Black Shuck Appears in North East. A Local Eyewitness Tells of Paranormal Encounter
This is an interview for peep magazine. We’re joined with, we believe, to be the only person to have seen ‘Black Shuck’ in the north east of England. For the people who are not familiar with this English phantom dog legend – Black Shuck, it is a black ghost dog that haunts either Dartmoore, Devon, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, and more regular East Anglia. The ghost dog, also goes by the name of ‘WishTowns’. In Devon, ’Hell Hound’ in West Yorkshire, it’s the ‘Gabriel Hounds’, In Lancashire, it’s the mysterious ‘Skriker’ in East Anglia, it’s called the ‘Old Shuck’ or the ‘Black Shuck’. There’s been various stories and notes about this black dog that stalks graveyards and byways and off beaten tracks of England.
Blythburgh In 1577 in East Suffik, Church of St Mary – there was reports of a rabid animal that burst into the church and killed several people. The Anglo Saxon demon dog legend is believed to be either the guardian or the haunter of graveyards, slipping in between the living and the dead. Maybe it just depends on your state of mind or what energies you’re projecting, or what frequencies you are receiving when this phantom ghost dog of England becomes either a bad omen or becomes a protector – a guardian.
It was by a chance encounter with Newcastle based artist ‘Keeper Of Kitsune’ down at the Vanguard Gallery in Pudding Chare NE1 1UE, Newcastle that peep magazine got the exclusive interview with Black Shuck folklore legend sighting. To be honest, we had never heard of the black shuck. We watched and read read stories of ‘The Hounds of The Baskerville’s’ but never knew the story and sightings were real . . . .It was also a great opportunity for us to get the pencils out and illustrate a few ‘Pagan Inspired’ artwork illustrations.
I Have Seen The Black Shuck. Interview With Local North East Eye Witness
peep : Carl, thanks for joining us tonight. I got news of the story a couple of about a months ago when interviewing ‘Keeper Of Kitsune’, So I was intrigued as as soon as I heard about the ‘Black Shuck’, because we had not heard of the Black Shuck. And then she said, “You should chat to my dad because he’s actually seen one !
Carl : Yeah. It’s a story I’ve obviously passed down through the years of the family and they all like to talk about it.
peep : So before we get into it, Carl, before we get into the ghostly dog sighting, has there been any other paranormal activity that you have experienced as a child or an adult or any any activity from your parents or anything like that?
Carl : Yeah, my gran was a spiritualist, she was into reading tea leaves and stuff like that when she was younger. There was a couple of incidents with her when I was younger, I used to spend a lot of time in Scotland during the summer holidays and there was an incident in a castle. Can’t remember the name of the castle, it was in the the Highlands of Scotland. I was about 10 years old, and basically went through this castle on the tour.
I was with me auntie and my gran and my sister, and went through the dungeons, which was meant to be scary, but it was this one room, which had nothing in it whatsoever, no furniture and it was fine. This room had lights and windows and everything, and I wouldn’t go in the room, and apparently… I would just refuse to go in the room. I was kicking off and my gran took me outside and then I was fine. It wasn’t until after my auntie and me sister come back, that the tour guide mentioned that a lot of children won’t go through that particular room, because it’s meant to be the most haunted in the castle.
peep : Do you do you believe we’ve been here before Carl, as kind of other souls or lost souls? Do you believe that we’ve had many layers of lives throughout the throughout our own lives?
Carl : Yes. I think we’ve been reincarnated at one point. Definitely. Yeah.
peep : Are you aware of the British folklore history of Black Shuck?
Carl : I am now, wasn’t really at the time. I’ve heard the rumours of big black dogs and cats and stuff like that, but wasn’t like big into it, if you know what I mean, but don’t really know the full stories. I just kind of took it with a pinch of salt. I watched the odd thing about it, but was it. I’ve seen different programs and stuff like that and books I’ve read when I was younger
peep : You mentioned a documentary called The Myth Country on BBC IPlayer that explores the folklore of the Black Shuck. Did you draw comparisons when you were watching this about your your own experiences
Black Shuck Red Eyes Description
Carl : Yeah little bit. There were a couple of them talking about the Pagan folklore black dog of England – the only difference was the eyes. A lot of the people on the documentary said the Devil Dog creature they had seen, had red eyes. Well, mine didn’t. I think there was one guy, and he seen it in a field and it was the size of the dog, they’re very similar – very similar.
