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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 6h

On Steng Cross moor above Elsdon, a gibbet stood from 1792, when William Winter was hung in chains here for murder, until it rotted. A landowner rebuilt it in 1867. The carved wooden head hanging from it has been stolen and replaced repeatedly.

Above, Governor Wall hanging on a gibbet with a cloth over his head; below, Governor Wall ordering the flogging of a naked man who is tied to a block. Etching.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 17h

A 1770 engraving of Orpheus charming the animals, made by J.P. Le Bas from a work by Abraham Hondius, who had been dead seventy-five years by then. The catalogue's subject heading, in full: 'Music, Influence of.' wellcomecollection.org

Orpheus charming the animals with music. Engraving by J.P. Le Bas after A. Hondius.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The morthouse at Udny Green is still in the old kirkyard: massive granite, slated roof, a wooden door then an iron one. A stone dome inside. Built in 1832 to hold corpses until they rotted past use. Category B listed. her.aberdeenshire.gov.uk 📷 Bill Harrison/Geograph, CC BY-SA

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"First hang and draw, then hear the cause by Lydford Law." Lydford held Devon's Stannary Courts - sole jurisdiction over the county's tin miners. A local poet's defence: the gaol was so foul, hanging was the mercy. archive.org

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

In this 1578 engraving by Abraham de Bruyn, Orpheus sits on a stone playing while the animals gather. The Wellcome Collection catalogue records two in the crowd worth naming: an elephant, and a unicorn. Both without comment. wellcomecollection.org

Orpheus sitting on a stone holding a string instrument and charming the animals with music. Engraving by A. de Bruyn.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

At Loughcrew in Meath, the cairns sit on Sliabh na Caillí - the hag's mountain. The tradition that a hag dropped them from her apron is genuine; the first record is 1864, set down by a school inspector on a picnic. voicesfromthedawn.com

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

William the Conqueror died at Rouen on 10 September 1087 of a rupture taken during a raid he launched after the king of France mocked his belly. At burial his body proved too large for the grave. Forced in, it burst. archive.org

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A stone enclosure beside Logierait church, Perthshire, holds three iron mortsafes, now set in cement. They were hired out in the 1820s to lock over graves until the body-snatchers lost interest. One is child-sized. 📷 Dr Richard Murray/Geograph, CC BY-SA

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The bargain for a night under Tinkinswood's forty-ton capstone, Glamorgan: die, go mad, or wake a poet. The first record is Marie Trevelyan's 1909 collection. St Lythans, a mile off, has the same terms. cadw.gov.wales 📷 John Lord/Geograph, CC BY-SA

Tinkinswood burial chamber, nr St Nicholas, Vale of Glamorgan

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Munlochy's clootie well: rags tied to trees rot as ailments rot with them. Take one, take the sickness. In January 2022, someone stripped nearly all of them. The trees are hung again. 📷 F Leask/Geograph, CC BY-SA

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

A witch was turned to stone at Mitchell's Fold, Shropshire, for milking a magic cow dry into a sieve. The tale was first recorded in 1883. Shortly after, someone cut it into a sandstone pillar in Middleton-in-Chirbury church. historicengland.org.uk 📷 Dave Croker/Geograph, CC BY-SA

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

On 4 August 1577, a black dog burst into Bungay church during a thunderstorm and killed two parishioners at prayer. Fleming published the account that year. By 1864, when Chambers noted the belief, the dog had become a coastal wanderer who only warns.

