from the river of Morar to Morar House, and made it a very perilous track for any solitary man to tread at night-time. The mutilated body of any man who ventured there was likely to be found in the morning. The Bauchan never did any harm to women or children and never appeared to any going in company, so that it was useless to send out a party against him. This went on for a long time, until at length Coluinn gun Cheann killed a friend and distant cousin of the Macleods of Raasay, a very dear friend of 'Big John, the son of Macleod of Raasay', a man of remarkable strength and prowess. He told his stepmother of his friend's death and sought her counsel, as he always did, and she advised him to attempt the destruction of the monster. He met the Coluinn just after sunset and they fought all night long. Before dawning Big John got the victory, and he was anxious to see the thing he had been fighting, so he tucked it under his arm to carry it to the light. The Coluinn had never been heard to speak, but it spoke now, and said,

'Let me go'.

'I will not let you go', said Big John.