Guernsey Folk Lore

Guernsey Folk Lore gathers popular beliefs, traditional stories and everyday customs associated with the island and its people. Sir Edgar MacCulloch’s collection includes accounts of fairies, demons, goblins, witchcraft and the Devil, alongside charms, spells, incantations, folk medicine and leechcraft.

Local landscape and history remain central, with traditions attached to chapels, holy wells, stones, churches and named places across Guernsey and the wider Channel Islands. Proverbs, weather sayings and historical reminiscences broaden the picture beyond supernatural belief, while an appendix adds further legends and old Guernsey songs. Compiled from MacCulloch’s manuscripts and arranged for publication by Edith F. Carey, the book preserves reported traditions in considerable detail.