Author Topic: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...  (Read 5952 times)

joester

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"I sprang to my feet, my inert hand grasping my pistol, my mind paralyzed by the dreadful shape which had sprung out upon us from the shadows of the fog. A hound it was, an enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen. Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame. Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall of fog."
 
- excerpt from 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' by Arthur Conan Doyle.
 
"In a town in the east
The parishioners were visited upon
By a curious beast
And his eyes numbered but one and shone like the sun
And a glance beckoned the immediate loss
Of a cherished one
It was the coming of the

(Black Shuck) Black Shuck
(Black Shuck) Black Shuck
(Black Shuck) That dog don't give a ****"
 
- 'Black Shuck" by The Darkness.
 
There's a ghosly phenomenon which is quite peculiar to these Isles, that of the 'Black Dog', phantom hounds said to stalk the lonely country lanes, appearing to travellers and often said to be a portent of doom for the witness or one of their nearest.
 
Derbyshire is not short of reports of these spectral beasts (we like our spooks here, Derby is frequently reported as 'Britain's most haunted city'.
 
Here's a few collected from the online Paranormal Database:
 
Howl like a Fog Horn
Location: Edale - General area
Type: Werewolf
Date / Time: 1925
Further Comments: A large black creature of unknown origin caused havoc here in the 1920s when it killed dozens of sheep. Though rarely seen, the creature was said to have a howl like a fog horn. Locals allocated the blame on a lycanthrope.
 
Big Animal
Location: Edale - Area around The Tips
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: A large, black ghostly dog is reputed to walk around The Tips area.
 
Black Collie
Location: Barberbooth - General area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom dog stands as tall as a very large collie, and is said to belong to the fairies.
 
Intangible Hound
Location: Upper Booth - Exact area not known
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: 1930
Further Comments: Out walking during the evening, a girl watched a phantom black dog pass through a wire fence.
 
(Have I set the scene? Do you see where I'm going with this?!)
- There were several are several more reports in the Database of Dogs in the Castleton area.  I figured that the more westerly parts of the 'Great Ridge' must be teeming with Demon Doggies come nightfall.
 
Anyway.  The next thing I need to tell you is that my daugther, Chloe, has a challenge with her Scout troop this year to sleep one night under canvas every month of the year.
She has already accomplished their January 'Chilly Challenge', and there is something planned for next month, but February it seems was left to the parents to fill-in the blanks (or, I assume, the kids will have to wait until next Feb to tick that month off).
 
I stepped into the breech - but where to go? ....

Ah, you're with me now, aren't you?!
 
I chose Friday February the 19th (- a full moon!) for our hunt.  Phantom Hounds are bound to love full moons, I thought.
 
We arrived at Fieldhead Campsite at about 8pm.  I'd intended to leave work early, but they'd foiled that idea.  We pitched the tent and got some grub on.  Morrison's tinned Chicken Tikka Masala, it turns out, is pretty good:
 

 
We got suited and booted, and set off for towards Upper Booth.  I felt a strange, magnetic pull from my right.  'Man that looks pretty' I thought:
 

 
Nope.  I resisted the urge.  I had a daughter to scare.  Onwards.
 
Chloe was getting excited, she talks a lot at the best of times (even when asleep), but as we walked down the lane, she barely paused for breath:
"Dad, what will we do if we see one?"
"I'll run off, it'll get you first cos' you're slower" I told her.
 
We broke away from the road at the parking area on the way into Upper Booth.  There was a light mist around.  I tried to put away the peristent mental image of some huge, snarling beast leaping through the spindly birch trees of the picnic area onto the slim path.
 
Walking at night in an area you have never been to before is very good for testing map reading skills, the map remined in my grasp as I found the track leading up the hill parallel to the railway line.
There was a deep rumble as a train came down the track and entered the railway tunnel as we turned off to enter Whitemoor Clough.
We were getting near the prime Phantom Hound territory (as far as I was concerned) of the area known as 'The Tips', however there is nothing Chloe dislikes more than a slight gradient, and i think all those tense hours waiting for our Hound hunt, together with all that chicken tikka, came crashing down, and she suddenly found herself unexpectedly morose in the spooky Clough:
 

 
This was then compounded by the steep ascent up out of the Clough.  The mist was thickening, and I was enjoying myself, but Chlo needed plenty of encouragement to reach the level ground where the path meets the Chapel Gate track.  The forbidding shape looming ahead in the thick mist turned out to be reassuring:
 

 
As we crested the ridge, we were in peasoup.  Visibility in the beam of the headtorches was about 5 metres.  Apparent distance travelled is greatly attenuated by fog, and I had to get out the GPS to confirm we had not walked past the path leading east along the ridge.  I needn't have worried, it was only about 10 metres further on, we just couldn't see that far ahead!
Keeping the GPS on for a moment, we confirmed that we had indeed swung east.  I am not familiar with the ridge, but know enough that when you're on it, it is very hard to go wrong.  We followed our feet in the torch beams.
 
Somewhere just before Lord's Seat Chloe swung her head to pick-out the pale object by the side of the track in the periphery of her headtorch beam.
It turned out to be the carcass of a sheep, descimated by corvid scavangers (strips of rancid flesh hanging from protuding ribs, you get the picture).
We were both disgusted, but when I said 'What do you suppose killed it?' Chloe's previous fatigue seemed to fall away as we both quickened our pace.
 
We plodded on, climbing over the odd stile.  A vaguely familar shape appeared through the clag and Stygian gloom:
 

 
That, is this:
 

 
...Granty's Tree!! (and Granty's photo).
 
