Black Shuck

A large spectral dog that allegedly roams the country lanes in the Norfolk area, but which is also seen in Suffolk, Essex, and Devon. The first recorded sighting dates to 1577. Black Shuck is about the size of a calf, with a shaggy fur, and has saucer-shaped eyes that blaze red or green in the dark. Others say he appears as a gigantic dog with a single blazing eye in center of his forehead, and others as a headless dog with great saucer eyes and a white handkerchief tied over his head, or headless with floating eyes.

The headless variety is said to cross Coltishall Bridge nightly. The better-known variety chiefly roams the sea coast between Beeston and Overstrand, particularly a lane called Shuck Lane. Another frequently visited lane in Neatishead Lane.

The Black Dog of Bungay is said to have wrought a ruin in a thunderstorm in 1577.1

See also barghest, cù sìth, Shock, Capelthwaite, Moddey dhoo.

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References

Notes

  1. Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, Vol. 4, 1857. London: Bell & Daldy, p. 314.

Sources

  • Notes and Queries, 1st Series, Vol. 1, 1850. London: Bell & Daldy, p. 468.
  • Dixon-Kennedy, Mike. (1997). European Myth & Legend. London: Blandford.
  • Eberhart, George M. (2002). Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc.
  • L'Estrange, J. 1872-3. The Eastern Counties collectanea. Norwich: Thomas B. Tallack, p. 2
  • Rye, W. (1877). The Norfolk antiquarian miscellany. Norwich: Samuel Miller and Co., pp. 288, 292, 293.