A young woman wearing a veil and black clothing mourning at a tombstone, with her dog attending on her. Mezzotint by H. Quilley after a painting by C. Hancock, 1836.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The Eyam boundary stone still sits beside the Stoney Middleton track: coins in those drilled holes, soaked in vinegar, paid for goods in the 1665 plague quarantine. Near Riley Wood, a walled enclosure holds the seven Hancock graves. One woman dug them all.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Outside Boroughbridge, three monoliths are called the Devil's Arrows - a name first recorded in John Aubrey's 1687 papers. The antiquary Camden described them in 1586 and gave no legend. A fourth stone went into a bridge. historicengland.org.uk 📷 Tom Jolliffe/Geograph, CC BY-SA

Devil's Arrow, Standing Stone, Boroughbridge

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

In 1891, Norman Collie fled Ben Macdui in terror and said nothing for 34 years. He had made the first neon lamp and helped attempt Nanga Parbat. His words, finally: 'I was seized with terror and took to my heels.' 📷 Alan Findlay/Geograph, CC BY-SA

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Knives were handed out at Croyland Abbey every St Bartholomew's Day. The saint was believed flayed alive in Armenia; a knife became his emblem. Chambers adds the day's couplet without gloss: "St Bartholomew / Brings the cold dew." archive.org

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

West of Dunning, a cairn reads 'Maggie Wall burnt here 1657 as a witch.' She is in no Scottish record. The inscription is repainted periodically; nobody knows who does it. Visitors leave pennies, feathers, and Remembrance poppies. dunning.uk.net 📷 Ian S/Geograph, CC BY-SA

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Cromwell won at Dunbar in 1650, Worcester in 1651, both on the third of September. He died on it in 1658. Tradition gave the death a great storm. Chambers checked: the storm hit on the 30th and was 'pretty well spent' by Friday. archive.org

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

A wood engraving from the Illustrated London News, June 1870: at Venice's feast of St John, a boy was stripped to a sheepskin and made to lead a lamb through the procession. Both refused. His eyes, the paper said, 'twinkle with something of malicious devilry.' wellcomecollection.org

A boy, dressed as Saint John the Baptist for a procession in Venice. Wood engraving by W. Hollidge after F.W.W. Topham, 1870.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The Devil's Kettles, pits near Darlington once held bottomless, are a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Croft Kettle runs clear enough for stoneworts; its saw-sedge swamp is found nowhere else in County Durham. geograph.org.uk 📷 Hugh Mortimer/Geograph, CC BY-SA

Hell Kettles Croft Road, near Darlington

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Durham's shrine of St Cuthbert blazed with gold, given on faith his body would not rot. Opened in May 1827: a dry skeleton in silk, a gold cross on the breast. Chambers: a fraud, a skeleton dressed in the habiliments of the grave. archive.org

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

An 18th-century Wellcome Collection engraving in two registers: three mother-goddesses from a stone relief at Divodurum, the city now called Metz, above; three mandrake root charms below. The connection between the two is not stated. wellcomecollection.org

Three mother-goddesses or fates (above); three mandrake charms (below). Engraving.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The Wellcome Collection holds an 18th-century engraving of the Council of Trent, the Holy Ghost shown overhead while the assembled councillors sit below. Campiglia drew it; Pazzi cut the plate. wellcomecollection.org

The Council of Trent: the Holy Ghost appearing above the councillors. Engraving by P.A. Pazzi after Giovanni Domenico Campiglia.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The Wellcome Collection holds a ca. 1703 line engraving after Charles Le Brun: Teresa of Avila kneels in her cell as the Holy Ghost shines on her. Teresa died in 1582. Le Brun died in 1690. Both were gone before this print was made. wellcomecollection.org

Saint Teresa of Avila: she kneels in her convent cell as the Holy Ghost shines on her. Line engraving after C. Lebrun.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The Wellcome Collection holds a 1770 engraving by Louise Angélique Martinet after C. van Loo. Gregory the Great, sixth-century Pope, dictates his Homilies on Ezechiel. His amanuensis watches the Holy Ghost descend and perch on Gregory's head. wellcomecollection.org

Saint Gregory the Great, dictating his homilies on the prophet Ezechiel, is visited by the Holy Ghost. Engraving by L.A. Martinet, 1770, after C. van Loo.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The Wellcome Collection holds a 19th-century engraving by Domingo Estruch y Jordán - a Spanish printmaker - of the Eucharist in its monstrance, borne aloft by Seraphim. Its title: an apparition of the holy sacrament. wellcomecollection.org

An apparition of the holy sacrament in a monstrance carried by Seraphim. Engraving by Estruch.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

