Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Category: Folklore

Folklore / Folktales / Scottish Folktales

Archibald Boyle and The Glasgow Hell Club

Archibald Boyle is said to have been the leader of ‘The Hell Club’ in Glasgow during the 18th century. There is a story associated with his death which has appeared in Catherine Ann Crowe’s ‘The Night-side of Nature’ (1848), and repeated again in ‘The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain’ by John Ingram (1897).

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Fairies / Folklore / Irish Fairies / Scottish Fairies

The Cailleach

From high mountain pass, exhaling ice breath, (2).
Comes Cailleach clothed in summers death.
Cold fingers search under starlight’s lantern
Staff cracks dew to frosted mantle, (3).
In the stags hoary frosted bark,
Riding with wolves on the cloak of the dark. (4).
From mountain, hillock, stone and spring (5).

Black Dogs / English Folktales / Folklore / Folktales

Dob Park Lodge

The following story is taken from ‘The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions’ of Great Britain by John Ingram (1897. ‘On the southern slope of a picturesque valley, through which the Washburn pours its waters, stands the ruins of Dobb Park Lodge; a lofty, four-storied mansion of the Tudor period.

Fairies / Folklore / Folktales / Irish Fairies / Irish Folktales / Mermaids

Lough Neagh

The freshwater Lough Neagh covers an area of 151 square miles and is Northern Ireland’s largest lake. There are a few legends associated with Lough Neagh and its formation. The following account entitled ‘This is the Death of Eochaidh son of Mairid’ is from the Book of the Dun Cow, Translated by Standish Hayes O’Grad (1892).

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Dragons / Folklore / Folktales / Irish Folktales / Legends

Oilliphéist

In ‘Irish Myths and Legends’ by Ronan Coghlan, we are told that Oilliphéist, is an Irish word meaning ‘dragon’ or ‘great worm’, and that ‘a creature of this sort, hearing that Saint Patrick was coming to drive out its kind, cuts its way through the land, thus forming the River Shannon.’ The Shannon is 224 miles long and the is Ireland’s longe

Ancient Sites / Early Christianity / Folklore

St Nidan’s Old Church and The Thigh Stone

St Nidan’s Church in Llanidan is associated with a stone that had strange magical like properties including aiding fertilisation and having the power to move on its own.  Wirt Sykes in his British Goblins (1881) mentions that ‘The old British historian Nennius speaks of a stone, one of the wonders of the Isle

Folklore

The Abuela’s Skeleton

A poor family once lived close to Lago de Patzcuaro, farming beans, corn and squash. There was a wife, her husband, her mother and her small son. The boy was especially fond of his grandmother (abuela) and he was the apple of her eye. They would often pick wildflowers together or go down to the lake shore and watch the boats on the water.

Folklore / Folktales / Welsh Folktales

Canrig Bwt

A famous Welsh witch, who used to sleep under stone at Llanberis, in North Wales, was called Canrig Bwt, and her favourite dish at dinner- was children’s brains. A certain criminal who had received a death-sentence was given the alternative of attacking this frightful creature, his life to be spared should he succeed in destroying her.