Barghest

The Barghest is the monstrous black dog of northern England, most feared across Yorkshire, where its name was long used to warn and to frighten. It appears as a huge shaggy hound with great teeth and saucer-sized eyes that glow like coals, padding the lonely lanes and the old streets of cities such as York and Leeds. To see the Barghest, or to hear its howl, was widely held to be an omen of death — and in some tales it appeared before the passing of a notable person, followed by all the dogs of the district.

It belongs to the great family of British 'black dogs' that includes Black Shuck of East Anglia and the Padfoot of the West Riding, spectral hounds whose appearance bridges the living world and the dead. The name may come from 'burh-ghest', town-ghost, or from older words for a goblin or a funeral bier. Whatever its derivation, the Barghest remains one of the most enduring supernatural beasts of the north of England.