Kettleness Black Dog

A phantom Black Dog is said to haunt Kettleness near Whitby. In Marc Alexander’s ‘To Anger the Devil’ which is a biography of the exorcist Reverend Dr Donald Omand, he describes how in the 1950s Rev Omand received letter from a schoolmaster detailing his experience with the dog and requesting an exorcism.

Cleveland Way, Kettleness

‘On visiting Kettleness they [a schoolmaster and two friends] all experienced a wave of terror when, looking over the shore to the misty sea, they had seen a huge hound—so large it could not be mortal—appear out of thin air. Silent with shock they watched it move towards them before disappearing as silently and mysteriously as it had come. All three were left with such a strong sense of evil that the schoolmaster believed it was a case desperately in need of exorcism.’

Rev Omand went to Kettleness with the schoolmaster.

‘All we need now is for Dracula to come bounding ashore in the form of a great black dog,’ muttered Donald with a smile. But the smile froze as his companion suddenly gripped him by the arm….

‘What we saw looked like a huge black hound, but bigger than any member of the canine species, known to man. It was moving straight in our direction and the schoolmaster’s nerve gave way completely. He rushed back to the car.

‘Uncorking the bottle [of Holy Water] which I was carrying, I commanded the spectre as follows: “Be gone in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Be gone to the place appointed for you, there to remain for ever. Be gone in the Name of Christ.”

‘As I spoke the last words, I splashed Holy Water in the direction of the apparition, and the latter disappeared as suddenly as it had materialised. Then I exorcised all the ground which the spectre had covered and a great heaviness went out of the atmosphere. The menace of Kettleness was ended.’

The schoolmaster had a breakdown following his experiences and was hospitalised with mental illness. The first witnesses with whom the schoolmaster shared his first experience were not traced and the events unconfirmed.