Blog

"The men grabbed the sleeping vampire and dragged him into town where he was thrown on a pyre."

As any member of the Watchers' Council of Britain would tell you (in a slightly patronising, stereotypical accent), there is a splattering of reasonably well documented vampire cases in the UK. Three stories stand out in particular.

During a cold winter's night in the 1920s, two poachers smashed a window and entered a bothy near Glen Tilt, a few miles down the road from Pitlochry. A light sprinkling of snow which had fallen earlier in the day had made it easy for the men to hunt by the light of the moon, and they had successfully 'acquired' a couple of salmon. Once inside the empty building, the intruders lit a fire to cook their fish. One of the poachers volunteered to obtain fresh water from the nearby river, and started to leave via the broken window. As he stuck one leg over the window ledge, the man stopped and began to scream that something was attacking his leg, biting him and sucking blood. Frantic, the poacher managed to free himself, and his colleague dragged him back into the bothy. As the poacher lay shocked and bleeding on the floor, the second man grabbed his shotgun and looked outside for the attacker. Nothing could be seen nearby, and the only tracks in the snow were their own footsteps leading to the window. However, in the distance, white winged creatures could be seen, dancing around in the sky... Both men stayed in the bothy until morning, huddled around the fire with their guns, not sleeping in fear of the creatures returning. It is said that the man who was attacked lived with his scars for the rest of his life, and no one ever used the bothy again, fearing for their own safety...

Our next case is much older, thought to date to the twelfth century, and concerns Northumberland's Alnwick Castle. The lord who moved to the site was renowned for his wicked and sinful ways, and it was believed he was driven from his home in Yorkshire by the many enemies he had made. Regardless, the lord continued to indulge in lusting after the neighbouring womenfolk, until, to everyone's surprise, he married a local lass and settled down. Unfortunately for the lord, his new wife was not as faithful as he; the lord caught her with a younger man in their own bedroom, the shock of which caused him to fall and sustain injuries which took his life within a few hours. A few of the locals protested when he was buried in consecrated ground, believing his unrepentant sins would prevent his entry into heaven. They were right. The lord returned from the grave, night after night, wandering through the streets. The townsfolk locked their doors and hid within their homes, for anyone who met the lord died soon after the encounter. Despite their best defensive efforts, a large number of locals perished from plague, brought back by the vampiric lord from the bowels of the earth. The parish priest finally realised swift and decisive action was required, and discussed the vampire problem with the remaining townsfolk. Two brothers step forward, having lost their father to the lord, and volunteered to tackle the undead entity. Armed only with shovels, they approached the lord's grave by the light of day and began to dig. Just inches below the earth they found his corpse, bloated and ruby-cheeked. One of the brothers struck the body with his shovel, and watched as fresh blood escaped. The men grabbed the sleeping vampire and dragged him into town where he was thrown on a pyre. The remaining townsfolk watched as the body was incinerated, and the plague that had accompanied him soon disappeared from the region.

"Knowing only one way to rid themselves of the vampire, the crowd set light to the corpse."

The Croglin vampire is another well known vampire tale from the UK, though date of the events are in dispute - some believe that they happened during the mid nineteenth century, others say the late seventeenth century. Croglin Grange, Cumbria, was leased to two brothers and their sister. Although new to the area, other villagers quickly took to them, the new family's kindness breaking down the barriers sometimes encountered by strangers moving to new lands. The siblings had been in their new dwelling for several months before the first incident occurred. As summer reached its peak, the sister had taken to sleeping with her bedroom shutters open. Watching the moon from her bed one night, she spotted two glowing lights emerge from nearby woodland. The lights moved towards the grange, and with horror rising, the girl realised the lights were attached to something grim and ungainly. The bedroom door was next to the window and locked from the inside; the woman leapt from her bed and had made it to the door when she heard a scratching from the pane beside her. She looked to the side, and her eyes fell upon a brown, withered face with glowing red eyes staring through the window, a long finger tracing lines down the glass. She retreated back onto the bed, convinced that the creature would not enter, but horror held her as the fingers picked away the lead holding the window panes. One pane fell inside; the figure's bony arm reached inside and unlatched the window. Still paralysed, the girl watched as the gaunt figure crossed her room, wrapped its fingers into her hair and, pulling her head back, sunk its teeth into her throat. The pain broke her paralysis and she finally screamed. Her brothers awoke and smashed their way into their sister's locked room. The girl lay unconscious on her bed, blood covering the crisp white sheets, the intruder already out the window. One brother gave chase, but lost sight of the figure as it vaulted over the nearby churchyard wall.

The girl slowly recovered from both the physical and psychological trauma, and spent a few months in Switzerland holidaying with her brothers. Not being given to flights of fancy, she firmly believed that an escaped lunatic had attacked her, and at her insistence, the family returned to Croglin Grange. She took the same room to sleep in, but her brothers moved into rooms directly across the hallway, and slept with loaded pistols by their sides. The rest of winter was quiet for the household, but during one night in March the sister was awoken by the familiar scratching on the window. Peering towards the glass, she could clearly see the same face and luminous eyes watching her as before, fingers slowly picking away at the lead between the panes. She screamed. The two brothers ran from their rooms and through the front door. The creature had begun to run off, but one brother took careful aim with his pistol and shot the bounding figure in the leg. The creature slowed slightly, and the brothers managed to follow it to the churchyard, and watched as it slipped into a vault.

As dawn broke, the brothers gathered their neighbours and entered the vault. All but one of the coffins within were smashed to pieces, and human remains had been scattered around. The two brothers prised open the lid of the remaining intact coffin. Contained within was a ghastly human figure, brown and winkled from age, with a fresh bullet hole in its leg. Knowing only one way to rid themselves of the vampire, the crowd set light to the corpse, and Croglin fell safe once more.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer can be seen every weeknight at 7pm on SCI FI.