Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Country and County: Lancashire

Devil / Folklore / Legends

Clitheroe Castle

It has been suggested in Roby’s Traditions of Lancashire, that the Motte and Bailey Clitheroe Castle may date back to before 1086, being built by Roger de Poictou (also known as Roger Pictavensis). Roger was a supporter of King William I and was granted 398 Saxon Manors following the Norman invasion of 1066.

Apparitions / Hauntings

Wycoller Hall

The ruin of the sixteenth century Wycoller Hall is Grade II listed building and a scheduled ancient monument with a reputation of being haunted. The following account of the one of the halls ghost stories was published in 1873 in John Harland & T T Wilkinson’s ‘Lancashire Legends’.

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.

Apparitions / Buried Treasure / Hauntings

Sykes Lumb Farm

There is nothing now standing of Sykes Lumb Farm though it probably stood near to the present day Sykes Holt. The farm dated back to the the War of the Roses (1455 – 1485) and gained a reputation for being haunted by a boggart that guarded over a hidden treasure. The story has been published several times.

Ancient Sites / Standing Stones / Stone Circles

Cheetham Close Stone Circles

The remains of the early Bronze Age Cheetham Close stone circle lies between Chapeltown and Egerton. It measured 18.5 metres and according to a survey by Dryden in 1850, consisted of 6 stones. By 1871 the site was broken up by a tenant of Turton Tower angered by the visitors it was attracting.

Apparitions / Hauntings

Old Madam Of Egerton Hall

There was an Egerton Hall which dated from 1826 and was built by Edmund Ashworth. This building was demolished in 1956. However, in ‘Lancashire Legends’ (1873), John Harland and T T Wilkinson refer to a haunted, older Egerton Hall, which was all but demolished by their time of writing and dating from possibly the 17th century.

Devil / Legends

The Dule Upo’ Dun

‘A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6’(1911) mentions that ‘On the road from Clitheroe to Waddington, near Brungerley Bridge, once stood an inn known as the ‘Dule upo’ Dun’, from its sign representing the Devil galloping madly along upon a dun horse.

Folklore

The Written Stone, Dilworth

A large inscribed stone measuring eight feet long, two feet wide and one and a half feet deep was placed beside a old road (now known as Written Stone Lane) in Dilworth during the 17th century. The reason why the stone was placed is unknown, though several stories have grown up around it. The following account was published in ‘Lancashire Legends’ (1873) by John Harland & T T Wilkinson.

Folklore

The Dun Cow & The Old Rib

In ‘Lancashire Legends’ (1873), John Harland shares the following piece of folklore.  ‘The anonymous writer of "Curious Corners round Preston," states that the "Old Rib " is the name giyen to an old farm in the township of Whittingham, in the parish of Kirkham, five miles north of Preston.