Our next stop was Castle Howe, near Bassenthwaite Lake. According to legend, a man was once climbing to the top of the fort on the hill, when he stumbled and overturned a rock. He continued on but happened to look back, and saw a man dressed in green sitting on the rock that he had overturned. When he looked again, the man had disappeared.
Another story tells of some children who were digging on the hill when they found a hut with a slate roof. When they returned to the same spot after lunch the hut had disappeared, though their spades were exactly how they had left them so they knew they were in the right spot. A few days later the children's father was walking his dog on the hill. He spotted two small people dressed in green, and for some reason decided to set his dog upon them. The dog ran forwards then stopped in its tracks in front of them, and backed away to his master. The small people then stepped into the ground, never to be seen again!
Sources and Further Information
The Secret Country, Janet & Colin Bord
I've just posted this one on the Cumbrian Folklore Facebook page. The page has just moved so it doesn't look like there are many members, but it had about 150 in its previous guise! Hopefully people will come and look.
ReplyDeleteLovely pictures, by the way.
My thanks to esmeraldamac for making me aware of your delightful blog. I trus you have seen the report on the fairy photographs taken at Killhope Wood, Co Durham? See www.morpethherald.co.uk/lifestyle/how_s_this_for_a_fairy_story_1_3438917
ReplyDeleteThanks esmeraldamac, i'll have to check out the Cumbrian Folklore group too, sounds interesting!! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Alan! Nice to meet you! Surprisingly enough nope I hadn't seen that link, so thanks for showing it to me! Alas not convinced by the photo, though would love to see larger versions of it to see more detail! I get a lot of photos come out with strange blue lights on them, i'm no photographer so not sure why, but it always seems to happen when theres a strong light source in the background like sun behind trees so guess it's some sort of reflection off the lense. An extreme example is this photo I took in the borders... where the glare was so much that the camera tried to focus on the glare instead of the background!
http://i52.tinypic.com/2im7uwg.jpg
Though you never know, she may have indeed photographed a real faery, would be nice to think so!! :)
This was a lovely blog post
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