Dunnie

The Hazelrigg Dunnie is a shape-shifting bogle of Northumberland, haunting the country around Belford and the crags near Hazelrigg. Like the Border bogles generally, it was a creature of mischief rather than real malice — but its favourite trick was a cruel one. It would take the shape of a horse and offer itself to be saddled; the moment the rider or ploughman mounted, the Dunnie would vanish, dropping its victim into the mud or the burn and braying with laughter from a safe distance.

It was blamed for leading travellers astray, miscalling the hours, and meddling with the farm work. Tradition tied it especially to a cave in the Hazelrigg crags, and some stories make it the restless ghost of a Border reiver who hid his plunder there and died before he could recover it, doomed to haunt the spot. The Dunnie is a fine example of the trickster-spirit of the Anglo-Scottish border — half practical joker, half ghost.