Dog Man Chases Human Through Fields
peep : Was that the guy in the car? If the story is correct, the dog must be getting up to about 30 to 40 miles an hour. Terrifying that, isn’t it? It reminded me of a story I was watching on Netflix about a guy from Texas who was walking home. This guy was walking back from his friends house. He started to walk down the path, and you know the high wheat fields? Well, He said he was just walking through there. He says he’s done it a 100 times before. It was just a normal night, walking down the road, turn left up the alley, and then through wheat fields.
He explained that he happened to notice something in the wheat fields, he didn’t think anything of it at first because he thought it could be anything. It could have been a deer or could be anything out back, you know, there’s lots of little creatures and all the rest of it.
It was only when he got to the end of the crossroads that he describe he was actually looking at some kind of wolf man. Like a Werewolf. The guy started to walk a bit faster, but when he upped his step, but the dog man upped its step also…It was only then, that he realised, he was being stalked. He explained that he then made a full-on sprint, but could hear the dog thing running also. He says he didn’t look back, and said he would never go that way again.
British Folklore and 100 Mythical Creatures
If we go back to British folklore, there is said to be over 100 mythical creatures that are roaming Britain, and 26 of those are from East Anglia. The sightings date back to over 900 years, so there’s a lot of stuff to think about and watch your back over.
Carl : Yeah. I mean when I was younger, my granny used to talk about horses, the ‘merhorse’ in the lake of Scotland. And, it was in Loch Ness and stuff like that, because we used to go up there. I can’t remember the exact name of the thing, but it was like a horse and a fish and it lived in the lakes. It was meant to be from Ireland as well, loads of people have meant to have seen it and it’s meant to have been where the legend of the Loch Ness comes from. These sightings go back hundreds of years.
It was 1933 when they started seeing the Loch Ness. Like the the modern sightings the ‘Kelpie’. My gran used to talk about the shapeshifting ‘Kelpie’ all the time. I mean there is so much history in Ireland and Scotland, you know, especially Loch Ness. It’s such a a mysterious place. It’s a beautiful place.
Peep : I haven’t been. I’ve been to Edinburgh, but It’s my wish to go to Loch Ness. I kind of just want to go and so soak up the atmosphere, you know?
Carl : The whole of Scotland, the Highlands and that, is absolutely beautiful. Loch Ness Aras uh Malle, honestly, everyone’s got to go once in a lifetime. I think it’s beautiful.
Black Shuck North East Eyewitness
Peep : So, we’re going to go back to 2008, a night that that you’ll probably will never forget. I believe you were working night shift. Could you say where where where you were.
Carl : Yeah, it was up to next to where the B&Q is now in Washington.
Peep : Could you tell us about what you were doing in the job and who you were with?
Carl : It was just normal night. I used to work night shift in a little engineering company. The factory units were closed and everything else was closed. No one else worked nights apart from us. So, say around 7:00pm it was dead up there. No cars, nothing. It was quiet. You probably got a police car going up there once in a blue moon. That was about it. It was around 2:00 in the morning when we had our lunch breaks.
peep : I’ve kind of checked the place out and there is an elongated factory with kind of like a small allotted part of like woods and shrubbery.
Carl : Yeah. Is that right?
peep : So you were you at the other end where it’s got like a small bit of woods.
Carl : You’ve got like the yard and stuff. So it was like the big gate at the back. You would normally go to the back door if you want to have a cigarette or something, but we would just walk up to the gate. So, it was about 2:00 in the morning, obviously food in the microwave, so you would go out for a cigarette. I went out to the gate, and it was funny at the time, you don’t notice these things, but then you think – oh because it was quiet, and you just had this feeling. . . You know, when there’s something not quite right. The whole thing felt a bit different. I don’t know the word for it.
Peep : Like an oppressive oppressive atmosphere or something?.
Carl : kind of Yeah. Not normal. We would go out 2:00 in the morning, have our breaks and stuff, and it was it was around that time when I went outside for a cigarette and there’s a gate at the back. There’s nothing about. It was was a bit eerie that night. Do you know when you just get that feeling?
Peep : Yeah, something something’s not right. Perfect, for a Black Shuck paranormal encounter.
Carl : I was looking at the gate, and that’s when I saw it. It was just there. It just appeared. When I turned around in my head, it was like a Great Dane, but it was hairy, and it was big. It was massive. It just walked up to the gate and it was staring at us, we’re talking a good 15-20 seconds and there was a low growl coming from it. You know when you get instant fear , it’s like the hairs from the back of your neck, you know Game of Thrones? Well, they go on about the Direwolves and stuff.
It was looking at us, what must have been a good what 15-20 seconds, and then I just took my eyes off it and I looked to see if the lad was at the door. I turned back, and “Black Shuck’ was wandering off, but from where we were, you should have been able to see something on the path either way. It was at least the size of a Great Dane, probably bigger to be honest. You could see the eyes with the the light that was there.
