Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Category: Legends

Dragons / Legends

St Osyth’s Dragon

There is a tradition that a Dragon prowled the area around St Osyth in the 12th Century. According to Sir Richard Baker (born 1568 – died 18 February 1645) ‘In the seventeenth year of his (King Henry II) reign, there was seen at St.

Ancient Sites / Dragons / Legends / Wells

Nine Maidens Well, Strathmartine

As with the dragon that was associated with it, very little remains of the Nine Maidens Well at Strathmartine, as the farmer upon whose land it could be found had the well covered up to stop it’s visitors from trampling his crops.

Dragons / Legends

The Worm Of Sexhow

The Worm of Sexhow, according to ‘Yorkshire Legends and Traditions’ by Rev Thomas Parkinson (1888): ’Sexhow is a small hamlet or township in the parish of Rudby, some four miles from the town of Stokesley, in Cleveland. Upon a round knoll at this place a most pestilent dragon, or worm, took up its abode; whence it came, or what was its origin, no one knew.

Dragons / Legends

All Saints Church, Nunnington and the Dragon of Loschy Wood

The following account of the legend of the Dragon of Loschy Hill was detailed in the 1888 book ‘Yorkshire Legends and Traditions’ by Rev Thomas Parkinson who quoted his source as being an article entitled Serpent Legends of Yorkshire from the Leisure Hour (May 1878).

Dragons / Legends

Handale Priory, Scaw and the Serpent

Writing in 1888, Rev Thomas Parkinson in his ‘Yorkshire Legends and Traditions’ gives the following account of the death of the Handale Serpent. ‘In ancient times these quiet woods were infested by a huge serpent, possessed of most singular fascinating powers, which used to beguile young damsels from the paths of truth and duty, and afterwards feed on their dainty limbs.

Black Dogs / Buried Treasure / Folklore / Hauntings / Legends

The Black Dog of Kildonan

In his ‘Memorabilia domestica; or, Parish life in the North of Scotland’, Donald Sage (born 1789 – died 1869) described a treasure legend in the parish of Kildonan with a phantom Black Dog guardian attached to it.

Legends

All Saints Church & The Holbeach Gamblers

There were once four men of Holbeach, by the names of Slator, Watson, Barker and Codling who would, in the closing years of the 18th century, would regularly meet at the Chequers Inn in the town. Their heavy drinking was always accompanied by rowdy gambling over the card table, until, one day in 1793, the death of Mr. Codling put and end to their sport.

Anniversary Ghosts / Apparitions / English Folktales / Folklore / Folktales / Hauntings / Legends

The Black Lady of Bradley Woods

Hundreds of years ago there lived a poor woodcutter in Bradley Woods with his pretty young wife and their baby boy. They lived very happily together until the woodcutter was pressed into military service for the local lord.  He was sent to fight in the wars that were then raging in England.

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Fairies / Folklore / Irish Fairies / Legends

Ox of Dile (Dil)

The third wonder of Glenn Dallan in Tirowen mentioned in the The Triads of Ireland or the Trecheng Breth Féne is the Ox of Dil. Following the mention of the The Beast of Lettir Dallan which is centred around a lake by the church, of Ox of Dile it is said: