Legend
The Abbot's White Mare
A borrowed horse, a fatal leap.
See it clearly
- What's there
- A dark wooded lake below white cliffs
- Legend from
- Hambleton tradition
- Best time
- Midnight (said)
- Tone
- Sinister
The abbot lent him a white mare. As it leapt the cliff, the abbot became the Devil.
Gormire Lake lies below Whitestone Cliff, near Sutton Bank. Legend says the Abbot of Rievaulx met Sir Harry de Scriven at a moorland inn and asked to borrow his fast black horse, so he could reach a dying man. Sir Harry followed on the abbot's white mare, but it was faster and would not obey him. It turned towards the cliff and leapt. As Sir Harry fell to his death he saw the abbot on the cliff top change into the Devil, laughing. The National Trail adds that at midnight you may hear a rider grooming his horse. Another story says the Devil himself rode the mare into the lake.