The Black Dog of Linkinhorne Parish, Cornwall

Linkinhorne, a scattered rural parish on the eastern edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, has reported sightings of a phantom black dog across multiple centuries. The parish encompasses some of Bodmin Moor's most atmospheric landscape — granite tors, ancient stone circles, and lonely moorland tracks where encounters with the supernatural were once considered almost routine. The Linkinhorne black dog was described as unusually large, with a rough coat and eyes that glowed with an inner light. It was most often seen along the lanes connecting the parish's scattered farmsteads, appearing at dusk and vanishing before dawn. Some traditions held that the dog marked the path of a corpse road — the traditional route along which the dead were carried to the parish church for burial. In this interpretation, the black dog was not a malevolent spirit but a psychopomp, a guide for souls on their final journey. The belief in corpse-road guardians is widespread across the Celtic fringe of Britain.