I want to say the light of the stars and the moon, but I don’t even know if the moon was out. It was quite a an overcast night, kind of and that sort of locked on the fear, you know what I mean? The size of the dog, that that dog could have jumped over the gate in one hop if it wanted to. It was that big.
Peep : Yeah. So, I mean, how how do you feel about, you know, something bigger than a great Dane that’s looks quite aggressive and it’s just staring at you?
Carl : I was thankful the gate was there. that went through me head but it just like I say the size of – I was just frozen. It was a good 15 20 seconds I was just staring at and it was staring at me and like I said the only time it was the low growl.
Peep : It was like a like a keep away growl or an aggressive growl ?
Carl : It was a I’m in control of the situation type of growl. There’s nothing you can do. You know what I mean? It could have been like a warning growl, but I didn’t feel like it was. It turned and it just started walking away and then I looked back again like turned away for a split second but again it was gone.
Peep : Did it disappear or did it just stroll off, do you think?
Carl : It disappeared. It couldn’t have just walked off because there’s like an open space. It just disappeared. That’s what got us. The other lad explained that he felt something also. He never saw ‘Black Shuck’, but he knew something wasn’t right. I told him straight away what had happened and he believed me because he had felt not right either, you know.
There were big glass windows upstairs in the factory and we both ran upstairs to see if we could see this phantom dog or creature, and we couldn’t see a thing – we were looking all over and couldn’t see it. That was another thing, there was no sound hardly. You know when you hear a dog, there’s a sound. You can hear the dog on the pavement like the the sound of its claws, the sound of its feet. There was hardly any sound apart from the deadly growl.
I Can Relate to The Fear Of Seeing The Black Shuck
peep : No sound, apart from the the kind of warning growl sign. I can relate to that fear because a friend of mine told me a few year ago that he was in a crowded pub in Newcastle City centre. Imagine a crowded barin the centre of newcastle upon tyne around 7 or 8:00pm. All of a sudden, someone came in the in the pub with a wolf’s head on, you know, like a full on pull over your head hairy wolf head with the fangs and all that. He said his heart literally stopped with fear and says everything went like quiet. He was fixated on this guy coming in with with a wolf’s head on.
I’m thinking, if that’s the kind of fear that someone or something can bring in a crowded pub, imagine the fear a dog in ‘real life’ looks like when it’s just staring at you in the dead of night. You are just by yourself.
Carl : Yeah, it’s just pure fear. I mean, I love dogs and obviously when I’m out and about, but I’m still wary. I still always be wary now. You’re always kind of looking up.
Peep : Yeah, you’re always kind of looking over your shoulder.
Carl : Definitely.
Peep : The moment this happened, Carl, did you instantly realise what you were witnessing or did you have to take a second look and think what the what am I actually looking at here?
Carl : No, I didn’t realise instantly. It was like ‘Black Shuck’. It was just pure fear at first, before you I got to process anything. Yeah. Like in the moment it was just like you were so scared, like, what the hell?
Peep : Do you believe the Black Shuck dog to be a physical object or more of a metaphysical or kind of a spiritual being?
Carl : You know, at the time, I thought it was physical because hearing it seeing it with my own eyes and everything, but more so, because it disappeared. I don’t know if it was something else. It was just an apparition. It’s appeared to us or something along those lines.
Peep : Some people say, in ancient folklore, that wherever the Black Shuck dog is seen, it could be on Ley Lines within a supernatural context. Black Shuck often serves as a bridge between the living and the dead, kind of a local landmark or churchyard or a graveyard that it seems to be hanging around these kind of areas. So I’m wondering, I suppose you don’t know if there are lay lines in Washington?.
Carl : I believe that there was some Yeah, because obviously back then, there was Washington villages, little farms and mostly fields and stuff, back hundreds and hundreds of years ago. I do believe there was a bit of a massacre at one point in Washington Village, but obviously it was the surrounding farms and there was a bit of a massacre. I don’t know if it was the Vikings. Can’t remember now.
peep : It could have been the Vikings that were esponsible for bringing the Black Shuck dog across here, couldn’t they?
Carl : Oh yeah. The black dog folklore come with the Vikings. I mean it was all of this area. The Vikings were in charge of the whole lot. So, obviously their mythology come over as well. Mhm.
Peep : Back in the 10th century, with being Pagans and then integrating into our British Christianity and mixing with the Anglo Saxons and all the rest of it. You get a good hodgepodge of styles and mythologies, you know.
