Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Dragons / Legends

All Saints Church, Nunnington and the Dragon of Loschy Wood

The following account of the legend of the Dragon of Loschy Hill was detailed in the 1888 book ‘Yorkshire Legends and Traditions’ by Rev Thomas Parkinson who quoted his source as being an article entitled Serpent Legends of Yorkshire from the Leisure Hour (May 1878).

Dragons / Legends

Handale Priory, Scaw and the Serpent

Writing in 1888, Rev Thomas Parkinson in his ‘Yorkshire Legends and Traditions’ gives the following account of the death of the Handale Serpent. ‘In ancient times these quiet woods were infested by a huge serpent, possessed of most singular fascinating powers, which used to beguile young damsels from the paths of truth and duty, and afterwards feed on their dainty limbs.

English Folktales / Folklore / Folktales

Old Mother Nightshade of Gedney Dyke

Until the middle of the 20th century the villages of the Lincolnshire fens were isolated, insular places. Everyone tended to know everyone else and a stranger in town would be cause for much suspicion and gossip. It was during the early 18th century, that an old fenwoman who lived in the village of Gedney Dyke, became the subject of much gossip and rumour.

Fairies / Folklore / Folktales / Scottish Fairies / Scottish Folktales

Loch Ness Water Horse

James Mackinlay in his Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs (1893) tells of another creature that was said to lurch in Loch Ness. ‘A noted demon-steed once inhabited Loch Ness, and was a cause of terror to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

Apparitions / Hauntings

Woodhouselee

On 23d January 1570, the Regent of Scotland, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray (born 1531) was assassinated in Linlithgow by a sniper firing a 3’5” long, hexagonal bore barreled carbine from a house window. The assassin was James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh the nephew of Archbishop John Hamilton, from who’s window he fired the fatal shot.

Apparitions / Hauntings

Anna Maria Porter’s Experience, Esher

John Ingram in his ‘The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain’ (1897) recounts a reported experience by the authoress Anna Maria Porter (also referred to as ‘L’Allegra’) (born 1780 – died 1832). Born in Durham and spending her earliest years in Edinburgh, Anna’s family moved to London sometime in the 1790’s.

Black Dogs / Buried Treasure / Folklore / Hauntings / Legends

The Black Dog of Kildonan

In his ‘Memorabilia domestica; or, Parish life in the North of Scotland’, Donald Sage (born 1789 – died 1869) described a treasure legend in the parish of Kildonan with a phantom Black Dog guardian attached to it.

Ancient Sites / Wells

St Michael’s Holy Well, Kirkmichael

St Michael’s Holy Well in Kirkmichael had a tradition of having magical healing powers and was said to have been protected by a guardian spirit in the form of a fly. According to The Statistical Account of Scotland (1794), "Near the kirk of this parish there is a fountain, once highly celebrated, and anciently dedicated to St Michael.