The Yeth Hound of Devon — Black Dog Sighting (1677)

In 1677, accounts emerged from Devon of a terrifying encounter with a spectral black dog known locally as the Yeth Hound or Wisht Hound. Devon's wild moorlands, particularly Dartmoor and Exmoor, are among the richest landscapes in England for phantom dog traditions, and the Yeth Hound is perhaps the most feared variant. Unlike the guardian black dogs of churchyards and crossroads, the Yeth Hound was considered an actively malevolent spirit — the soul of an unbaptized child doomed to roam the moors for eternity in canine form. It was said to race across the moors at night, howling with a sound that could freeze the blood of anyone who heard it. The 1677 account describes a traveler crossing open moorland who encountered a massive black dog blocking the path, its eyes burning like coals. When the traveler attempted to pass, the creature vanished with a terrible shriek. The Yeth Hound tradition heavily influenced Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Hound of the Baskervilles,' published in 1902, which drew directly from Dartmoor's phantom dog legends.