Carl : Oh, 100%. There’s loads of different things in the northeast as well.
Peep : There’s been various accounts of ‘Black Shuck’ being the protector. I’ve read a story of a woman explaining a dog appearing from nowhere at night and then follow following her home, and once she got to her house, it disappeared. There have been other stories of the Black Shuck to be a bad omen that haunts graveyards and basically makes people feel so uncomfortable, that it’s like either fight or flight. I’m just thinking which one was it with you ? Do you think it was the protector or was it a bad omen, because nothing really bad happened.
Paul : Yeah, I would have to say it was more neutral or a good omen. Um, like I say, at the time, nothing serious happened. I moved on from that job to another job I wanted to. There was no one passing in the family at that time and everything was quite stable at that time.
Peep : And then after the experience, your friend kind of didn’t see it, but your friend could feel a sense that something wasn’t right as well.
Carl : Yeah. I mean, he’s just a young lad as well, but he instantly believed me when I told him because he looked frightened as well. That’s what I mean. I think he sensed something was wrong.
Peep : So, it was kind of in in the air, like the it changed the the whole atmosphere this Black Shuck dog.
Carl : Yeah. Yeah, 100%.
Peep : You went upstairs, you had a look around, you couldn’t see anything. The dog was gone. Because the dog was staring you down, I’m just trying to get me head around, you know, what the Black Shuck was thinking, but because I’ve heard so many other stories of uh of either being an omen or protector. And you’ve I kind of got to go with what you’re saying. It it was maybe maybe protecting you.
Carl : Maybe it might have been good luck. It might have stopped something, maybe one of the machines. Sometimes the machines can break. If I had of stayed inside the factory instead of having my cigarette, a tool could have broke and cut me your hand or something. You know what I mean? Or anything really.
Peep : So it could have been along them lines. I like to think it was yeah, it wasn’t a bad omen.
Carl : Oh yeah, definitely.
Peep : I mean, the first sighting, is believed to be date back to 1127, which is linked to the the ‘Wild Hunt’. If anyone knows of the Wild Hunt, it’s a mythical folklore story of Sir Francis Drake, leading a pack of phantom dogs through the wild wood, and if anyone doesn’t know who Francis Drake was, you should check him out. He was an explorer privateer raiding from the Spanish. So this guy couldn’t do no wrong. He was kind of like a pop icon of the time. The they say that Sir Francis Drake was somehow linked with this these phantom dogs in Britain.
Carl : It’s all steeped in mythology of the UK, isn’t it? This dog.
Carl : Oh, yeah. Yeah. 100%. This is all over, mainly down south to be honest. When you look into the stories, there are a lot of stories up in the northeast of England. Like I say there’s quite a few big black cats as well. There was near Durham. There was a couple in a car, it’s quite rural there, and they parked up to have a quick kiss and a cuddle basically, this big black cat jumped on the car, stared at them, and then just jumped off and away. Obviously, it frightened the hell out of the pair of them.
I think it was in the local cave at the time if I remember rightly. Farmers had seen stuff in the fields around that area as well at the same time. A lot of people were saying it was like a lynx a black lynx or something they had escaped or black panther. Going from the size of it because it was it was actually quite a big size. I remember at the time, there was lot of sightings around the country of big black cats. Mhm. So, you don’t know, you know what I mean.
The ‘Slender Man’ Sighting In Northumberland , Otterburn, England. peep magazine remembers the day
Peep : Or it could have been some shape shifting thing. I keep reading a lot of stuff about shape shifting entities, those are equally as ominous and terrifying, you know. Do you know there’s there’s a place up in Northumberland called Otterburn, where there is a firing range for the British army?
Carl : Uh yes. Yes, I know what you mean.
Peep : Myself and other students from Northumbria University went there for a university project. We were making a short film, you know. We were staying in a farmhouse, our friends uncle had a farm house. So, we’re staying there for a few a few nights. We were filming around the farm at night. It’s all like really like an eerie place, you know. The uncle says, “Don’t go too far up, because there’s a firing range” There was like an old tank there and there were ruins – and it was freezing !
