The Folklore of Ancient Wiltshire

The Folklore of Ancient Wiltshire examines the legends and traditional beliefs attached to the county’s ancient landscape. Its main sections consider the folklore of round barrows, long barrows and barrow hills, linking burial mounds and earthworks with stories preserved around them.

Katharine Jordan discusses traditions associated with sites including Avebury, Stonehenge, Silbury Hill, Wansdyke, Westbury White Horse and Yarnbury Castle. The subjects range from giants, devils and buried treasure to ghosts, spectral hounds and the Wild Hunt. Rather than treating these accounts as evidence of the supernatural, the book records how monuments, hills and other landmarks acquired meaning through local storytelling and long-standing belief.