At Spalato, Anastasius wove, fulled, and dyed cloth before his beheading in 304, and this 18th-century Wellcome engraving of his head was kept as an amulet. His head had been taken to Rome, held to drive away the devil. He was invoked against headaches. wellcomecollection.org

Saint Anastasius: his head as an amulet. Line engraving, 17--.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

A colour woodcut by Yoshikazu, 1851 (Wellcome Collection). The warrior Tametomo was exiled to Oshima in the twelfth century, his arm sinews cut by enemies. When the smallpox demon came to enter the island, it shrank to the size of a pea and floated out to sea. wellcomecollection.org

Tametomo banishes the smallpox demon from the Island of Oshima. Colour woodcut by Yoshikazu, 1851/1853.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Thomas Cook engraved this caricature in 1798 after William Hogarth: a congregation in the grip of a preacher, credulous to a man. The Wellcome Collection catalogues it under church buildings, superstitions, the devil - and thermometers. wellcomecollection.org

A credulous congregation listening to a sermon by a fiery preacher. Engraving by T. Cook, 1798, after W. Hogarth.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Piazzetta drew the design and Pitteri cut the plate for a 1743 line engraving of God the Father with the Holy Ghost, held by the Wellcome Collection. The title states its subject with the flatness of a ledger entry. wellcomecollection.org

God the Father with the Holy Ghost. Line engraving by G.M. Pitteri after G.B. Piazzetta.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Francis Xavier, the Jesuit missionary, is visited by the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove; behind him, sea and ship. The Wellcome Collection holds this 19th-century engraving, cut by Antonio Hercolani - an Italian count. wellcomecollection.org

Saint Francis Xavier, visited by the Holy Ghost, in the form of a dove; sea and ship in the background. Engraving, 18--.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

A 1773 engraving, held by the Wellcome Collection: Macbeth consults three witches, and an apparition appears. Edward Edwards drew it; William Byrne cut the copper plate in March 1773. The apparition is a bloody child who calls Macbeth's name three times. wellcomecollection.org

Macbeth consults the three witches; an apparition appears of a bloody child, who calls Macbeth's name three times. Engraving by W. Byrne, 1773, after E. Edwards.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Hundreds of marks cut against evil cover the cave walls at Creswell Crags, Derbyshire - VV for Virgo Virginum, boxes and mazes to trap it. The marks are medieval. The record is 2019: two people on a public tour who knew what they were looking at. creswell-crags.org.uk

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

The Wellcome Collection holds an eighteenth-century engraving of Gabriel: lilies in one hand, pointing with the other to a dove the catalogue names the Holy Ghost. No maker's name, no place of printing, and no year narrower than the 1700s. wellcomecollection.org

The Archangel Gabriel holding lilies and pointing to a dove representing the Holy Ghost. Engraving, 17--.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

At the well of St Boniface by Munlochy, Black Isle, rags are tied to trees and left to rot with the ailment they carry. Folklore surveys found it as live practice in the 19th century. Attested: still being done when they arrived. forestryandland.gov.scot 📷 F Leask/Geograph, CC BY-SA

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Sandwood Bay, below Cape Wrath, has a ghost on record: a bearded sailor in brass buttons seen at the tideline. Folklorist R. Macdonald Robertson collected the accounts from crofters in the 1940s. Nothing earlier is recorded. johnmuirtrust.org 📷 Les Shaw/Geograph, CC BY-SA

Sandwood Bay view of Cape Wrath lighthouse

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

In a 1720 woodcut from the Wellcome Collection, Robert Hunt appears with two other men, a devil above all three. The catalogue lists Hunt as active 1667 - this print arrived fifty-three years later. Subjects: witchcraft, demonology, witch trials. wellcomecollection.org

Witchcraft: Robert Hunt, with two other men, surmounted by a devil. Woodcut, 1720.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

In drought years, people walk on the mud of Haweswater to stand in Mardale Green - the village Manchester Corporation drowned in 1935. The dead were exhumed and reburied at Shap before the flood. The pre-flooding OS sheet still shows every field wall. co-curate.ncl.ac.uk