So, we did go further up to have a look around. We set off about I’d say it was about 5:00 in the morning, it was dusk. The sun hadn’t came up yet. Two of my friends were fiddling around getting the cameras out of the bag, and I was just like looking across the valleys. If you looked down I looked down from the hill I was on, it was just deep forest, just trees, dense and thick you know. I was just staring, kind of day daydreaming really, because I didn’t have anything to do apart from waiting for the guys to get the cameras out and putting the tripods up. I kind of didn’t want to get in the way, you know. So, I was just staring into the woods. I happened to see a figure of a man running through the woods. . At first, I was like, “What the hell is that?” I focused on it, and I was keep watching it, keep watching it. And then as I was focused, my eyes were starting to focus in. The thing was running in and out of the trees like it was a shadow or something, going extremely fast. It was elongated, and white. It must have been about 9 or 10 foot tall.
peep : You know the fantasy story ‘The Slenderman’ ? That’s what it looked like. I was like, “What is that?”. It was running through, running through, running through, running through. I mean, it’s got to be a good 10 uh 10 to 15 seconds. I said to the guys, “Look, hey guys, can you see this look, look now. Look what I’m looking at.” And they’re like, “Yeah, yeah.” They were still ruffling about in the bag. I was just keep watching and then it just disappeared. It disappeared into the trees. I thought to myself, I’m so pleased that this is our last morning here in Otterburn, Northumberland.
Carl : That sounds like It could have been a Ghost. It could have been a ‘Skin Walker’. It could have been an alien. I know. That’s a That’s a kind of freak freaky thing.
Peep : That’s probably the most ominous thing I’ve seen. Have you ever been back to the location Carl, have you ever felt the need to go back to the location?
Carl : I’ve actually been up there a couple of times with different various things and not been actually inside and where the gate, but I’ve been next to it. I always think it’s first thing that comes to my mind whenever I’m up there. Never been there at night.
Peep : I think I’d like to go up and just have a look around, you know, with my camera.
Carl : It hasn’t hasn’t changed in years. It’s just the same as it always was.
Peep : I think I might go up and have a little look around just for research, you know.
Carl : I don’t know if there’s any factories work nights now, because it’s all changed up there.
Peep : I think I would be interested to know if there’s any there is any lay-lines around Washington or in that area. I’ve got to do a bit of research, and I’ve got a funny feeling that there’s going to be something up there. Has the sighting changed your views on on life? And if it has, can I ask how?
Carl : Not really. I did have beliefs, obviously with my gran and stuff. I know my dad didn’t. He was always “ Don’t talk about ghost aliens nothing like that exists”. I think that was because he may have seen something when he was younger, so I’ve been told.
peep : So something might have scared him.
Carl : He didn’t like talking about anything like that, but I was the opposite, It didn’t put me off. I always had like inklings and feelings and interest. But that just made them even stronger.
Peep : On reflection, I don’t really watch ghost stories now. Not the the ones that are not real. I always take things with a pinch of salt, but there’s a lot out there which can’t be written off. You know what I mean?. I mean a few year ago when I used to live on my own and I used to watch ‘The Exorcist’ by myself and I used to watch them all you know. I absolutely loved the horror genre, if it was gore, if it was supernatural, but now as I’ve got a bit older, I just I cannot watch it. It plays on my mind a bit too much.
Carl : Yes, I know what you mean.
Peep : I just can’t watch it now. And I’ve got friends like me, who all used to enjoy the horror movies. I love watching about the ‘Dogman’ or ‘Bigfoot’, because I kind of love the wilderness, going out and you know. I watch Bigfoot documentaries for hours but nothing ever happens ever. They never see anything ever, do they? They never never catch anything or anything like that. I mean I do watch YouTube videos, you know, where it’s like Camping encounters and stuff like that. There’s quite a lot of videos now on YouTube that have seen a huge rise in the last like five years of mostly men going out camping by themselves.
Carl : Yes.
Peep : And then they always seem to experience something at night, don’t they? They always like something’s outside or they get like this ominous feeling. But I do think there is something in the woods of England. I don’t know what what it is, but I do think there’s a there’s some kind of of entity in woods that is kind of unexplainable.
Carl : Yes. I know what you mean. I mean, there’s a few channels I’ve watched and there’s something happens every episode type of thing. But there’s a few Youtube shows I’ve watched where it shows you different channels. And it’ll be like, this guy’s had 100 camp channels and nothing’s happened in 99 of them. But then in this one, he’s had an experience and they’re the ones that get us. I think they’re the ones you’re looking at being true where they’ve heard something or they’ve heard something’s touched your tent and have jumped out and there’s nothing there. They’re the ones that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, you know what I mean? They’re the ones I like watching.
Peep : Carl, it’s been absolutely great chatting. Is there anything else that you want to talk about? Any other experiences you’ve had?
Carl : It’s been great talking to peep magazine. Like I say, I will you know if I hear anything else.
peep : if you hear about any of your friends istening to this and if they’ve had any experiences, please get in touch with peep magazine.
Carl : I will. No problem at all.
If you have a story and you want to talk about, please get in touch with peep magazine at contact@peepmagazine.co.uk
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