Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Country and County: United States of America

Black Dogs / Hauntings

Adamstown Black Dog

Tucked in the northern corner of Lancaster County, the tiny village of Adamstown boasts at least four ghosts. One of these is a small black dog, who appears seemingly at random and follows pedestrians before vanishing as mysteriously as it came.

Black Dogs / Folklore / Hauntings

Red Dog Fox

The Brandywine Creek State Park in northern Delaware near Wilmington is home to appearances of a large dog or fox which is often seen to rise up into the apparition of Gil Thoreau, an outdoorsman. Not much information is known on this creature.

Black Dogs / Folklore / Hauntings

Snarly Yow

"Snarly Yow" is the name given to a phantom hound which haunted a section of the National Pike near Turner’s Gap (Frederick County). The hound was first mentioned by Madeleine V. Dahlgren in 1882. Her book South Mountain Magic details no less than a dozen sightings of the beast. One account is from a Daniel Mesick, whose father kicked at a huge dog near Dame’s Quarter.

Black Dogs / Folklore / Hauntings

Blue Dog of Rose Hill, Frederick

It could be just another variant of an urban legend or a wholly separate story, but the city Frederick (Frederick County) has its own Blue Dog of Rose Hill. The grounds of Rose Hill Manor off Route 355 in the northern part of the city are also haunted by a phantom blue dog. This blue dog was the pet of a previous owner of the manor.

Black Dogs / Folklore / Hauntings

Blue Dog of Rose Hill, Port Tobacco

Perhaps the oldest ghost story of Maryland is that of the Blue Dog of Rose Hill. Near the town of Port Tobacco (Charles County) is a rock covered in reddish discolorations. Called the "Peddler’s Rock", it supposedly marks the spot where a trader was killed at some point in the latter part of the 1700s. In true ghost story fashion, there are many variants of the tale.

Black Dogs / Folklore / Hauntings

Fence Rail Dog

The Fence Rail Dog is an enormous hound, nearly ten feet in length, which haunts a stretch of Route 12 near Frederica in Delaware. Mentioned by Charles J. Adams III, a Pennsylvania-based author on paranormal topics, the dog appears in the wake of automobile accidents on the road.

Black Dogs / Folklore / Hauntings

Black Dog Of Warfieldsburg

The tiny village of Warfieldsburg in Carroll County is haunted by a black dog. Recounted by Maryland folklorists Annie W. Whitney and Caroline C. Bullock is the story of two men who were riding along near the Ore Mine Bridge at dusk around 1887. They saw a large black dog which passed through a fence, crossed the road, and passed through another fence.

Cryptozoology

The Double-headed Snake of Newbury

The following poem was wrote by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807 – 1892)

Far away in the twilight time
Of every people, in every clime,
Dragons and griffins and monsters dire,
Born of water, and air, and fire,
Or nursed, like the Python, in the mud
And ooze of the old Deucalion flood,
Crawl and wriggle and foam with rage,