Witch Country Episode 22: November - Stories from Stone

Welcome, friends, to the November episode of Witch Country. As the nights draw in and the air grows sharp with autumn’s edge, I’ve been walking among the Rollright Stones — a circle steeped in story. Kings turned to stone, witches weaving fate, and whispers carried on the wind linger here. In this episode, I share my own walk among the stones, along with the folklore, legends, and uncanny tales that have gathered around them for centuries. And to close, a delectable and chilling treat: the tale of the Stone King, another version of the Rollright story, read by the incomparable Vincent Price from the 1973 archive A Coven of Witches’ Tales.

Witch Country Ghost Stories

I’ve left the most chilling of our tales until the edge of Halloween…Set in Scotland. In this haunting tale of fear, death, hardship and superstition, Mary has the misfortune of meeting a Bean Nighe. This story is from a book called Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch. Written by Dorothy K. Haynes, it's a collection of eerie tales published in 1949.

Sarah xxx

Witch Country Episode 21: October - This is Witch Country!

Witch Country Arrives!!

This October, Witch Country the podcast and Witch Country the book finally meet! In this episode I read a large section from the October chapter. (I do say in the recording that it’s the full chapter—but in the end I trimmed it slightly for brevity, and to whet your appetite for more!)

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this journey so far. And fear not—the path of Witch Country is far from over!

Sarah xxx

As of Halloween, you can buy Witch Country in paperback from all the usual online booksellers, direct from Womancraft Publishing and Red Wheel (our US distributors) or ask your local indie to order in! It's also available in ebook and audiobook form!

Witch Country Episode 20: September - Shadow Hounds & Wolf Women

As autumn descends, I wanted to face a classic symbol in British and European folklore - the black dog

We start in East Anglia, England, with perhaps the most famous of all shadow hounds: Black Shuck, who makes an appearance in St Mary's church of Bungay in 1577, storms to raise havoc. And a reading drawn from Ghosts and Witches by Wentworth + Ayrton, 1991, on the Galleytrot and Shuck.

Before facing:

  • The Barghest of Yorkshire, accompanied by rattling chains, may have inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula's transformation into an enormous black dog in Whitby.

  • Yeth Hounds (Devon)

  • Whisht Hounds (Devon/Dartmoor)

  • Richard Cabell's Hounds (Dartmoor) widely considered a major inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles.

  • The Devil's Dandy Dogs (Cornwall): A terrifying hunt led by Satan himself.

  • The Wish Hounds or Witch Hounds of Sussex

  • The Church Grim, a guardian spirit that appears as a large black dog

  • And The Moddey Dhoo of the Isle of Man: Meaning "black dog" in Manx, this giant shaggy-haired dog that haunted Peel Castle 

And we finish with readings of The Moddey Doo or the Black Dog of Peel Castle from Manx Fairy Tales by Sophia Morrison, 1911 and The Book of Were-Wolves by Sabine Baring-Gould, 1865. And accounts of witch wolves from Estonia.

These are just a few of the countless legends of black dogs, wolves and hounds. Do drop me a message if you would like to share your own favourites! 

Happy September

Sarah X



Witch Country Ghost Stories

Welcome to the strange and fascinating tale of The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly, from the mind and pen of Rosa Mulholland. First published in 1891, it’s one of the oldest stories in our series — 133 years old! And a rare ghost story set in the crackling heat of summer, which adds perhaps to the frenzy…

The Mistress and Squire Hurly of Hurly Burly know their son Lewis has been dead for some 20 years. How then has he been seen not 5 days ago… the strong and industrious Margaret Calderwood, who was Lewis’s fiancée before his untimely and cursed demise, seeks answers, and poor Little Lisa faces strange enchantment. Death and devilry ensue.

Sarah XXX

PS - In reading it aloud, I’ve kept to Rosa’s original words, which include some outdated language, particularly in how the Italian character Little Lisa is considered a "foreigner" to our insular English couple.

Witch Country Ghost Stories

Something new for you, my Witch Country Wayfarers! After all, Ghost Stories needn’t just be for Christmas! (In truth, I fell down a rabbit hole after recording my Christmas Witch Country Ghost Story and found so many wonderful spooky tales that I wanted to share more throughout the year!)

Welcome to Witch Country Ghost Stories, the first of a little series I am creating. Showcasing Ghost Stories written over the last few centuries.

We are starting with a relatively modern one: The Changeling by Dorothy K. Haynes, published in 1949. It is, maybe, not quite a ghost story, but it is filled with witches, fae folk, and the eerie and uncanny. And as Haynes was a master of horror writing, this tale will haunt you for some time…

I would love to know what you think!

