Welcome to Weird Wiltshire
Weird Wiltshire is a county steeped in ancient history. Tales of legends, ghosts and folklore abound this area in the South West of England. Ancient monuments, ruinous castles, stately homes and humble cottages fill the beautiful rolling downlands.
In my quest to find strange and unusual tales, I explore stories of ghosts and the paranormal, folklore, history and anything weird, found in Wiltshire and beyond. I’ll be sharing spooky tales from around the world too!
Mixing first-hand accounts from those willing to share their stories and exploring yarns and mysteries from past times, I bring together a collection of stories and true tales for you to explore.
You can follow me on Twitter or contact me here. It would be good to hear from you!
I’m also on Mastodon now. Follow me here.
Latest blog posts
How to Become a History Teacher?
My fellow weirdos. This blog is a bit different to usual! Teaching is a career I considered many moons back and I think I probably would have chosen history. But, how do you go about it? Here's a blog for you, just in case you fancy a new career! Teaching History - the hows, whys and wherefores! History, often called the "memory of nations," is not just a subject but a key to understanding our present and future. The role of a history teacher...
Avebury: Squaring the Circle (A Very Personal View)
By Professor Jasper Heathcoat-Beech You may have noticed I teamed up with Professor Jasper Heathcoat-Beech this year to launch our History and Mystery Walks. We've been to Avebury and Stonehenge. Each walk has been a lovely, happy time with likeminded new friends. We do a lot of walking, plenty of talking, take quite a few photos and hear all about the amazing history and weird mysteries of the ancient stone circles of Wiltshire. For many of...
Exploring Savernake Forest
It’s October as I sit and write this. I just spent a muddy afternoon cycling around Savernake Forest. I dragged the family along for what they regarded as ‘torture’. Quite frankly, by the time we were 2.5 hours in, the moaning and whining was like torture to me! Savernake Forest is the last privately owned forest in the whole of England, and it sits just below Marlborough in the north of Wiltshire. It's now used for commercial sustainable wood...
The Warminster Thing Part Two
A Skywatcher Remembers Did you catch my last blog, The Warminster Thing Part One? If so, you'll know all about the crazy phenomenon from the days of The Warminster Thing. If not, head back and have a quick catch up here. It's worth reading before you hear David's account. He is one of the original sky watchers from up on Cradle Hill and gives us a unique view of those heady days, (well nights!) that made Warminster the centre of the UFO...
The Warminster Thing Part One
When UFOs came to a sleepy Wiltshire village It still surprises me that I didn't really know of the Warminster Thing for the first twenty years of living here in Wiltshire, especially as it happened only half an hour or so away from where I live. Such a massive event, both in terms of experiencing UFO phenomena and as part of our social history. When I came across The Warminster Thing, I was pretty shocked by how huge this story was. Memories...
The Mildenhall Black Dog, Water Demons and a Roman Timeslip
Off we go to quaint and sleepy Mildenhall, a village one and a half miles to the east of Marlborough in the north of Wiltshire, in search of one of the county's many ominous black dogs. As I delved deep into my research the black dog was not the only spookiness I uncovered. History of Mildenhall Mildenhall was an important place for Roman settlers as the main roads from Bath to Newbury and Cirencester to Winchester ran through the centre. A...
Exploring the Ghosts of Glastonbury Series Part One
Glastonbury Tor This is the first in the series of blogs I plan to write about the mythical and magical lands of Glastonbury and in this blog we visit Glastonbury Tor. It’s somewhere I visit regularly because I feel a great affinity with the place. I’m talking about the town here and not the festival (although I have been and it was one of the very muddy years back in the 90s and quite frankly, it was a chore)! Glastonbury is a town filled with...
Cornish Myths and Legends
By Nick Seymour One of my favourite counties in England, apart from Wiltshire, has to be Cornwall. I love the myth, mystery and ethereal beauty of the place. Think ghostly phantom ships whispering through the foggy, silent waters and mesmerising mermaids on jagged, deadly rocks. Bleak and desolate moorlands where the ghosts of lonely travellers, smugglers and phantom coaches are witnessed. Cornish piskies in stone circles, dancing, making merry...
The Final Walking the Paths of our Ancestors Part Four
This blog has been quite a long time coming. I started this series in 2022 and although I have been back to Avebury several times (because it is one of my favourite Wiltshire destinations) I haven’t had the chance to go into the Avebury Manor or wander St James Churchyard in search of the photos I needed. And you will notice, I have only just posted it now, despite visitin in March! Anyhoo, a day off had presented itself (a rare but unexpected...
The Yew Tree
*Warning: This article talks about suicide* Back when I lived in Salisbury, I used to be up at the crack of dawn to walk my dogs behind what is now the Five Rivers Leisure Centre. Behind this building is a small nature reserve, on land that was once a rubbish dump. It’s a lovely little place and I used to take the same route alongside the River Avon and back around, skirting along the cycle path that heads into Salisbury city centre. I moved...