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Beast · East Kennett

The White Hound of Midsummer

A white hound with red ears, walking into a tomb at sunrise.

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Beast

The White Hound

Red ears, white coat, and the door of the dead.

See it clearly

What's there
Long earthen barrow with stone façade and chambers
Legend from
Folklore cited from the book Magical Britain
Best time
Midsummer dawn
Tone
Eerie
BarrowsBlack dogsMidsummer

Before you go

English Heritage, free access; footpath uphill from the A4 lay-by.

  • West Kennet Long Barrow
  • Near A4
  • The pin marks the spot.
  • DateMidsummer Day

Midsummer dawn. A white dog with ears the colour of blood trots into the tomb.

West Kennet is a Neolithic chambered tomb on a ridge south of Silbury Hill, one of the largest of its kind in Britain. Its passage and side chambers can still be entered. Folklore says that at dawn on Midsummer Day a great white dog with blood-red ears comes and goes into the barrow. Red-eared white hounds are a familiar figure in British fairy tradition, linked with the Otherworld. The only fetched source gives the dog alone, with no ghostly priest beside it, so the card shows only the hound.

Sources

  1. West Kennet Longbarrow, British Pilgrimage Trust —
  2. West Kennet Long Barrow, Wikipedia —

Legends nearby