Earth Dogs
A mythical creature that may be confined to one area of Banffshire in Scotland, according to Walter Grigor in his ‘Notes on the folklore of NE Scotland’ published in 1881, the Yird Swine were a “dreaded ..animal” that lived in graveyards and burrowed through the earth feeding on the dead bodies.
They were described as a cross between a rabbit and a rat (which actually sounds like a stoat or ferret!) and hardly sounds particularly fearsome although I do not know of any other instances in Britain. Graveyards have always been the source of much folklore and there are many other creatures said to haunt them throughout Britain.
Lyndsay Mitchell in her book Hidden Scotland mentions that one place associated with the Yird Pig is the isolated Walla Kirkyard near the River Deveron in Banffshire. The churchyard may have had special significance in the past as there were reputedly two cloutie wells believed to cure eye infections.
Re: Earth Dogs
Walla Kirkyard (Wallakirk) or Dumeath is in the parish of Glass which now falls in Aberdeenshire. Associated with St Wallach, there are no remains of the actual Kirk itself. Nearby Walla Pot is a pool in the River Deveron with a tradition of healing those who bathed in it. There is also a water filled rock cavity called St Wallochs bath nearby with a similar tradition of healing the sick.
Re: Earth Dogs
I came upon a report several years back that in 1903 packs of dogs invaded cemeteries in Virginia (USA), digging up the decaying corpses and eating them.
However diligent Internet and other searching has failed to supply any additional mention or verification.
Re: Earth Dogs
And let’s not forget the "Kentucky gravedigger," a corpse devouring ghoul that reportedly looks vaguely like a demonic beaver.