Ailne’s Revenge
ONE day Finn and his people were hunting on Slieve Fuad, and a stag stood against them for a while and fought with his great rough horns, and then he turned and ran, and...
Category: Folklore
St Mary’s Church, Broadwater
‘Be careful if you have any plans to go for your evening jog around the churchyard in Broadwater – legend says that if you run around the oldest tomb in the yard, the devil...
Church Lamb, Sweden
‘Another form of spectre animal is the kirk-grim, which is believed to haunt many churches. Sometimes it is a dog, sometimes a pig, sometimes a horse, the haunting spectre being the spirit of an animal buried alive in the churchyard for the purpose of scaring away the sacrilegious.
Giant’s Cave, Edenhall
At Giant’s Cave, near Eden Hall, it has been the custom from time immemorial for the lads and lasses of the neighbouring villages to collect together on the third Sunday in May, to drink sugar and water, when the lasses give the treat: this is called Sugar-and-Water Sunday. They afterwards adjourn to the public house, and the lads return the compliment in cakes, ale, punch, etc.
Feather Death Related Folklore
According to The Ghost World by T. F. Thiselton Dyer (1893) ‘The presence of pigeon or game feathers is said to be another hindrance to the exit of the soul; and, occasionally, in order to facilitate its departure, the peasantry in many parts of England will lay a dying man on the floor.
Bag or Black Mere
Robert Charles Hope gives the following description of Bag Mere in ‘The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells’ (1893). "Before any heir of this [Brereton] family dies, there are seen in a lake adjoyning, the bodies of trees swimming upon the water for several days together." — [Camden : Brit. (Gibson’s ed.), i. 677.]
Parrot and Punchbowl, Aldringham
A former 16th centry smugglers inn, the website for the Parrot & Punchbowl public house refers to a stone found outside the building relating to the death of a shepherd.
The River Ouse, York
‘There is an old tradition, possibly credited by some at the present time, that if anyone casts five white stones into a particular part of the river Ouse, near the city, as the clock in the Minster tower strikes one on May morning, he will see on the surface of the water, as if looking into a mirror, whatever is desired of the past, present, and future. .
Llyn-Yr-Avave or the Beaver Lake
According to Oliver’s Beverley and The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England by Robert Charles Hope (1893),‘The origin of Bever-lee, the town of Beverley, which was in the ancient wood Deira, is referred to in the old religious ceremony of drawing the shrine, or emblematical Beaver, out of the lake in the wood, and placing it in security on an eminence in the sight of the assembled
Elvet Bridge, Durham
Elvet Bridge is a Grade I listed mediaeval bridge acrossing the River Wear in Durham. In ‘Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders’, William Henderson (1879) refers to a piece of folklore associated with the bridge. ‘It was on one of the unlucky days (between St.
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