A random #folklore musing I keep coming back to but have no answer to: where are Northumberland's sea stories?

We have a long and dramatic coastline, and a history of fishing communities, sea trade, and sea smuggling. But no mythical sea creatures, no ghosts of drowned sailors, and the sea itself is incidental even in the few folk stories set on the coast.

I have the odd theory, but no answer. Makes me sad to think that they might have existed but been lost!

#Northumberland #NorthumbrianStories #folklore #FolkStories #NorthumberlandFolklore @folklore

#Storytime.

Once at Christmas time, the laird had promised his guests good hunting. He paid a local woman, Nancy Scott, sixpence for the location of a rare white hare.

But when the party gave chase, the hare led them a merry dance, finally escaping the jaws of a hound straight into Nancy's cottage.

On entering, the laird found Nancy out of breath, nursing a bleeding heel, but no hare to be seen.

#Northumberland #NorthumbrianStories #Folklore #Lore #WinterTales #Stories #Storytelling

High on the moors above Bewick in #Northumberland is the Cateran Hole. Steps descend into the dark tunnel, which is said to lead underground to the fairy stronghold of the Henhole, far into the hills.

When some men of Old Bewick decided to test it, they only got as far as the Hurl Stone, where fairy singing sent them fleeing back in a panic.

Today the tunnel is blocked by fallen rocks.

#folklore #folklorethursday @folklorethursday #stories #storytelling #northumberland #northumbrianstories

#GhostStory time.

There was once an old gamekeeper living near here, who saw more than most.

His two brothers lived in Australia. While awaiting them on a visit, he answered a knock to find his brother Robert, alone.

"Where's Jack?" the keeper asked, then saw his other brother standing down the road. Whereupon both men vanished.

Shortly after, Robert arrived alone. Jack was detained on business, and died in Australia before either brother ever saw him again.

#Stories #NorthumbrianStories

The Henhole, deep in the Cheviot Hills. Where waterfalls blow backwards, peregrines fly overhead, and fairy music drifts out of the hills.

It's said that once a hunting party chased a white hart all the way up the College Valley, only to be entranced by the beauty of the music and disappear forever underground.

#northumberland #folklore #folkstories #northumbrianstories #storyteller #fairytales #fairylore #lore #strangetales #cheviothills