Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Country and County: North Yorkshire

Ancient Sites / Early Christianity

Church of St Mary and St Alkelda

Dating from 1280, this is one of only two churches dedicated to St Alkeda (Alkelda,Athilda, Alcelda) (the other being in Giggleswick) and is said to be her final resting place. St Alkeda was a chaste Saxon maiden, sometimes described as a princess and a nun.

Ancient Sites / Early Christianity / Wells

St Simon’s Well

According to Edmund Bogg in “From Eden Vale to the plains of York or A Thousand Miles in the Valleys of the Nidd and Yore" (1894) ”In the township of East Scrafton is a spring of water known as St. Simon’s Well. Near it once stood an oratory called St. Simon’s Chapel; not a vestige of this remains. The well was formerly used as a bath. Tradition says that St.

English Folktales / Folklore / Folktales

Gormire Lake & White Mare Crag

Surrounded by the dense Garbutt Wood, Gormire Lake is the result of glacial activity and is one of the few natural lakes in Yorkshire. Gormire Lake has a few little known gems of folklore attached it. One tale involves a witch who was being chased across the moor.

Ancient Sites / Chalk Hill Figures

Kilburn White Horse

The Kilburn White Horse was finished on 4th November 1857 and is believed to be the most northern and possibly the largest White Horse in Britain, being 318’ long and 220’ high (though it was designed to be 314’ long and 228’ high). It faces south-south-west and is situated near Roulston Scar, to the south of Sutton Bank.

Apparitions / Black Dogs / Hauntings

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.

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English Fairies / Fairies / Folklore

Boggart

The Boggart is most commonly found in the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire, its name appears in places such as Boggart’s Clough and Boggart’s Hole in Lancashire. Boggarts were mischievous spirits responsible for mishaps and poltergeist activity within the home and in the countryside.

Folklore / Legends

Hairy Bob’s Cave

On the seafront at the foot of the cliffs around Scarborough Castle, a hole in the cliff, about a metre deep can be found – this is known as Hairy Bob’s Cave. It is clearly man-made and little more than a hole in the rock but, the origins and reasons behind its existence have been the source of legend and folklore in the town for over a century.

Apparitions / Folklore / Hauntings / Legends

Whitby

Whitby is associated with a wealth of traditions and legends. The abbey, now a guant ruin, was built in 651AD and destroyed in a Danish raid in 870AD, it was reconstructed by the Benedictines in the 11th Century. At one time crowds used to gather at the West side of Whitby churchyard, where there was clear view of the North side of the abbey and the highest window.

Folklore

Stokesley

The Wise man of a stokesley a man called Wrightson is reputed to have been a great seer and healer. The 7th son of a 7th daughter he was especially famed for healing cattle and his far sight. He died in the 1900s. Many villages had such wise men and women famed for their powers.