Sir Wyville and the Great Serpent of Slingsby
The village of Slingsby is located on the edge of the Howardian Hills, 15 miles to the north of York. In the early 1600’s, the antiquarian Roger Dodsworth visited Slingsby church and noted a stone memorial to a knight which had an interesting story connected with it … “There is in the choir a […]
A Shrine of Cocidius ? – Adel Woods (Leeds)
Up until the early 1900’s Adel was a small village 4 miles to the north of Leeds. Since that time the city has expanded and swallowed up Adel and several other villages, which now form the cities northern suburbs. An area of old woodland still remains on a hillside between Adel and Alwoodley, and […]
Jenny Gallows – Flamborough (part 2)
The previous post about the Flamborough spirit known as Jenny Gallows (‘Jinny Gallus’) suggested that several pieces of folklore may have merged together over the years to create the story that is known in the village today. This would not be unusual when a story gets told by different people over many years – […]
The Shrine of Saint Gerasimos – Kefalonia
On a recent holiday to Kefalonia we decided to visit Omala – the location of the church of Saint Gerasimos, who is the patron saint of the island. I did not know much about the church, but images on the internet showed that it was richly decorated in the Byzantine style with paintings of […]
The ‘City of Troy’ Turf Maze – Dalby
The City of Troy is the name of a Turf maze located on the grass verge alongside Bonnygate Lane, 1 mile to the north west of Dalby – a small hamlet on the Howardian Hills, 12 miles to the north of York. A previous post looked at the site of the lost turf […]
The Dolmens of Antequera – Spain
A recent holiday provided the opportunity to visit the fascinating Neolithic monuments at Antiquera, 20 miles to the north of Malaga in southern Spain. Over the last 40 years or so i have visited many prehistoric sites, including stone circles, standing stones, burial mounds, and rock art sites etc. but it has been […]
Dolmen de Menga, Antequera – Spain
The Dolmen de Menga and Dolmen de Viera burial mounds stand close together on a low hill on the northern edge of Antequera town. If the Dolmen de Viera was a rather conventional passage grave (see previous post), then the nearby Dolmen de Menga is anything but. This is one of the largest megalithic […]
Tholos de El Romeral, Antequera – Spain
The Tholos de El Romeral is the third burial mound making up the UNESCO world heritage site at Antequera. After the Dolmen De Viera and Dolmen De Menga, this burial mound seems a bit like the ‘poor relation’ as it is located in a rather run down area – 1 mile to the east […]
Robin Hood’s Mill – Stainforth (Settle)
The village of Little Stainforth is located 2 miles to the north of Settle, in the Yorkshire Dales. The first edition OS map from 1851 marks a ‘Robin Hoods Mill’ in a field half a mile to the south of the village. This interesting place name was noted several years ago, but Googling the […]
The Fairies Hill Maze – Asenby
Asenby is a small village located 4 miles to the south of Thirsk. The old Ordnance Survey maps show the site of a maze alongside a crossroads just to the south of the village. Unfortunately, even by the time of the 1890 edition map the maze is marked as ‘site of’ – meaning that […]