Every country has its folklore. Its cautionary tales, its monsters lurking in dark water, its ancient curses that probably definitely do not still apply. Britain, however, has been at this considerably longer than most and with considerably more enthusiasm. Thousands of years of Celtic mythology, Roman occupation, Viking raids, Norman conquest and general human chaos have produced a folklore tradition so rich, so strange and so deeply embedded in the landscape that you cannot walk through the British countryside without tripping over a legend.
Here are ten of the most extraordinary folklore locations in Britain, the stories behind them and what you might encounter if you visit. We accept no responsibility for any curses, encounters or unexplained events that follow. You were warned.
1. Loch Ness, Scottish Highlands
No list of British folklore would be complete without Loch Ness, home to the world's most famous monster and Britain's most successful tourist attraction that may or may not actually exist. Nessie, as she is affectionately known, has been part of Scottish folklore since 565 AD when Saint Columba allegedly encountered a beast in the River Ness and commanded it to retreat. The creature, apparently finding Saint Columba considerably more intimidating than expected, obliged.
Modern Nessie fever began in earnest in 1933 when a local couple reported seeing an enormous creature in the loch, and the story has never really gone away since. The famous 1934 photograph of a long necked creature breaking the surface, known as the Surgeon's Photo, was eventually revealed to be a hoax involving a toy submarine and a sculpted head. This has done remarkably little to dampen enthusiasm for the legend.
Loch Ness is the largest body of fresh water in Britain by volume, over 750 feet deep in places and genuinely dark enough at depth that almost anything could be hiding in it. Whether something is or not, the loch is one of the most dramatically beautiful and atmospherically unsettling stretches of water in Europe.
Visiting: Loch Ness, Scottish Highlands. The Loch Ness Centre in Drumnadrochit is excellent and the drive along the loch's southern shore is one of Scotland's finest.
2. Glastonbury Tor, Somerset, England
Glastonbury Tor is one of the most spiritually significant and most mythologically loaded locations in Britain, a distinctive hill rising from the Somerset Levels that has been a focus of human activity, religious devotion and wildly competing legends for thousands of years. It is simultaneously the burial place of King Arthur, the entrance to the Celtic underworld, a former isle rising from ancient floodwaters and a site of pre-Christian goddess worship. It manages all of this while also being a very pleasant afternoon walk with excellent views.
The Arthurian connection is the most famous. Glastonbury Abbey, at the foot of the Tor, claimed in 1191 to have discovered the graves of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in their grounds, a discovery that was almost certainly a medieval publicity stunt designed to attract pilgrims and funding. The monks produced an inscribed cross identifying the grave as Arthur's. The cross has since disappeared. The legend has not.
The Tor itself is said to be hollow, an entrance to Annwn, the Celtic otherworld, ruled by Gwyn ap Nudd, King of the Faeries. People have been reporting strange lights, unexplained sounds and a general sense of otherworldly presence on and around the Tor for centuries.
Visiting: Glastonbury, Somerset. The Tor is a short walk from the town centre and is managed by the National Trust. The town of Glastonbury itself is an experience entirely unto itself.
3. The Rollright Stones, Oxfordshire, England
The Rollright Stones are a complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age standing stones on the Oxfordshire and Warwickshire border, far less famous than Stonehenge and considerably more interesting for it. They consist of three separate monuments, the King's Men stone circle, the Whispering Knights burial chamber and the solitary King Stone, each with its own legend and each with its own reported paranormal activity.
The folklore surrounding the Rollright Stones involves a king and his army who were turned to stone by a witch. The King Stone is said to be uncountable, with every person who attempts to count the stones in the circle arriving at a different number. UFO sightings have been reported above them, mysterious lights are seen moving between them at night and the whole complex has an atmosphere of genuinely ancient significance.
Visiting: Great Rollright, Oxfordshire. A small admission charge applies. Far less crowded than Stonehenge and infinitely more atmospheric at dawn.
4. The Screaming Skull of Bettiscombe Manor, Dorset, England
Every good folklore tradition needs a screaming skull, and Dorset delivers magnificently with the skull of Bettiscombe Manor near Bridport. The skull has been kept at the manor for centuries and according to legend must never be removed from the property. Those who have attempted to move it have reportedly been met with terrible screaming from the skull itself, violent poltergeist activity and in some accounts catastrophic misfortune.
The skull was long believed to be that of an enslaved man brought to Dorset from the Caribbean by a former owner of the manor in the 17th century, who allegedly swore before his death that he would never rest until his bones were returned to his homeland. Scientific analysis in the 1960s complicated matters considerably by determining that the skull was actually female and far older than the 17th century, possibly prehistoric. The screaming, if the legend is to be believed, has not been affected by this revelation.
Visiting: Bettiscombe, Dorset. Private property, viewable from the lane. The surrounding countryside is some of the most beautiful in England.
5. The Devil's Dyke, West Sussex, England
The Devil's Dyke is a spectacular V-shaped valley carved into the South Downs near Brighton and according to local legend it was dug by the Devil himself. The legend holds that the Devil, furious at the number of churches being built in the Weald of Sussex, decided to dig a channel to the sea to flood the entire region. He was interrupted by an old woman holding a candle, which he mistook for the rising sun, causing him to flee before completing his work.
The Devil's Dyke is one of the most visited beauty spots in the South East and has been a popular destination since Victorian times when a funicular railway carried visitors to the summit. The views across the Weald are extraordinary and the walking is excellent.
