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Veiled Spectres in the Waterfalls at Lydford Gorge

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By the cascading waterfalls at Lydford Gorge in Dartmoor, England, it is said that the White Lady is haunting the place, ready to save anyone unfortunate enough to almost drown. Right by the ghost at Kitt’s Step can be seen as well, one that didn’t make it. 

On the outskirts of Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England is Lydford Gorge, a 1.5-mile-long abyss carved by the relentless forces of the Lyd River that shrinks and swells with the rainfall. 

Maintained by the National Trust, Lydford Gorge whispers tales of spectral encounters and ethereal apparitions, casting an otherworldly veil over its cascading waters with more than one ghost said to be haunting the waters in the deepness of the gorge.

The Woman in White and the Haunted Waterfall

Following the route of the river through the gorge, you will find the tallest waterfall in Dartmoor of 30 meters, the White Lady. Aptly named after the ghost said to haunt the place. Whether the name or the name or the ghost story came first is unknown though, but a haunting legend has lingered. 

According to local lore, the ghost of the Woman in White by the waterfall can be seen with flowing tresses, standing amid the frothy veil of the waterfall. This is said to be a rather helpful ghost though, and those who see her can be counted as very lucky. 

It is said that if you are so unfortunate to fall into the water, the current of the stream can quickly become a deadly one, especially after heavy rainfall. It is said though, if you see the white lady, she will help you and rescue you from the deadly waters.

The Ghost at Kitty’s Steps

The White Lady of the Waterfall is not the only thing haunting this area though, and one can say that she perhaps didn’t save everyone. Right by the waterfall is a pool of water that has been named Kitt’s Steps. The pool was possibly a venerated water in ancient times. 

Kitt’s Step or Kitt’s Hole is pretty far up the river by Kitt’s Rock between Winney’s Down and Cut hill and is a place where people usually cross the river. Kitt’s Step is a name that is found elsewhere in the country as well, but it has become synonymous with the apparition of a woman, often described as old wearing a red kerchief on her head. 

According to the stories told about this place, there was once a woman called Kitty, Catherine or simply Kitt, that tried to jump over the gorge at this place on her horse when the water of the river was swelling. They both fell and although the horse made it safely back, Kitt got tangled up in the surrounding trees and her dead body was found many days later.

The first accounts from this accident is from 1804 when it was written about a market woman and her pony was taken by the current. 

In some version of the legend she survived. In an account from 1846, she had been at a feast in Lydford to sell her goods and is said to have maybe fallen asleep on her way home. She woke after the fall and spent the rest of the night trapped before her husband came in the morning and saved her. 

The rest of the accounts of these legends end more tragically though and by 1972, Ruth St. Ledger-Gordon wrote about the ghost of Old Kitty that is haunting the pool at the bottom of the waterfall further down the river.  

The Waterfall Ghosts Down by Lydford Gorge

Lydford Gorge, cradled by the arms of Dartmoor National Park, is not merely a geological wonder but a realm where the boundaries between the natural and supernatural blur. The haunting echoes of the old woman at Kitty’s Steps and the ethereal Woman in White at the waterfall add layers of mystery to this already enchanting landscape. 

Who knows, perhaps the ghost from these legends are one and the same? Some unfortunate soul that got taken by the current and spends the rest of the afterlife trying to help others that are about to suffer the same fate?

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Lydford Gorge

Kit Steps, Postbridge, Dartmoor National Park

Kitts Steps – Legendary Dartmoor   

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The Story that Inspired The Hound of the Baskervilles

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Did you know that the famous Arthur Conan Doyle book about Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles was based on a true legend? The legend about the evil Squire Richard Cabell and his hounds are still haunting the moors in Devon.

When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stayed at the Duchy Hotel he heard the story of the evil Squire Richard Cabell that lived in the 1600s around those parts in Devon. This led him to write his famous story: The Hound of the Baskervilles which is the third of the four crime novels written by him about detective Sherlock Holmes. This installment of the detective turned out to be one of the most liked and popular book of Sherlock Holmes.