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, surveyed 1888–1913, showing Mardale, Westmorland. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

In a woodcut of 1720, the devil brings medicine to someone in bed. The Wellcome Collection holds it; the catalogue's own title cannot tell whether the patient is a man or a woman. wellcomecollection.org

Witchcraft: the devil bringing medicine to a man or woman in bed (?). Woodcut, 1720.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The Wellcome Collection holds a woodcut from about 1700 to 1720: the devil hacks a field with a scythe. The catalogue subjects are witchcraft, demonology, witches. The title is the whole record. wellcomecollection.org

A devil hacks a field with a scythe. Woodcut, ca. 1700-1720.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Scotland's cave cannibal, Sawney Bean, was an English invention. His clan of forty-eight, a cave at Bennane Head, Ayrshire, twenty-five years of eating travellers: all first printed in London in 1734. Scotland has no trial, no chronicle, no missing persons. tandfonline.com

Two lynx in a cave. Etching by J. E. Ridinger.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Ben Alder Cottage, Loch Ericht, carries a haunting built on a hanging that never happened there: McCook the stalker died peacefully in his bed elsewhere. Walkers still report footsteps and knocking from the empty room. outdoorsmagic.com 📷 Kim McGillivray/Geograph, CC BY-SA

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

St Peter's at Barton-upon-Humber rang each evening for travellers lost on the Wolds. A bequest paid for it. The story that came with it: a lady, saved by its sound one night, endowed the ringing. The bequests are in the record. She is in the tradition. archive.org

-Bell Ringer Outside a Church- MET DP106370.jpg

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

A 1720 woodcut: the devil in conversation with a gentleman and a judge, inside a circle. The Wellcome Collection's own title puts it as 'a judge (?)'. The question mark is the catalogue's. wellcomecollection.org

Witchcraft: the devil talking to a gentleman and a judge (?) in a circle. Woodcut, 1720.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

In 1720, a woodcut was printed and titled: a witch and a devil making a nail with which to make a boy lame. The Wellcome Collection holds it. The record gives only that: a witch, a devil, a nail, a boy. wellcomecollection.org

Witchcraft: a witch and a devil making a nail with which to make a boy lame. Woodcut, 1720.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

September 1842 is the first source for the Caledonia figurehead at Morwenstow - attested: Hawker, the vicar who buried the crew, wrote it down that month. When he retold it in 1865, he was first on the sand. He was not. robertstephenhawker.co.uk 📷 nick macneill/Geograph, CC BY-SA

Church of St Morwenna and John the Baptist, Morwenstow, Cornwall

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

A woodcut from about 1700 to 1720 in the Wellcome Collection. A magician stands inside a circle thick with symbols, wand in one hand, book in the other. The devil watches him in the form of a dragon. wellcomecollection.org

A magician stands in the middle of a circle holding a stick in one hand and a book in the other as he is watched by the devil in the form of a dragon. Woodcut, ca. 1700-1720.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

The Udny Green morthouse minutes open 21 January 1832: fifteen men, a vault against body-snatchers, a revolving platform to hold coffins until too decayed to sell. The Anatomy Act passed that year. The minutes stop in 1836. her.aberdeenshire.gov.uk 📷 Bill Harrison/Geograph, CC BY-SA

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

This 1827 engraving from a ghost story set in Rostherne, Cheshire, shows Mary Spenser, found in the pantry after seeing the ghost, with her mother, the Thatcher, and Corporal Crucifix. Old Madge watches from the stair. A gipsy has foretold her marriage. wellcomecollection.org

The exorcism of a ghost. Engraving by E. Portbury, 1827, after F.P. Stephanoff.

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The Dark Almanac @darkalmanac.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

In Tring in 1751, a mob drowned Ruth Osborne as a witch; Thomas Colley, who led them, was gibbeted for murder. Chambers, in 1864, had a schoolmaster's account of a black dog at the chains - fire-eyed, teeth bared in a grin. That is all the record offers. thebookofdays.com

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