Explore Britain’s Folklore & Superstition Highlights

Delve into the supernaturally spooktacular world of British folklore, where mythical beasts run amok and sinister spirits lurk behind every creaking door. Scroll on down to discover Britain’s dark dozen - 12 of the most mystical, magical and knee-knockingly scary places the country has to offer, all drawn from our Craftily Conjured Great British Folklore & Superstition Map.

Coming soon… a fiendishly fabulous folklore-themed road trip, which meanders from the mischievous knockers of Cornwall all the way up to the boat-munching Bregdi of Shetland. Happy questing!

BEASTLY BODMIN

Nobody knows for sure what feline terror stalks the tor-topped heights of Bodmin Moor - but there have been enough sightings to make a scaredy-cat think twice about tramping these atmospheric uplands at twilight. Also on Bodmin Moor you’ll find a haunted pub (Jamaica Inn), a circle of men turned to stone for enjoying themselves on a Sunday (The Hurlers), the grave of a cup-stealing hunter (Rillaton Barrow) and a ghostly magistrate cursed to spend all eternity emptying Dozmary Pool with a limpet shell. Sisyphus, eat your heart out. 

BIG GREY MAN OF BEN Macdui 

“For every few steps I took I heard a crunch, and then another crunch as if someone was walking after me but taking steps three or four times the length of my own." So wrote respected mountaineer Professor Norman Collie of his encounter with Am Fear Liath Mòr - the ‘Big Grey Man’ of Ben MacDui. Since then, plenty of climbers have reported hearing or seeing this yeti-like phantom on Britain’s second-highest mountain. Nearby folklorish features include fairies (Lochan Uaine), kelpies (Loch Pityoulish) and the spectral Highlander of Loch Morlich.

Eerie edinburgh

Not just the capital of Scotland, but the capital of spookland as well. From the plague victims left to die in Mary King’s Close to the headless drummer boy of Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh’s stately streets are awash with ectoplasm. What happened to the brave bagpiper who went searching for the monstrous Great Hand in the tunnels beneath Holyrood Passage and never emerged? Why were 17 miniature coffins discovered hidden in an Arthur’s Seat cave? Is Calton Hill really a portal to the fairy realm? One visit to Edinburgh isn’t enough to uncover all the city’s mysteries. Don’t fret, though - legend says anyone who spits on the Heart of Midlothian is destined to return. 

Glastonbury - ‘King Arthur’s Avalon’

A blazing beacon of mythological marvel… and that’s not just the famous festival. Glastonbury Tor headlines in supernatural circles as Avalon, final resting place of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. The 12th-century discovery of ‘Arthur’s tomb’ at nearby Glastonbury Abbey certainly boosted the medieval pilgrimage business. Genuine find or monkish money-spinner? Also reportedly buried in the area is the Holy Grail, mythical source of Glastonbury’s Chalice Well. Drinking the well’s waters is said to be a bit like quaffing human blood. Which is nice, if you like that kind of thing. 

Occult Orkney

Home to the monstrous Nuckelavee, top contender for monster you’d be least likely to invite over for tea. Legend speaks of a translucent, black-blooded rotting equine body with a man’s head. As if that wasn’t gruesomely ghoulish enough, the Nuckelavee also whiffs of burning seaweed and wilts crops with its breath. What a charmer. Other mythical residents of Orkney include selkies, mound-dwelling hogboons (disrespect their mounds at your peril) and legendary Arthurian villain Mordred. The Ring of Brodgar stone circle hints at the archipelago’s marvellously mysterious past.

DARK DARTMOOR

Haunted tors, baby-gnawing hellhounds, cannibalistic witches… it’s a wonder anyone makes it out of Dartmoor alive. Watch out for the monstrous ‘hairy hands’ that steer drivers off the road in the Postbridge area. Also the ghost foxes of Longaford Tor, who once ate a lost shepherd and have been hankering after the taste of human flesh ever since. Lots more marvellous legends from this lonely and lovely spot, including the demonic Wisht Hounds (Wistman’s Wood), man-eating witch Vixana (Vixen Tor), a sheep-munching ogre (Scorhill Stone Circle) and the famous Drake’s Drum (Buckland Abbey).

