The ghostly procession at Souther Fell
For a few years in the middle of the eighteenth century, this fellside on the eastern edge of Blencathra was the the site of spectacular scenes. The first sighting was on Midsummer’s Eve in 1735. A...
View ArticleCorpse roads, faerie and ghostly goings-on
Cumbria isn’t alone in having a number of coffin paths, or corpse roads. These days, they’re footpaths between one village and another, sometimes marked with crosses and punctuated with low stone...
View ArticleThe Luck of Edenhall
Cumbria is home to a number of ‘lucks’, or drinking vessels that are believed to protect a home and its residents from ill fortune. Perhaps the most famous is the Luck of Edenhall. Edenhall is a small...
View ArticleThe elven procession at Staveley
Early in the sixteenth century, a young man by the name of Simon Bell had just finished a long watch in his post as under-steward at Kendal Castle. It was quiet – painfully quiet – and Simon decided he...
View ArticleFaeries, spectral lights and October beer… Lamplugh’s 17thc troubles
According to a document from the village of Lamplugh, in west Cumbria, mid 17th– century parishioners were battling a plague of faeries, witches, will ‘o the wisps, man-eating dogs, fatally strong beer...
View ArticleElf-shot by mermaids…
It’s a good theory that faeries are most strongly associated with the ‘Celtic Fringe’ (Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Cornwall and Wales) because these areas were not overrun by later beliefs that...
View ArticleEveling, Cumbria’s faery king and Celtic god
I can’t honestly say my Cumbrian grandparents ever mentioned faeries. And yet, when I look into Cumbrian History & Folklore, I find them all the time. Normally they’re a clue to a history that has...
View ArticleDobbies, boggles, ghosts and the 19th century journalist…
I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but it’s very rare for me to include ghost stories on Esmeralda’s. It’s not that I haven’t looked at a few – always ones supposedly rooted in an historical event –...
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