BeastHidden
The goblin's rock
Something lived on this rock, so the name says.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Rocky Undercliff cove and footpaths
- Legend from
- Old English place-name
- Tone
- Curious
A cove whose very name means a rock haunted by a goblin.
Puckaster is a hamlet below Niton on the island's south coast, in the tumbled Undercliff between St Catherine's Point and Binnel Bay. Wikipedia says the name probably means the rock or rocky hill haunted by a goblin, from Old English puca, a puck or goblin, and torr, a rock. Antiquarians once tried, unconvincingly, to derive it from Latin Portus Castrensis. A nearby farm, Puckwell, has a name of the same kind. No actual goblin story is recorded in the fetched text, only the name.
One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.