  • The Hound of the Baskervilles is not the only book that based itself on a true legend. Read here about how a shipwreck in Whitby inspired parts of Dracula in the MoonMausoleum.

The Legend of Richard Cabell

The legend tells of the local Squire that lived in the village of Buckfastleigh in Devon, England with a lot of rumors surrounding him. Richard Cabell lived for the hunt and was notorious for his pack of black hounds that were said to be extremely vicious, as the owner himself. 

Sherlock Holmes: Illustration to The Hound of the Baskervilles.

He is though to be the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle to the character of Hugo Baskerville in The Hound of the Baskervilles and is remembered by Devon as: “the first of his family to be hounded to death when he hunted an innocent maiden over the moor by night”.

There are many rumours about him as a person and perhaps not all true. Not only did Richard Cabell have a legend about him having sold his soul to the Devil for immortality, but there was also rumours that he murdered his wife, Elizabeth Fowell as the locals wouldn’t put it past him knowing he was an extremely vicious man. 

It is said he accused her of adultery and she tried to flee from him by running away. She was recaptured though and brought back were he murdered her with his hunting knife. This rumoured is to be believed if we ignore the fact that his wife outlived him by 14 years.

In any case if he did or didn’t kill his wife or it was mostly rumours that came from his unpopular political believes, he was described as a monstrous man and he only cared about hunting with his hounds and the other locals shied away from him and his hounds. After he died he was remembered as: Dirty Dick, feared as well as hated by the locals. 

Haunting Hell Hounds

Hell Hounds: Illustration of the black hound in The Hound of the Baskervilles.

On the 5th of July in 1677, Richard Cabell died, but it was not the last the people of Dartmoor saw of him according to the legend. The night of his burial a pack of black hounds like he used to own and hunt with was seen on the moor, howling at his tomb. 

From that night, they were often seen together, the phantom hounds and his ghost, mostly on the anniversary of his death. He would be seen leading the hounds back across the moor. 

“It came with the wind through the silence of the night, a long, deep mutter, then a rising howl, and then the sad moan in which it died away. Again and again it sounded, the whole air throbbing with it, strident, wild and menacing.”
― Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Devon Yeth Hound

In Devon folklore, it is often included a fearsome dog known as the Yeth hound and black hounds or Hell Hounds are often found in European Doom Mythology and used as the base of the mystery in The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The Malcanis Guarding the Fortress

In Akershus Fortress in Oslo, Norway, there are rumours about something strange haunting the former castle. There is a legend of a ghost of a dog haunting the place, called the Malcanis, or Evil Dog as it means.

This is one of the reasons why seeing someone with big black dogs could look so scary for people from Devon. The legend of the Yeth Hound is said to be a headless dog, often thought to be the spirit of an unbaptised child. The black hound that roams through the woods and over the moors at night making wailing noises much like the hounds of Richard Cabell or the mysterious hound we meet in The Hound of the Baskervilles.

To get peace from his ghost, the villagers built a large building on top of Richard Cabell’s tomb to stop him from getting out. It looks almost like a small prison with iron bars. This seems like a dramatic thing to do just because of some rumours.

Even with these measures, people have reported of strange stuff happening around the building as well from the inside. 

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References

The viking ghosts which still haunt this bloody corner of Devon and 11 other spooky legends you have never heard of

Richard Cabell – Wikipedia

https://web.archive.org/web/20150923184203/http://www.bfronline.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=103&Itemid=9

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The Pirate Haunting Burgh Island

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Treasures hidden in the caves, a restless ghost of a pirate and an endless murder mystery location: The Burgh Island is continuing to serve as a place of mystery to the visitors.

“He thought: Peaceful sound. Peaceful place…. He thought: Best of an island is once you get there—you can’t go any farther … you’ve come to the end of things…. He knew, suddenly, that he didn’t want to leave the island.”
— Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None

Burgh Island is today most known through Agatha Christie’s murder mystery novel “And Then There Were None’ and tells the story of a group of people stranded on an island with a murderer in their midst. And considering the story of the Island on the English coast, it is understandable it had to be this place that inspired the crime queen herself. 

