David Castleton (Author)

My book 'Church Curiosities: Strange Objects & Bizarre Legends' (Shire/Bloomsbury). Full of pyramid tombs, reindeer-horned dancers, vampire graves, holy wells, weird #folklore, standing stones, execution bells, legendary skulls. #history #gothic #churches amazon.co.uk/Church-Curiosi…

A headless black dog is said to haunt Ivelet Bridge in Swaledale, #Yorkshire. Anyone who sees it is said to die within a year. The last sighting was around 100 years ago. #MythologyMonday #folklore #weird

A strange spring custom is Whuppity Scoorie, in Lanark, Scotland. Children run round a church, making noise & whirling paper balls around. Some say the custom scares off winter spirits; others claim it recalls the relaxing of curfews as days lengthened #FolkloreSunday #folklore

GOTHIC MARIONETTES 'Hell is empty, all the devils are here'; aren't they glorious! Prague Marionette Theatre's Folk Devil, Faust, Dracula, Devil for #WorldPuppetDay

In spring, more spiderwebs appear, due to these creatures becoming more active as they prepare for the mating season. Some folklore asserts that the more spiderwebs you see in spring, the luckier you'll be. #FolkloreThursday #Folklore #Mythology

In St Levan's Churchyard, #Cornwall, is St Levan's Stone - a boulder split down the middle. It's said that when the split grows wide enough for a packhorse to walk through, "the world will be done". #mythologymonday #folklore #weird

Some feel the Isle of Man is named after Manannan, a sea god fond of cloaking the island in mist. From Man's highest point, it's said you can see 7 kingdoms - England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland & Man, plus the Kingdom of the Sea & Kingdom of Heaven. #FolkloreSunday #folklore

"Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves." James Joyce, Ulysses. #BookologyThursday #books #literature #mythology #writing

In Irish myth, the Salmon of Knowledge absorbed all the knowledge in the world by eating hazelnuts that had fallen into the Well of Wisdom. Fionn, when cooking the fish, burnt his thumb & sucked it - thereafter, he could access any knowledge by biting his thumb. #FairytaleTuesday

WUTHERING HEIGHTS SCREENPLAY 1920 Yesterday I explored magnificent gothic pile East Riddlesden Hall, the setting for the first ever film adaptation of #WutheringHeights. The screenplay by Eliot Stannard was remarkable to read and the setting was perfect in its gothic gloom. Wow.

I found the witch's gingerbread house in Hansel & Gretel incredibly disturbing. It was made of delicious treats that were difficult to resist, but the more you ate, the more you'd get fattened up, until the witch decided to enjoy a treat of her own. #MythologyMonday #folklore

Moon light and star light, owl and moth light, Glow-worm glowlight on a grassblade. O Light Invisible, we worship Thee! ~T.S. Eliot 🎨Tuesday Ridell

In folklore, hedgehogs are believed to carry fruits on their spines back to their dens and to steal cows' milk by sucking at their udders. In reality, hedgehogs do not hoard food and they are lactose intolerant. #folklore #mythology #FolkloreSunday

A nice photo of a black cat here for #Caturday. In British folklore, black cats are ambiguous creatures, which can bring both good and bad luck. #folklore #gothic

Door of the Day ✨🚪✨ 📷“Secret Garden Door" created by the British artist Mark Reed in Harrogate, located in North Yorkshire.

Sedlec Ossuary is an underground chapel in the Czech Republic filled with artistically arranged bones, including a chandelier said to include every bone in the human body. The signature of its creator, Frantisek Rink, can be seen a wall - executed in bones. #wyrdwednesday #gothic

@bonnieburgess Back after a bit of a break :)

@david_castleton glad I checked in today to find that you're still here.

#Folklore depicts the Man in the Moon as having been imprisoned there for various crimes. Roman legend claims he was a sheep thief; Christian tradition states he is Cain or a woodcutter punished for working on the Sabbath. #FairyTaleTuesday

@Rebecca08510632 Didn't know that, thanks. :)

@david_castleton A children's TV drama, called Earthfasts, was filmed at Richmond Castle in the early 1990's based on the drummer boy legend.

#Folklore claims soldiers discovered a tunnel in Richmond Castle, Yorkshire. They sent a drummer boy to explore it while they followed from above, but his beats suddenly stopped. He was never seen again but his drumming can still be heard on dark quiet nights #BookologyThursday

@GretelleMaitre @peteraf1 Here's an article I wrote on this very subject: davidcastleton.net/poe-the-raven-…

@david_castleton @peteraf1 And Charles D ‘B Rudge’ 😊

Though ravens are strongly linked to the Tower of London, the association may not go back further than Victorian times, when some beefeaters started keeping the birds as pets. Ravens became popular pets thanks to Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem. #FairytaleTuesday #folklore #gothic