How The Barghest found its place in The Footsteps of Bram Stoker audio drama
As Summer is in full swing we have been highlighting one of our first stories we made for GeoStories, ‘Footsteps of Bram Stoker’ which offers an experience around Whitby on the North Yorkshire Coast. Exploring the idea of how author Bram Stoker may have been inspired to write his famous Victorian gothic novel, Dracula.
Bram Stoker was known to visit Whitby where he stayed in one of the large Victorian villas on Royal Crescent (now marked by a Blue Plaque) with the silhouette of the ruined Abbey looming up above the river Esk which runs through the town. We wanted to explore the myths and legends of the area and reference the key landmarks that make the destination so popular with tourists, visitors, artists and writers, as well as those interested in Victorian gothic literature.
The Barghest, a huge black dog has been described as a large, ‘four-footed creature, something in the shape of a dog with ‘saucer eyes’ and carrying a portion of chain which it rattled now and again. Known to frequent Yorkshire. A Yorkshire colloquialism the Bhargest is described as a Padfoot in Wakefield, Brighouse and Halifax. Folklore dictates that people would hear the beast approaching before it struck.’
Once a common folklore reference in the North-East of England, ghost dogs were variously known as Barghest, black shuck, padfoot, trash, guytrash, skriker, boggard, langar-hede or tatter-foal. Seeing a Barghest forebode calamity and death. It’s name originates from beorh-ghost, (barrow ghost) the spirit guarder of the barrow (burial ground). Most frequently seen in York, Grassington and of course, Whitby. These tales are long forgotten, however the sight of a large Black dog across the moors is a tradition in folklore local to the North Yorkshire Moors and Coast, a possible Nordic influence from the times of vikings in the North of England. The Danish Black Dog would guard treasure buried in mounds with their affluent owners. Those who saw the Barghest were believed to die straight after a lingering sighting, however if the sighting was brief, a person would live on, but only for a few months. A strike from the black dog’s paw was said to never heal, and there was a distinct possibility that the victim would kill another human after being struck by the beast.
In Leeds and Halifax ‘Gabble Ratchets’ were the howling black dog ghosts of departed children that frequented churchyards. Folklore claims that the souls of departed babies and small children would return as a black dog to the graveyards to haunt the parents of the unbaptised children. No coincidence that the Barghest, previously seen in the burial barrows, made its way onto the graveyards of village churches as they replaced the traditional burial barrows.
The Barghest makes its appearance in Jane Eyre where Charlotte Bronte writes that Jane hears tales of a spectral large beast called Gytrash ‘a North of England shapeshifting spirit in the form of a horse, mule or large dog’. `Hauntedhowarth.co.uk says ‘Often it is distinguished by the supernatural appearance of its eyes or some other aspect’
Legend has it that the Barghest is repelled by water, perhaps this fact harks back to the time when rabies were present in England and wild dogs would be potential carriers, creatures to be both feared and avoided by everyone. Legend says it cannot cross running water until 24 hours after its prey crosses.
An account recorded in Grassington press in the 1940’s said:
“Summer 1948, a group of ramblers, while out walking, noticed that the sheep in the field ahead, were bleating loudly and running around in panic. As the group of ramblers approached, they were shocked to see an extremely large hound (size of a large bear), carrying a fully grown sheep in its jaws. Winter 1955, a local farmer out tending his sheep in the deep snow, noticed a trail of blood leading across the fields, across a stream and up the side of the crag, a distance of almost 1½ miles. The farmer followed the trail and was shocked to find a large hound with great staring eye’s devouring a sheep, the farmer described the hound as having a look of pure evil, the farmer raised his shotgun and fired at almost point blank range at the hound, but the hound didn’t even flinch, it turned and walked away, the farmer watched open mouth as the hound then vanished into thin air, he noticed that there was no foot prints in the snow….”
Perhaps one of the most famous references to the Barghest comes in the shape of Arthu Conan Doyle’s ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ where we see the eponymous hero, Sherlock Holmes battling the spectral demon dog that roams across Dartmoor in Devon as Charles Baskerville is found dead, his face contorted in fear and agony and huge paw marks also found close to his body. The Baskerville family is believed to be cursed by a huge hound that haunts their manor.
Interestingly, the Barghest makes an appearance in Harry Potter’s The Prisoner of Azkaban whereupon a black dog appears follow Harry round school. Professor Trelawney refers to the dog as ‘The spectral dog that haunts churchyards, and refers to it as ‘an omen of death’.
It felt timely and appropriate that the legend of the Barghest be woven into our Footsteps story which, as is revealed, is set in the coastal town of Whitby, a palce steeped in folklore. In our story, the residents share their ghostly stories of the unexplained with the writer Bram Stoker when he reveals to them he is visiting the town ‘looking for a story’. When the ill fated Demeter ship, containing the cargo of ‘agricultural soil’ (Inspiration for his Dracula story), goes down in a storm on Tide Hill, the only remaining crew member (Thomaz) is spared drowning by a huge creature with the appearance of a ‘large black dog’.
The dog is seen racing up the 99 steps towards Whitby Abbey and large paw prints detected in the sand at Tide Hill beach close to the wreckage. It is only later in the story that the creature reappears as the Harker family and local townsfolk attend the funeral of the deceased captain of the Demeter at the church by the Abbey. Here, Thomaz is rescued by the family’s daughter Maria, who persuades her parents to take the lost boy in and raise him as their own son. The villagers attempt to seize the Barghest as it escapes when Thomaz is near depleted.
To listen to a short extract of audio, press below
To listen to Footsteps of Bram Stoker, search GeoStories on Apple Store or Google Play and download the free App. You can enjoy the free experience in Whitby with GPS triggered chapters, and augmented reality, alternatively, you can also enjoy listening wherever you are!
An abridged version of the story which focuses on the last voyage of The Demeter ship - Horror Aboard The Demeter is also available on the GeoStories App.
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