Sarah XXX

A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Wise Wife and The Witch King

I am thrilled to present, in what I plan to be a festive tradition for Witch Country: A Ghost Story for Christmas!

Since the days of Charles Dickens and a Christmas Carol (1843), and, I'm sure, long before, we have huddled around fires to tell tales of spirits and ghosts during the cold yuletide nights.

So here is a tale where witches raise storms and become ghosts themselves, seeking a little retribution, perhaps.

Merry Christmas One and All! Xx

Episode 13: Winter Special - The Dark Heart of Dartmoor

My frosted trip to Dartmoor was a beautiful adventure! With eerie misty tales and tricksy standing stones! (I’m still not quite sure I understand how many stones the ‘Nine Maidens’ is supposed to be!)

Wishing you all a bright November and a very Merry Midwinter; I look forward to sharing new adventures with you in 2025! & If you’d like to keep up to date with my adventures, keep an eye on my ⁠patreon page!⁠ Where I’ll continue to post snippets over the winter break.

Episode 10: August - Cumbria/Penrith - Meeting Long Meg

A wonderful wander with stones, witches and wizards!

The Monument or The monument commonly called Long Meg and her daughters, near the River Eden by William Wordsworth, 1822

A weight of Awe not easy to be borne

Fell suddenly upon my spirit, cast

From the dread bosom of the unknown past,

When first I saw that family forlorn;

Speak Thou, whose massy strength and stature scorn

The power of years – pre-eminent, and placed

Apart, to overlook the circle vast.

Speak Giant-mother! tell it to the Morn,

While she dispels the cumbrous shades of night;

Let the Moon hear, emerging from a cloud,

At whose behest uprose on British ground

That Sisterhood in hieroglyphic round

Forth-shadowing, some have deemed the infinite

The inviolable God that tames the proud.

Episode 8: June - Wildwood & Midsummer Magic

Happy Solstice Season to All!

Notes & News from today’s episode

THE MID-DAY WITCH. by Václav Jaromír Picek

Bohemian Poems, Ancient and Modern (1849) translated by Albert Henry Wratislaw

On the oak the sunbeams play’d,
’Neath the oak there stood a maid,
Strawberries she gather’d there
For a feast till mid-day fair.

To her comes a lady white,
With a golden girdle dight,
But her loose dishevell’d hair
All conceals her count’nance fair.

She doth to the maiden say,
Wait, O wait awhile, I pray!
If the hair thou plait’st for me,
Thou shalt sometime blooming be.

Sit the maid and lady white,
With the golden girdle dight,
And the maiden plaits the hair,
Which conceals her count’nance fair.

After, when the maid arose,
Gifts the Vila fair bestows,
Little leaves of hawthorn free,
Large leaves from the old oak-tree.

Fleets the Vila, homeward now
Doth the maid returning go;
Tossing scornfully her head,
O’er the path the leaves she spread.

Then at home the tale she told,
As her apron she doth fold,
Ah! but how astonish’d she,
Gold and silver sheen to see!

Then she knows the Vila white
Would the service small requite,
Silver leaves of hawthorn free
Golden from the old oak-tree.

Quiet can she not attain,
Till the leaves she seeks again,
But the leaves alas! are gone,
And the maiden weeps alone.

All Souls’ Day, observed on 2 November, is a day of prayer and remembrance for the departed for many Christian religions and is the third and final of the three days of Allhallowtide: following All Hallows’ Eve (31st Oct) and All Saints&r
I was excited and nervous for my first live book launch in a very long time! 📚🕯️🧙‍♀️🍂✨ Lucky for me I was so warmly welcomed by a coven of creative souls! @pickwickpotterypainting and @pickwick_brewery were wonderful hosts and @13thirteen_moo
And we arrive! Witch Country: Seeking the Witch in the British Landscape is now available worldwide in paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 🎃🍂✨ This book began with footsteps through forests and hedgerows and became a journey into the unseen. I wrote
“So bake the soul cakes, and harvest the apples, light the candles and celebrate love! Dine with joy and in memory. And invite the spirits in if you wish. For winter is nearing, and soon enough the bright lights of Yule will be on their way.&rd
“Fairy rings of fungi, fly agaric and jade-green elf cups offer even more colours and magic to the autumnal palette. I have tried for many years to capture the magic I feel in the autumnal seasons.” from Witch Country: Seeking the Witch i