Showing 1-20 of 39 folklore posts. Most recent first | Next 20 
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The stone was moved to the village of Pilsley where it was used as a pig trough....but pigs died and the landowners suffered bad luck until the stone was replaced on the barrow.
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Folklorist George Paterson recalls....
The King's Ring was a grand place once, but they took stones to build the lock on Newry Canal.There was a time when there was music in the ring. It was quare music, one minute it would coax the heart out of you, and the next it would scare the living daylights out of you. Maybe it is laments for the oul' kings that are played.
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Further to Schlager Man's folklore post.....Finn McCool is reputed to be buried here.
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Local Tradition holds that if you successfully land one stone in three on top of the capstone you will be married before the year is out. It also claims that the giant, Parra Bui MacShane, lies here after his fatal encounter with Finn McCool.
From The Gap of the North by Noreen Cunningham & Pat Mcginn.
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George Paterson recorded the following story about the tomb.
Sur' he saw no hurt in the breakin of it. But he never lived till finish it. For hundreds of years it has been there - maybe indeed since the beginning of time. I always remember it. Sure, it was there that I saw the first wee people.
From the Gap of the North by Noreen Cunningham & Pat Mcginn....
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" So spectacular and remote is the monument that its construction was ascribed to either the Devil or Michael Scot, the great Medieval scholar who was reputed to command demons."
Geoff Holder The Guide to the Mysterious Lake District (2009)
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In Harold T. Wilkins' book Mysteries Solved & Unsolved he suggests that the stones name is derived from Ambrosie petrie the annointed stone. Meanwhile Doreen Valiente states that another possible origin of the name is from the Latin word ambire meaning to go round and that the stone was danced around. Both authors mention the stone was a focus for witchcraft ceremonies in centuries past.
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In 1652 George Fox, the founder of the Quaker movement climbed Pendle Hill because he was 'moved of the Lord' to do so. On its summit he saw a vision and had a mystical experience which inspired him in his religious mission.
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"The local people call the spot Mother Goring; and at one time there was a custom of coming up to the Ring to see the sun rise on the morning of May Day. The Ring is said to be haunted by the apparition of a man on horseback...."
From:
An ABC of Witchcraft Past & Present.
Doreen Valiente
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In the 15th Century the cave was known as Tursthous which translated means 'giants house'.
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The fissure cave on the tumbled limestone rocks of Hob's House, on the northern side of Fin Cop, was once said to be the home of the giant Hulac Warren (sometimes Hector Warren) or Hob.
On a bend in the river, closer to Demons Dale, stands the Warren Stone. Which is said to be the petrified remains of the giant who was turned to stone for the attempted rape of a shepherdess. During the attack she either fell or threw herself to her death. Where her body landed a spring of pure water formed.
In an old local rhyme suggesting witchcraft in the area, Hob is portrayed as a fiddler:
The piper of Shacklow,
The fiddler of Fin,
The old woman of Demons Dale,
Calls them all in.
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Local legend has it that Cromwell's Parliamentarian troops set up a cannon on the barrow and fired on the town of Ashbourne a little more than a mile away.
Several of the cannon balls are displayed at St Oswald's church in the town.
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The hill, previously known as Howback Hill, is said to be named after a sheep rustler who was too tall to be hanged.
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Also known as John Stump, the Head Stone is another example of a Peak District stone that is said to turn around on a 'certain' morning each year on hearing the cocks-crow. (others include Baslow's Eagle Stone and the Cuckoo Stone in Matlock)
Visitors to the stone in late August with the sun highlighting its western face have also reported seeing a human face.
David Clarke's 'Ghost and Legends of the Peak District'
(The 'certain' morning is not revealed by Clarke)
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"I do know a story about the Merry Maidens, and it is a true story".
"In 1907 an emmet (an outsider) from England bought the farm where the Merry Maidens stone circle stands. Thinking that the stones lessened the value of the field, the new owner ordered one of his workers to pull them down and add them to the stone walls surrounding the meadow".
The worker, a Cornishman, protested, but the Englishman insisted: "This is my field, and I'll do with it what I please, and you'll do as I say!"
Next day the Cornishman hitched up three shire horses to a chain and began the task. Anyway, while pulling over the first stone the lead horse panicked, reared up, then fell over dead.
Reporting this to his master, the Cornishman asked if he should fetch another horse for the task.
"No," said the landowner. "Set the stone back upright. We'll pull the lot of them down later."
But the stone circle was left undisturbed, and remains so to this day.
Daniel Bowen Craigue. May 2002.
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Slimmed down a little from:
Robert Hunt's "The Crowza Stones."
"Popular Romances of the West of England. Volume 2". 1903.
St Just, from his home in Penwith, being weary of having little to do, except offering prayers for the tinners and fishermen, went on a visit to the hospitable St Keverne, who had fixed his hermitage in a well-selected spot, not far from the Lizard headland.
