Home › All legends › Black Dogs of Britain & Ireland Black Dogs of Britain & Ireland
Across the islands a great spectral hound haunts the lonely lane, the churchyard and the parish boundary — Black Shuck in East Anglia, the Barghest of the north, the Cù Sìth of the Highlands. Almost always larger than any living dog, with eyes like coals, it is most often an omen: to meet its gaze was said to foretell a death within the year.
Black Dogs of Britain & Ireland Arthurian Places Haunted Churches & Churchyards Legends of the Sea & Shore Cursed Places & Ill-Fated Stones Standing Stones & Stone Circles Dragons & Serpents Holy Wells & Healing Springs
Beasts Barghest Yorkshire A monstrous black dog of northern folklore, often linked to lonely roads, churchyards, and death omens. In some tales it is huge as a calf, with claws scraping stone and eyes like coals. Beasts Beast of Dean Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England A shadowy folkloric creature said to haunt the ancient Forest of Dean on the Gloucestershire–Welsh border — appearing as an enormous black boar, a spectral dog, or a shapeless dark mass — and blamed for livestock deaths and unexplained lights among the trees. Beasts Black Dog of Bouley Bay Bouley Bay, Jersey The Black Dog of Bouley Bay, or Lé Tchian du Bouôlay, is a Jersey storm hound said to haunt the cliffs above the bay. Its glowing eyes, dragging chain and howls warned fishermen of bad weather; one tradition suggests smugglers encouraged the tale. Beasts Black Shuck Norfolk A spectral black dog with blazing eyes the size of saucers, said to roam the coastline and heathlands of East Anglia. A single glance is an omen of death within the year. Ghosts Church Grim England & Scandinavia A guardian spirit said to haunt churchyards, often appearing as a black dog. Folklore claims an animal was sometimes buried first in a new graveyard so its ghost would protect the dead. Aquatic Legends Crodh Mara Hebrides, Scottish Highlands Fairy cattle of the Scottish sea — hornless, dun-coloured beasts that emerge from the ocean and interbreed with mortal herds, improving the stock. They bring prosperity while they stay, but if called back by the sea they lead the entire herd into the waves and vanish. Ghosts Dando's Dogs Cornwall A spectral hunt led by the wicked priest Dando, doomed to ride forever with infernal hounds after refusing to give up his game to the Devil. Ghosts Dead Men of Burton-on-Trent Staffordshire Two men buried at Burton rose that same night, walking the village with their coffins on their shoulders and spreading pestilence — until the Bishop of Lincoln ordered the bodies exhumed and burned. Among the oldest revenant records in English, c.1140. Beasts Gwyllgi Nant y Garth Pass, Denbighshire, Wales The Gwyllgi, the Dog of Darkness, is a great phantom black hound of Welsh folklore with blazing eyes and a shaggy pelt. Unlike the spectral pack of the Cŵn Annwn, it is a solitary creature of roads and hedgerows. A local tradition places it in the Nant y Garth Pass in the Clwydian Hills. Ghosts Jan Tregeagle Cornwall A corrupt magistrate in life, Jan Tregeagle was condemned after death to perform impossible tasks for eternity lest demons drag him away. He haunts Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor, endlessly bailing its waters with a leaking limpet shell. When storms rage across the moor, the howling is said to be Tregeagle fleeing the hounds of hell. Beasts La Bête De La Tour Guernsey, Channel Islands La Bête De La Tour—'the Beast of the Tower'—is Guernsey's most feared phantom: a massive black dog wrapped in clanking chains with eyes like burning coals, whose very appearance was believed to foretell the viewer's death. Ghosts Lady Howard of Okehampton Okehampton, Devon, England Devon tradition condemns Lady Mary Howard to ride each night from Tavistock to Okehampton Castle in a carriage made from the bones of her husbands. A black dog runs before the carriage and plucks one blade of grass from the castle mound on arrival. Only when every blade is gone will the haunting end. Beasts Moddey Dhoo Peel Castle, Isle of Man The Moddey Dhoo is the phantom black dog of Peel Castle. Guards became accustomed to its nightly presence, but tradition tells that a soldier who followed it alone through a passage returned terrified and died soon afterwards. Ghosts Old Cockern Dartmoor, Devon The spectral huntsman of Dartmoor, keeper of the Wisht Hounds, who rides out on stormy nights to gather the souls of the unbaptised. He is sometimes identified with the Devil, sometimes with an ancient moorland spirit older than Christianity. Farmers left offerings on the moor to keep him from their doors. Beasts Padfoot Yorkshire A shaggy spectral dog said to follow travellers with soft padding steps. Like many northern black dogs, Padfoot is both warning and threat, appearing where lanes grow dark and company grows thin. Ghosts Phantom Hare of Bolingbroke Castle Old Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire, England A phantom white hare said to haunt the ruined castle at Old Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire — birthplace of Henry IV — appearing at dusk among the broken walls as an omen of misfortune, and impossible to catch despite the most determined pursuit. Beasts Shug Monkey Cambridgeshire
In the folklore of Cambridgeshire, the Shug Monkey is a creature that shares features of a dog and monkey, which reportedly haunted Slough Hill Lane. The creature, believed to have the body of a jet-black shaggy sheepdog and the face of a monkey with staring eyes, was believed to be a supernatural ghost or demon. Beasts Stratford Lion Warwickshire A spectral lion said to haunt the roads around Stratford-upon-Avon — silent, luminous-eyed, always seen alone on the road at night. Unlike the great black dogs of other counties, this phantom takes the form of a big cat, one of England's stranger and more localised legends. Beasts Tchico Guernsey, Channel Islands Tchico — Guernsey's ghost dog of Tower Hill — drags rattling chains through the winter nights; said to be the restless spirit of a corrupt 14th-century bailiff hanged for attempted murder. Ghosts The Black Dog of Newgate London The Black Dog of Newgate is a legend concerning the haunting of the former Newgate Prison of London, which was located next to the Old Bailey, close to St. Pauls Cathedral, in London, England. Ghosts The Wild Hunt North Yorkshire A host of spectral huntsmen and howling hounds tearing across the winter sky. To witness the Hunt is to receive a portent of war, plague, or the death of a king. Ghosts Tyrell's Hound New Forest, Hampshire, England Each year Ocknell Pond near Stoney Cross turns red with the blood of King William Rufus — and a great spectral black hound, Tyrell's dog, rises to haunt the New Forest as an omen of death. Ghosts Windhouse Yell, Shetland, Scotland Reputedly Shetland's most haunted house — a 'Lady in Silk' glides the stairs, a phantom dog roams the halls, and a shipwrecked sailor's troll-fight became local legend.
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