Wirry-cow

In Scotland, a wirry-cow was a bugbear, goblin, ghost, ghoul or other frightful object. Sometimes the term was used for the Devil or a scarecrow.
The word was used by Sir Walter Scott in his novel "Guy Mannering".
The word is derived by John Jamieson from "worry" (Modern Scots "wirry"), in its old sense of harassment in both English and Lowland Scots, from Old English cognate with Dutch and German ; and "cowe", a hobgoblin, an object of terror.
"Wirry" appears in several other compound words such as "wirry hen", a ruffianly character, a rogue; "wirry-boggle", a rogue, a rascal; and "wirry-carle", a snarling, ill-natured person, one who is dreaded as a bugbear.