Worm of Linton

The Worm of Linton is the dragon-legend of the village of Linton in the Scottish Borders, in the old county of Roxburghshire. A great serpent or 'worm' was said to lair in a hollow on Linton Hill — still called the Worm's Den — emerging to devour livestock and people and to blight the country with its venomous breath, until the laird, John Somerville, undertook to destroy it.

Knowing no ordinary blow could pierce its hide, he had a long lance tipped with a wheel of burning peat steeped in pitch and brimstone; riding up to the creature as it opened its jaws, he thrust the blazing mass down its throat and burned it from within. For the deed Somerville was, by tradition, knighted and granted the barony of Linton — and a weathered carved stone above the door of Linton church is said to commemorate the slaying. The Worm of Linton is one of the classic 'worm' legends of the Borders, blending the universal dragon-fight with a real family's claim to its lands.