Visiting: Devil's Dyke Road, near Brighton, West Sussex. National Trust managed and free to visit. The pub at the summit has been serving visitors since the Victorian era.
6. Hound Tor, Dartmoor, Devon, England
Dartmoor is Britain's folklore capital in miniature, a vast moorland landscape of granite tors, ancient stone rows and bottomless bogs that looks as though it was designed by someone who had read too much gothic fiction and decided to make it real. Hound Tor is one of Dartmoor's most dramatic landmarks and the inspiration, according to local tradition, for Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles.
The legend attached to Hound Tor involves a local huntsman named Richard Cabell whose cruelty was so extreme that at his death in 1677 a pack of phantom hounds raced across the moor to claim his soul. The Wisht Hounds, a pack of phantom black dogs said to ride across Dartmoor in the wake of the Devil on stormy nights, are the moor's most enduring folkloric tradition. Hearing them is considered a death omen.
Visiting: Hound Tor, Dartmoor National Park, Devon. A short walk from the car park near Manaton. The medieval deserted village at the base of the tor is worth exploring.
7. Wistman's Wood, Dartmoor, Devon, England
Wistman's Wood is one of the strangest and most unsettling places in Britain. This ancient oak woodland sits in a high valley on the open moor, its gnarled and twisted trees growing among enormous moss covered boulders in a configuration that looks less like a natural woodland and more like somewhere that will give you nightmares.
Wistman's Wood is believed to be one of the last remnants of the ancient forest that once covered Dartmoor and may be three to four thousand years old. It is associated in local folklore with the Druids, with the Wisht Hounds who are said to kennel here between hunts and with a general sense of ancient, watchful presence that visitors describe with remarkable consistency regardless of their prior beliefs.
Visiting: Wistman's Wood, Dartmoor, Devon. A two mile round walk from Two Bridges on the B3357. No facilities. Wear proper boots. Do not go in heavy fog.
8. The Fairy Glen, Isle of Skye, Scotland
The Isle of Skye has been associated with fairy folklore since long before tourism discovered it. The Fairy Glen near Uig on the island's northern Trotternish peninsula is a peculiar and enchanting landscape of small conical hills, natural rock formations and a mysterious stone spiral that appears and disappears depending on who has most recently rearranged it.
Scottish fairy folklore is considerably darker than the Victorian tradition of delicate winged creatures might suggest. The fairies of Highland tradition, the Sith, are powerful, dangerous and deeply ambivalent towards humanity. They steal children, replacing them with changelings. They lead travellers astray on the moors. They entice people into their hills for what seems like a single night of feasting and music, only for the traveller to emerge to find decades have passed and everyone they knew is dead.
Visiting: Fairy Glen, near Uig, Isle of Skye, Scotland. A short walk from the road. Combine with a visit to the Quiraing and the Old Man of Storr for a full day of extraordinary Skye landscapes.
9. Chanctonbury Ring, West Sussex, England
Chanctonbury Ring is an Iron Age hillfort on the South Downs crowned by a distinctive ring of beech trees planted in 1760 by a local landowner named Charles Goring. Running around the ring seven times at midnight is said to summon the Devil, who will appear and offer you a bowl of soup in exchange for your soul. We appreciate that a bowl of soup seems like a modest offer for an immortal soul and can only assume the Devil was having a quiet night.
The ring is also associated with pagan ritual activity, unexplained lights, UFO sightings and the ghost of a Romano-British man seen within the earthworks. The trees were devastated by the Great Storm of 1987, which removed a significant portion of the ring. The surviving and regrown trees have restored much of the original character.
Visiting: Chanctonbury Ring, South Downs National Park, West Sussex. A walk of approximately four miles from Washington village. The Devil reportedly prefers midnight visits but we recommend daylight for your first time.
10. The Nine Ladies Stone Circle, Derbyshire, England
The Nine Ladies Stone Circle on Stanton Moor in Derbyshire is a Bronze Age monument dating back approximately four thousand years, consisting of nine small standing stones arranged in a circle with a tenth stone, the King Stone, standing alone a short distance away. It is one of the most complete and most accessible ancient monuments in the Peak District.
The legend attached to the Nine Ladies is thoroughly disapproving of everyone involved. Nine women and their musician were turned to stone as divine punishment for dancing on the Sabbath, the King Stone being the fiddler whose music led them astray. The moor surrounding the circle has been associated with paranormal activity and ritual significance for centuries. Early morning visits, before the walkers arrive, are particularly rewarding and if you happen to hear distant fiddle music across the moor, that is almost certainly just the wind.
Visiting: Stanton Moor, near Rowsley, Derbyshire. A short walk from the car park on Stanton Moor Road. Combine with a visit to the various other prehistoric monuments scattered across the moor.
Explore These Locations and Hundreds More on HauntMap
Britain's folklore tradition is thousands of years old and the locations that inspired it are still there, still atmospheric and in many cases still genuinely unexplained. HauntMap maps haunted and mysterious locations across the UK, USA and beyond, complete with paranormal histories, folklore, ghost stories and experiences submitted by real investigators.
Download the HauntMap app on iPhone or Android and start exploring Britain's extraordinary folklore landscape today. The legends are waiting. Some of them have been waiting for several thousand years, so they are clearly not in any particular hurry, but still.
Know a folklore location we should add to the map? We would love to hear about it at boo@haunt-map.com