Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Category: Folktales

Ancient Sites / English Folktales / Folklore / Folktales

Mab’s Cross

The remains of this 13th century (earliest known mention 1277) stone cross can be found on Standishgate and is thought to have been a medieval waymarker between Chorley and Wigan.  It was moved from its original position on the other side of the road in 1922 when the road was widened.  The cross’s name is derived from its legendary association with Lady Mabel Bradshaw.  T

Apparitions / English Folktales / Folklore / Folktales / Hauntings

Joseph Hempsall’s Ghost

Here’s an interesting piece of Cambridgeshire folklore I found in a book called "Folktales of the Fen Country". Joseph Hempsall was a true born "Fen Slodger". He lived in a small cottage on the Soham side of Wicken Fen during the late 17th century. Every evening Hempsall would cross the fen, known locally as "Big Bog" to drink with his friends at tavern in Wicken.

Early Christianity / English Folktales / Folklore / Folktales / Occult

Burscough Priory

Robert Fitz-Henry, Lord of Lathom (Born 1135) founded the Augustinian Burscough Priory around 1190. It was dissolved during the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII circa 1536 and today very little remains of the building.

English Folktales / Folklore / Folktales / Legends

Stretford Great Stone

By the entrance of Gorse Hill Park from Chester Road is a large boulder known as the Great Stone. This stone gave its name to Great Stone Road (beside which it stood until 1925) and the old Great Stone Farm. There are many stories, legends and theories concerning the origins of the stone.

Apparitions / Folklore / Folktales / Hauntings

Shozenji Temple And The Procession Of Ghosts

In ‘Ancient Tales and Folk-lore of Japan’ (1918), Richard Gordon Smith gives the following account of the ghosts that are said to haunt Shozenji temple.  The temple once stood near Fushimi, which is one of the eleven wards in the city of Kyoto.

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Fairies / Folklore / Folktales / Scottish Fairies / Scottish Folktales

The Fairy And The Bible-Reader

ON a still Sabbath evening in summer, an old man was seated, reading his Bible in the open air, at a quiet spot upon the Ross-shire coast. A beautiful little lady, clad in green, drew near, and addressing him in a silvery voice, sought to know if for such as she Holy Scripture held out any hope of salvation.

Folklore / Folktales / Scottish Folktales

Thom And Willie

THOM and Willie, two young fisher-mates of Lunna, in Shetland, were rivals for the hand of the fair Osla, daughter of Jarm. Now it so happened that, one October afternoon, they took their hand-lines and went out fishing together in their boat.

Fairies / Folklore / Folktales / Scottish Fairies / Scottish Folktales

The Two Young Ploughmen

"You have been often at the Gatehouse," said Johnny Nicholson; "well, you’ll mind a flat piece of land near Enrick farm; well, that was once a large loch; a long way down from there is still the ruin of a mill, which at that time was fed from this loch.