Boggle Hole – Robin Hoods Bay

“My mammy bid me gan to bed,
My daddy he said, No,’
My mammy said, if I wad na gan,
She would fetch the Boggle-Bo”

 Boggle Hole is a cave in the cliffs at Robin Hood’s Bay, 5 miles to the south of Whitby. The cave has given its name to a YHA youth hostel, which was originally a water mill located in a narrow stream gully running down into the bay. Although the location is somewhat isolated, it is on a scenic and popular stretch of the coastline.

 The Boggle Hole cave itself is located in the cliffs immediately alongside the gully, on its south side. In the past the cave appears to have been larger, but at some point much of the roof has collapsed, leaving an open cleft running back into the cliff. The constant action of the tides, and winter storms are the likely cause of the collapse, undercutting the cave sides until they could not support the roof. In its original state the cave would have been similar to the Rev. Young’s description of the Hob Hole cave at Runswick bay, further up the coast. (see Hob Hole post).

This week i have been mostly Swan Kulning …

There are a few more posts about folklore sites in the pipeline, but i need to revisit the locations for photos. So in the mean time here is another curious and intriguing piece that caught my eye on youtube.

This kind of vocalising has a very ancient feel to it, and it can also be heard in the songs of  Karoliina Kantelinen (ethno musicologist at Helsinki university) who incorporates these old vocal traditions into her own performance.

The Devil’s Bridge – Hebden

 The Devil’s Bridge (Dibble’s Bridge) spans the river Dibb near the village of Hebden, 3 miles to the east of Grassington, in the Yorkshire Dales.

 The old folklore of the area records that this bridge was built by the Devil, and a story based on this folklore appeared in the Chronicles and Stories of the Craven Dales (Dixon, 1880).

  The legend is set during the Middle Ages, sometime before the dissolution of the monasteries (1540), when Fountains Abbey was still a thriving religious community. A cobbler from the village of Thorpe (near Grassington) was returning home from the abbey with a bag of shoes for repair, when he found the river Dibb was in flood, and so he had to wade across. On the other side of the river he met a smartly dressed gentleman who asked him how far it was to Grassington. For some reason the cobbler was suspicious of the stranger and so he told him that it was a long way, and that he himself had worn out the bag of shoes travelling from there.

Nursa Knott and the Devil’s Apronful

 Nursa Knott (Nursery Knot) is a prominent limestone hill located two miles to the west of Greenhow village, near Pateley Bridge in the Yorkshire Dales.

  Nursa Knott features in a local legend about the Devil, and the story seems to have first been recorded by Bailey Harker in his Rambles in Upper Wharfedale (Harker, 1869). Harker’s visit to Stump Cross Caverns required a change of cloths at the nearby Grouse Inn, where he noted ….

 “After we have dressed ourselves again in our own costume, we take the highway for Barden. To our right is Nursa Knott, and a little beyond it The Apron Full of Stones. Of these stones there is a curious legend, to the effect that the Devil being anxious to fill up Dibb Gill was carrying these ponderous crags in his apron when he stumbled over Nursa Knott, and the strings broke, the crags falling to the ground. It is said that if any of them were to be removed at night they would be carried back to their original place before morning.”

Trollers Gill – Appletreewick

 Trollers Gill (also known as Trollerdale) is a narrow limestone gorge and stream valley located to the north of Appletreewick village, seven miles to the north-east of Skipton.

 Beneath the hills to the north of Trollers Gill there is a large subterranean cave system known as Stump Cross Caverns. A stream emerges from those caves and flows down to Trollers Gill. When the stream (called Dry Gill) enters the north end of the ravine it once again sinks underground, leaving the stream bed dry below that point. This dry section continues down through the gorge to emerge at its southern end, where the waters then reappear amongst the rocks in the stream bed. From this point on the stream winds its way down the valley, passing Trollers Gill cave, and flowing on to eventually join the River Wharfe, a mile or so to the south. For most of the year the dry stream bed through the ravine is just a jumble of rocks and boulders, but after heavy rains the underground channel cannot carry all the water, so the stream forms a fast flowing torrent down the whole length of the gorge. This unusual phenomena, occurring within the atmospheric setting of the narrow gorge, is perhaps one reason why Trollers Gill has long been regarded as an ‘uncanny’ place.