I enjoyed finding that.
 
Chloe was geniunely tired now (it was late).  We made a deal that we would get up to Mam Tor, and then turn on our heels and use the road to descend into the Vale of Edale again.
 
We soon gained the road, and dog-legged across to get onto the flagstone steps up to Mam Tor's summit.  Now my thoughts turned to strange ideas about some spirits of our Neolithic ancestors making their presence known this full-mooned night.
Reality provided it's own strange alternative.  As we approached the summit pillar, our torches picked out several reflective panels in front of the pillar.  Through the dark and the fog, all I could see were 4 silver diamonds, with no clue as to the shape of the thing they were attached to.
I thought it was somesort of construction barrier, but it turned out to be a person, sitting cross-legged at the foot of the pillar.
 
'Erm, are you ok' was my opening gambit.
'Yeah, I was just doing a meditation'
'Oh, right...do you mind if we take a photo?'
'What, of me?'
'Err, no, of my daughter and I'
'You've come up here just to take a photo'
'No, we've walked along the ridge....'
(cue story about the Scout challenge).
 
I don't know who was more weirded-out.  The chap who'd taken his 11 year old daughter on a night hike in thick fog on a February night, or the young man who drove up from Manchester to sit for 45 minutes on his own on the summit of Mam Tor at 11.40pm of a Friday night.
 
He also said he'd come up to chance a glimpse of the reported Northern Lights, and i explained this crazy idea I'd had about this full-mooned night being crisp and clear, not clagged-in to hell.
 
He untangled his legs and left.  I set up my tripod and tried to take some photos:
 

 

 
We soon followed the other 'weirdo', and gladly got onto the road to drop steeply back toward the valley floor.  As we descended, the mist thinned and the lights of the dwellings below became visible.
When we got to the bottom, a gritter lorry passed us and set off up the road we had just some down.  From the valley road, looking up toward the pitch black hillside, it looked like it was taking off into space.
 
We were soon greatfully crawling into our tent.  Chloe was asleep in minutes.   I soon followed.
I woke with a start in the night at a sudden noise, it had seemed to sound like someone had set a firework off right next to our tent.
I lay alert in my sleeping bag, listening for further aural clues.  It sounded like there was some precipiation occuring, but it was to gentle and non-rhythmic for rain - Snow! It was snowing!  I put 2 and 2 together and figured that the wooshing noise that had woken me was accumulated snow slipping down the side of the tent.  I reached out to perform an experimental tap and my suspicions were immdiately confirmed.
 
We awoke in the morning to this:
 

 
What great bragging rights for Scouts!
 
And what a great little trip, plenty of the unexpected, even without encountering any Phantom Hounds!
solvitur ambulando

susiej

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #1 on: 19:03:15, 19/02/11 »
How cool O0 , I am determined to take my somewhat inert kids on a night walk with a camp out up the Beacons soon, don't want to come across any scary hounds though (other than the ones I may take with me) so will be giving Edale a wide berth...(shouldn't be difficult from here)
thanks for posting
take it easy...but take it


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alewife

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #2 on: 19:07:27, 19/02/11 »
That was great to read - you sure are one helluva Dad, Joester. O0
Alewife


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wanderingchas

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #3 on: 19:45:53, 19/02/11 »
Great story and photos Joester  O0
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Alex Quinn

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #4 on: 20:09:13, 19/02/11 »
Excellent, great TR and photos. What are the chances of meeting someone meditating on top of a hill at that time of night??!! O0

aljones27

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #5 on: 20:10:21, 19/02/11 »
Sounds like you both had a great trip.  O0
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Remember to keep smiling...
It really freaks people out as they wonder what you are up to...

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di36mg

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #6 on: 20:29:28, 19/02/11 »
What a fabulous narrative.. you really drew me into your story.. I felt I was right there with you..

Di.. x

Alex Quinn

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #7 on: 20:35:32, 19/02/11 »
Just asked my son which months he has got to do before he completes the badge, March and April.

yorksgal

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #8 on: 23:34:34, 19/02/11 »
Blimey isn't there anything your kids aren't scared of doing O0

I was on the edge of my seat just reading it never mind actually being there.

Well done  O0

susiej

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #9 on: 00:24:01, 20/02/11 »
Just asked my son which months he has got to do before he completes the badge, March and April.

ooh better get sorted then .... :o
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carolina2k9

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #10 on: 08:48:33, 20/02/11 »
enjoyed the report n pics, well done to chloe. :)
Happiness is only a Hill away :-)

northernfall

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #11 on: 09:27:53, 20/02/11 »
Excellent report there.  O0

I suspected there'd be snow up in Edale, 'twas rain in Derby though.  :(

lovinit

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #12 on: 10:30:24, 20/02/11 »
I bet Chloe loved her adventure - made brilliant reading, can only imagine how great it was for you two  O0 O0 O0 O0
No one can go back in time & make a brand new beginning, but anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.

joester

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #13 on: 12:34:28, 20/02/11 »
Thanks everybody!
 
Last night she did a sponsored 'stay awake' with Scouts, so she only went to bed at 8am this morning, it's probably a good job she had some kip yesterday afternoon!
solvitur ambulando

mad max

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Re: [TR] - On the trail of the Phantom Hound of Edale...
« Reply #14 on: 16:08:33, 20/02/11 »
Great report and photos Joe,enjoyed reading that.Great effort by Chloe  O0
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