Tales of the Dales: Otley Chevin
The Otley Chevin….. home to a tragic tale
‘The car door slams shut in the warm evening glow. The last remnants of late summer sun, tinge the sky with pink and warm gold. A gust of wind sends a cascade of falling leaves to the ground. As the sound of the wind dies down, the sound of sobbing rises, and then the thunder of hoofbeats…’
Well ok. Otley isn’t technically in the Dales, but it is a stone’s throw away, it’s awesome too and this tale is worthy to join ALL the great tales because it’s all a little bit Romeo and Juliet. It has tragedy in spades.
The story goes that in the early 1800’s, the son of a wealthy Otley mill owner fell in love with the wrong kinda lass. Coming from a life of poverty, there was no WAY they’d get permission to be married.
So we all know how this story goes, the lovers planned to elope, to a life of love, freedom, and sparkling joy (ok, that is NOTHING like actual married life, more like socks on the stairs and bickering over who did the dishwasher last…..)
Anyway, the young couple made their escape from Otley on horseback, and galloped along what is now East Chevin Road (the one that goes past the Chilli Barn)
Approaching a thicket, the young man decided to leap over it, but with both riders presumably creating quite a weight, the horse refused, came to an abrupt holt and threw the lady to her death. The legend goes that the young man was so stricken with guilt and grief that he couldn’t face a life without her, so after killing the horse, he tragically took his own life. I told you, it was all very Romeo and Juliet.
There have been many, many accounts of the sound of crying being heard from the side of the now very busy East Chevin Road, as well as the galloping hoofbeats of a phantom horse, which accompany it. Some witnesses have also described seeing the distraught man pacing up and down at the site of the accident, reliving it over and over…….
So convinced were some by the ghostly sounds, that they have attempted to approach the crying woman to offer her some comfort, only to find that she had disappeared entirely.
I’m going to have to stop now, because it’s SO SAD!
But there you have it. The Otley Chevin ghost story.
If you want to go and check it out for yourself, you can walk from the scene of the alleged haunting in one of our many Otley Chevin walks. But this one is our favourite! Stick dens, gigantic rocks to clamber on and its very own ghost story!
Want to walk in the footsteps of the Legend?
This is one of our favourite Chevin Walks and starts at the point where this tragedy unfolded.
This was a tale that I have read in the awesome book, Haunted Yorkshire by Nick Tyler. Take a look if you fancy finding out more about all the best ghost stories of Yorkshire!