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It is a tidal island on the coast of South Devon with two of the most famous buildings being the Art Deco Burgh Island Hotel and the pub, the Pilchard Inn. Now it is a cozy place to enjoy the fresh air of the coast, have a few beer and solve the murder mystery evenings the hotel puts on, but it didn’t always use to be a nice getaway place for the bored.

The Pirate Hideout

In the 14th century the coast of Devon was infamous for its piracy. It was great to use as a hideout place as the island is cut off by the tide twice a day and was an easy place to defend against those trying to bring the pirates to justice. 

Today the island is known for hosting extravagant guests where the likes of The Beatles, Agatha Christie and Churchill have stayed. The building that stands today was built in 1929, but the history of this inn comes from a much more scandalous and illegal beginning. 

Tom Crocker was a famous pirate known to have used the Pilchard Inn Pub as well as the island’s southern caves as a hideout for his smuggling business when the island was known as Burr Island. 

The Pirate Ghost

But Crocker’s days as a pirate finally came to an end and he was hanged in the third week of August in 1395, some setting it to the 14th or the 15th of August, but the year however is not confirmed and it could be much later. 

This was not the end of his time on the island though. He is said to haunt the Pilchard Inn Pub where he used to spend his time when he was not at sea. Some even say this is the place he died as he was shot. However which year or of what killed him, it is here he makes his appearance on the anniversary of his death. 

He has been seen rattling doors and walking all over the island, supposedly to search for his hidden treasures, and who knows, perhaps there really is one about? 

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The viking ghosts which still haunt this bloody corner of Devon and 11 other spooky legends you have never heard of. 

THE PILCHARD INN – Burgh Island

Starters & light treasures The big robbery Sweet and savoury treats Daily treats – available all day

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The Ghost on the Moor

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In a time when suicide was a sin, a man took his own life when he couldn’t have the woman he loved. His tormented soul is said to haunt the moors in Dartmoor in Devon, England were he was buried. 

An unmarked grave outside the parish boundary lays the body of George Stephens that lived in Dartmoor in Devon, England. In some sources, he is called John. He committed suicide in 1763 or 62, depending on the sources, after his marriage to Mary Bray, a farmer’s daughter fell through. 

There are conflicting variations as to why the marriage fell through. In some cases, it was the parents of the girl that rejected him because they deemed him unworthy of their daughter. In other variations of the legend though, she betrayed his love right before their wedding. 

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The Haunting Heartbreak

In his mind, Stephens was so in love with Mary and there could only be her for him. In some accounts of the story he would walk outside her home every night to keep an eye on her. It was then he found out she was cheating on him with his best friend only a week away from their wedding. 

The Grave: The grave to Stephens can still be seen out in the moors in Dartmoor.// Source

In some versions he only spots her with another man at a fair in their village after her parents tore them apart because he wasn’t worthy. No matter if they actually were engaged or not, the pain of him not being able to be with her was too much for him to bear.

In many versions of the tale, Stephens kills her after her betrayal. It is most often by poison. Either a poisonous apple or deadly nightshade. 

In other versions though, he only kills himself with a sort of poison used for rats and Mary lives on without him causing her any harm. It is then said she lived to be very old, but never married. 

The Ghost at the Grave

Because of the manner of his death when he took his own life, he was not allowed a proper burial by the church and was laid to rest near Peter Tavy Moor, only marked by a granite post that you to this day can still see. 

Shortly after his death, locals began noticing strange things happening out on the moor. His ghost was seen several times and the sound of shrieking could be heard in the night at his anguish. It is even said that a certain Rev. Dr. Jago of Tavistock was summoned to lay his spirit to rest. 

If it worked though is not certain as the locals continued to be afraid to walk the moors in the dark in fear of running into the restless spirit of the man so tormented, the pain of it all continued into his afterlife and never gave him the rest he craved for. 

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References

The viking ghosts which still haunt this bloody corner of Devon and 11 other spooky legends you have never heard of

Stephen’s Grave | Legendary Dartmoor