Brecon Beacons - ‘Lady of the Lake’

From frolicking fairies (Sgwd Gwladus, Sgwd yr Eira) to Arthurian escapades (Craig y Ddinas, Afon Twrch) this glacier-carved mountain landscape is awash with tantalising tales. Most famous is the Lady of the Lake fable from Llyn y Fan Fach. In short: a beautiful water nymph with magical cattle agrees to marry a clodhopping local man on the condition he doesn’t beat her (seems like a raw deal for the lady, but that’s folklore for you). Predictably, the man strikes his wife three times and she leaves for the lake. Her son goes on to become one of the legendary Physicians of Myddfai.

The Pendle Witches

In the 16th century (a bad time to have a cat or a prominent wart), 12 people living in the shadow of Pendle Hill were tried for witchcraft. Most of them - including Alice Nutter, whose statue now stands in Roughlee - ended on the gallows. Not an unusual story in this superstitious age. But the tragic tale of the Pendle Witches comes with an eldritch twist. In 2011, workmen renovating a tumbledown cottage near Pendle Hill discovered a mummified cat bricked into the walls. Witchy hauntings have been reported too, particularly around Lancaster Castle and the nearby Golden Lion pub.

Paranormal PLUckley

Welcome to Britain’s most haunted village! You won’t see that on the road signs, sadly, but Pluckley did make a 1980s edition of the Guinness Book of Records for its spooktacular line-up of spectres. Phantom residents include a hanged colonel in Park Wood, a sinister monk at Greystones and two ghostly ladies (one white, one red) at St Nicholas’s Church. It goes without saying that Pluckley’s Fright Corner and Screaming Woods (or Dering Woods as it’s known to non-locals) both live up to their promising names. 

Sherwood - Hood’s Hood

Oo-de-lally! Sherwood Forest is synonymous with the original man in tights and his merry men. The things that most people know about Robin Hood come direct from Hollywood: he carried a bow, liked to wear green and had an American accent. But the earliest British account (penned - or rather quilled - in 1377) pegged him as a violent 12th-century yeoman. Will Scarlet and Little John both starred in this original instalment, while Maid Marion, Friar Tuck et al were later additions. When he wasn’t Robin the rich to feed the poor, Hood liked to hang out beneath Sherwood Forest’s Major Oak.

Magical Mull and Iona

While you’re scanning the skies for Mull’s famous sea eagles, you might also want to keep watch for flying broomsticks. This magical island is a bubbling cauldron of witchy activity, with legendary witches at Tobermory, Ben More, and Loch Ba. Fairies also feature heavily in the local spotter’s guide to mythical creatures - there are helpful ones at Burg and naughty ones at Drimin. Within boating distance of Mull is Iona, with its ghostly Viking longboats and phantom abbey. Also Fingal’s Cave on Staffa, with its mythical (and geological) links to Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway. 

Sorcerous Snowdonia

Many a legend has been set against the backdrop of Snowdonia’s mighty mountains. This is prime King Arthur country, with at least three lakes that claim to contain Excalibur (Llydaw, Dinas and Ogwen) and a classic origin legend focussed around Merlin and the Welsh red dragon (Dinas Emrys). Wild camping is a popular Snowdonian pursuit - but take care where you pitch up. Anyone who sleeps on Cader Idris or under the ‘Black Stone’ of Clogwyn Du’r Arddu is destined to awake either a madman or a poet… if they wake at all.

GHOOOOOOOOST TRIP!

Hit the road on a British folklore-themed adventure, tell some very tall tales and admire the finest scenery in the land as you go. Here you can download a map of Britain’s top 50 folklore & superstition locations, all of them connected by a rather ambitious road trip…

Get The Map

All of the necromantic nuggets on this page are drawn from our Craftily Conjured Great British Folklore & Superstition Map. Available in 3 formats (fold-out, flat or framed) from £14.99. If you’ve got the map and have any feedback or suggestions for the next edition, we’d love to hear from you - email us at hello@marvellousmaps.com.