Okehampton
‘Okehampton Park is the scene of the nightly penance of Lady Howard,’ says Murray’s Handbook (1879). Elsewhere Murray tells us that the former mansion of…
Month: July 2021
Mortehoe
Though medieval chronicles report that William de Tracy, one of Thomas à Becket’s murderers, died abroad, there was a strong local tradition that he fled…
Martinhoe
Round Martinhoe roams the ghost of Sir Robert Chichester, doomed never to rest on account of his crimes, including a cruel attempt to rob one…
Lapford
The parish of Lapford has good cause to remember its ‘hunting parson’, John Arundel Radford (1799–1861). The West Country folklorist Theo Brown wrote in 1979…
Dunsford
According to a tale recorded in 1936, there was once a certain Squire Fulford who haunted Fulford House ‘because they didn’t bury he proper, where…
Dewerstone Rock
This great mass of rock looming above the river Plym, on the south-west edge of Dartmoor, is linked with the Devil. According to a contributor…
Seileag
Seileag : Freshwater Monster of Scotland. Etymology: From the Gaelic an t-Seileag, a feminine diminutive derived from the name of the loch. Variant name: Shiela.…
Sasa
Sasa : Unknown Bird of Oceania. Etymology: Fijian (Austronesian) word. Physical description: Chicken-sized ground bird. Speckled. Distribution: Viti Levu and Kandavu Islands, Fiji. Present status:…
Dean Prior
In traditional tales of exorcism, the troublesome ghost is usually a member of the local gentry, but at Dean Prior (also called Dean-combe) it is…
Cranmere Pool
Cranmere Pool lies about five miles (8 km) south of Okehampton, in the northernmost of the two great blanket bogs of Dartmoor. It is not…