St Just gloried in the goodly chalice from which he drank the richest of wines, and envied St Keverne the possession of a cup of such rare value. Again and again did he pledge St Keverne; their holy bond of brotherhood was to be for ever.
The time came when St Just felt he must return to his flock; he departed. St Keverne sending many a blessing after his good brother.
St Just had not long left before St Keverne missed his cup. Diligent search was made in every corner of his dwelling, but no cup could be found. At length St Keverne could not but feel that he had been robbed of his treasure by his friend.
His rage was excessive. St Keverne felt that his wisest course was to pursue the thief inflict summary punishment on him, and recover his cup. St Keverne started in pursuit of St Just. Passing over Crowza Down, some of the boulders of "Ironstone" which are scattered over the surface caught his eye, and presently he whipped a few of these stone pebbles into his pockets, and hastened onward.
Near Tre-men-keverne he spied St Just. St Keverne worked himself up into a boiling rage, and toiled with increased speed up the hill, hallooing to the saintly thief; who pursued his way for some time in the well-assumed quiet of conscious innocence.
Long and loud did St Keverne call on St Just to stop, but the latter was deaf to all calls of the kind and on he went, quickening a little.
At length St Keverne came within a stone's throw of the culprit, and calling him a thief and adding some of the most choice epithets from his holy vocabulary. Taking a stone from his pocket, he let it fly after St Just. The stone falling heavily by the side of St Just, convinced him making all the use he could of his legs. He quietly untied the chalice, which he had fastened to his girdle, and let it fall to the ground.
St Keverne came up to where his cup glistened in the sunshine. He had recovered his treasure. Therefore he took, one by one, the stones from his pockets--he hurled them, fairly aimed, after the retreating culprit, and cursed him as he went.
There the pebbles remained where they fell, the peculiarity of the stone being in all respects unlike anything around, but being clearly the Crowza stones, attesting the truth of the legend; and their weights, each one 'being several hundred pounds, proving the power of the giant saint.
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From Robert Hunt's "Popular Romances of the West of England. Volume 1" Published 1903.
"It is curious to find one tradition directly contradicting another. We are told, on the one hand, that The devil never came into Cornwall.
Because, when he crossed the Tamar, and made Torpoint for a brief space his resting-place, he could not but observe that everything, vegetable or animal, was put by the Cornish people into a pie.
He saw and heard of fishy pie, star-gazy pie, conger pie, and indeed pies of all the fishes in the sea. Of parsley pie, and herby pie, of lamy pie, and piggy pie, and pies without number. Therefore, fearing they might take a fancy to a "devily pie," he took himself back again into Devonshire".
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The monumental mass of granite on Dartmoor, known as Bowerman's Nose, may hand down to us the resting-place and name of a giant whose nose was the index of his vice; though Carrington, in his poem. of " Dartmoor," supposes these rocks to be
"A granite god,
To whom, in days long flown, the suppliant knee
In trembling homage bow'd."
Let those, however, who are curious in this problem visit the granite idol; when, as Carrington assures us, he will find that the inhabitants of
"The hamlets near
Have legends rude connected with the spot
(Wild swept by every wind), on which he stands,
The Giant of the Moor."
"Popular Romances of the West of England" Robert Hunt. 1903.
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"Tradition says the stones indicate the graves of nine sisters. Hals (?) appears to think some nuns were buried here".
Robert Hunt's "Popular Romances of the West of England. Vol 1". 1903.
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"I was in the neighbourhood of Zennor in 1859, and by accident came across the Zennor cromlech, and was struck with the mode of its construction (not having heard of its existence before), and thinking it bore some resemblance to the Druidical altars I had read of, I inquired of a group of persons who were gathered round the village smithery, whether any one could tell me anything respecting the heap of stones on the top of the hill. Several were in total ignorance of their existence.
One said, 'Tes caal'd the gient's kite; thas all I knaw.' At last, one more thoughtful, and one who, I found out, was considered the wiseacre and oracle of the village, looked up and gave me this important piece of information,
--'Them ere rocks were put there afore you nor me was boern or thoft ov; but who don it es a puzler to everybody in Sunnur (Zennor). I de bleve theze put up theer wen thes ere wurld was maade; but wether they was or no don't very much mattur by hal akounts. Thes I'd knaw, that nobody caant take car em awa; if anybody was too, they'd be brot there agin. Hees an ef they wus tuk'd awa wone nite, theys shur to be hal rite up top o' th hil fust thing in morenin. But I caant tel ee s' much as Passen can; ef you 'd zea he, he 'd tel he hal about et.'"
From Robert Hunt's "Popular Romances of the West of England. Volume 1". 1903.
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Dolphin trainer for the MoD.
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