David Castleton (Author)

The town of Lanark, Scotland, hosts a strange spring custom called Whuppity Scoorie. On 1st March at 6.00 pm, a 'wee bell' is rung. This is a signal for children to start running around St Nicholas Kirk, making noise & whirling paper balls over their heads. After three laps have been completed, coins are thrown, for which the children 'scramble'. Some say the custom originated in attempts to drive off evil winter spirits. Others claim it recalls the relaxing of curfews as the days lengthened, meaning children could play out longer. Yet another explanation asserts the custom stems from a religious practice in which penitents were whipped as they ran around the church before bathing (or 'scooring') their wounds in the River Clyde. The first written records of the custom date to the mid-1800s though one writer in 1893 claimed the practice was already 120-years-old. #weird #FolkloreSunday #folklore #Scotland #churches #history

One of East London's most gruesome legends is associated with the Bow Flyover. The notorious gangsters the Kray Twins murdered the criminals Jack 'The Hat' McVitie and Frank 'Mad Axeman' Mitchell. There has been much speculation about how their bodies were disposed of and some claim they were laid to rest in the flyover's foundations before being entombed in concrete. Other theories state the bodies were put in the heating boilers of local public baths, placed in the boilers of Bankside Power Station (now the Tate Modern), cremated by a criminal associate who was a crematorium worker, and dumped in the sea. It is unlikely that the bodies were placed under the flyover as the presence of corpses in the concrete would have weakened the structure. #London #crime #gothic #psychogeography #weird #architecture #death #folklore #history #urban #cities

St Michan's Church, Dublin, has a crypt containing ancient mummies, believed to have been accidentally preserved by limestone in the walls, which keeps the air dry. Over the years, the mummies have included a 400-year-old nun, a six-and-a-half-foot man, commonly believed to have been a crusader, a body with its feet and right hand severed, and two brothers who took part in the 1798 rebellion. The mummies have been subject to vandalism. During an incident in 2019, the nun and 'crusader' were decapitated and their heads were stolen. The heads were later recovered. Sadly, a fire swept through the crypt in 2024, resulting in the destruction of five mummies, including the 'crusader'. #gothic #weird #folklore #history #death #churches #Dublin #Ireland

In St Levan's Churchyard, Cornwall, is St Levan's Stone - a boulder split down the middle. It's said that St Levan would sit on the stone to rest after his fishing trips. One day, he struck the stone with his staff and repeated this rhyme:

" When with panniers astride,
A packhorse can ride,
Through St Levan's Stone,
The world will be done."

Thankfully, the split is not yet wide enough to usher in the apocalypse. Some have speculated that the stone, due to its 'labial' shape, may have been a focus of pagan rituals that later transferred themselves to a Christian saint. #mythologymonday #folklore #weird #mythology #Cornwall #history

Some feel the Isle of Man is named after Manannan, a sea god who protected the island by cloaking it in mist. The name may, however, come from a Celtic word meaning 'mountain island' and the god may have been named after the island rather than the other way around. From Man's highest point, it's said that on a clear day you can see 7 kingdoms - England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland & Man, plus the Kingdom of the Sea & Kingdom of Heaven. #FolkloreSunday #folklore #mythology #history #weird

As late as 2004, in the Romanian village of Marotinu de Sus, a farmer suspected of vampiric activity was exhumed. His heart was removed, taken to a crossroads and burnt. Ashes from the heart were made into a tea and given to one of the vampire's 'victims'. The person responsible was arrested, but defiantly stated: "All the villagers said this has been going on since the olden times. It's better to take the heart out than let the corpse kill children. The elders are wise and know things." #folklore #gothic #history #mythology #vampires #vampire #paranormal #weird

In Haiti, some believe that magical practitioners can put people in a death-like trance, steal them from their graves after their funerals, revive them to a semi-conscious state, and force them to work. Some Haitians who claim to have been through this ordeal can show others their graves and death certificates. Such folklore likely, in part, originates from the traumas of slavery. The Haitian penal code states: "The use made against a person of substances, which, without giving death, will cause a more-or-less prolonged state of lethargy ... is considered an attempt on life by poisoning. If the person was buried as a consequence of this state of lethargy, the attempt will be considered a murder." The painting below is by Haitian artist Hector Hyppolite from 1946. #gothic #folklore #death #mythology #history #art #painting #graveyard #zombies

Real attempts to deal with 'dangerous corpses' persisted in England long after vampires had been made into literary and theatrical spectacles. Four years after the publication of 'Dracula', a Devon farmer is recorded as saying the coffin of a "troublesome" woman would be buried upside-down so "her can on'y diggy downwards." During World War I, English soldiers are recorded as having buried a "huge, scowling" German facedown for the same reason. #gothic #folklore #mythology #vampire #vampires #death #history #paranormal #weird

A method for dealing with vampires found in Serbia and Albania is to remove the corpse's left sock and fill it with dirt from the grave. The dirt should be taken from the under where the head rests. The sock should then be cast beyond the village boundary in the hope that - as the vampire chases after this garment - they will stumble into water and drown. #folklore #mythology #death #vampire #vampires #paranormal #gothic #weird #history

Painting of the Last Judgement from Haukipudas Church, Finland, by Mikael Toppelius (1770s). Notice the 'biting corpse' in the lower left-hand corner. Toppelius was known for incorporating folkloric material into his Baroque style and the biting corpse may represent local beliefs in what might be termed 'the restless dead', more commonly known as 'vampires'. This area of Finland may have been influenced by Scandinavian ideas about such revenants. #art #churches #folklore #gothic #weird #vampire #vampires #death #history #Finland #paranormal