The Croglin Vampire

I hope you will not be too frightened to hear that Cumbria is one of the few places in Britain with a recorded sighting of a vampire. You may think that they are all in Whitby, Forks, or Volterra, but a Twilight style drama happened right here in Croglin in 1875-6. A young lady tenant of Croglin Low Hall woke one night to see two points of light and hear ominous scratching at her bedroom window. As reported by the writer, Captain Fisher, ‘the creature came in and twisted its long bony fingers into her hair, dragged her head over the side of the bed and bit her violently in the throat’.

After a long holiday to recover, the young lady returned to Croglin only to encounter the vampire again. Her brothers chased the vampire, a ‘tall spindly fellow in a curious cloak’,  into nearby Croglin churchyard, where the unconscious creature was found half under a tombstone. The locals built a bonfire, and burnt the vampire on it. It would seem that the Cumbrian vampire was more James than Edward.

©Diane McIlmoyle 27.10.10