Moon Mausoleum
An online magazine about the paranormal, haunted and macabre. We collect the ghost stories from all around the world as well as review horror and gothic media.
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. […]
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.
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 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.
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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.
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?
