Thread: Tell us a campfire tale

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The wind is whistling eerily in the branches of the trees. The dead leaves rustle, a sound like the footsteps of passing ghosts. Outside the circle of the firelight, the shadows lengthen. Was that a movement, way back there near the treeline? Whatever it is, it's gone now. Huddling inside your coat, with a hot mug clenched in your hand, you take a deep breath and ask your friends "So, have you guys heard the one about..."

The only original campfire tale/ghost story I have is one that I first heard in the playground in Primary School, and it's about the witches of Bidston Hill.

Here's a photo of Bidston Hill:



A bit of background:

The part of the UK that I come from is called The Wirral pennisula, it's where I grew up although I no longer live there. Anyway, there's an area called Bidston, and there's a wooded area with a hill that's called Bidston Hill. There are lots of legends about Bidston Hill. There's the ghost of the Victorian boy who is seen on the hill quite often and has been captured on film. There's the apparition of The Angry Miller, who walked out of the wrong door of the mill in a fit of temper and had his head sliced off by one of the blades. There are miles of tunnels that run under the hill - the council keep blocking off the entrances but people keep finding new ones. Nobody knows what those tunnels were built for, but they're definitely man-made. I've seen video taken down in the tunnels, and they are CAVERNOUS, and the walls and ceilings are all polished smooth. Someone put a lot of time and effort into building those tunnels, but nobody knows why.

The area has long been linked to witchcraft, and ancient rock carvings on the site show a man being sacrified. When I was a kid, the older children used to tell us the story of the Bidston Hill Witches, and it goes like this...

A coven of Witches meets every Witches' sabbat up on Bidston hill. Nobody knows what they do up there, but there are rumours. Locals swear they hear laughter, and mingled with the laughter, screams. The Witches always meet in the same clearing, and it's said that if you step foot in the Witches' clearing without permission, you'll die within a month.

A local lad, Sam Holleron, grew tired of all the rumours - he, being an upstanding Christian, wanted to get rid of the Witches once and for all. It angered him that they should mock God right on his doorstep, befouling the very air of the woodland with their evil practices. So, one night when the moon is full and the coven are sure to have gathered to worship, he rounds up a group of like-minded men and heads up the hill to give the Witches what they deserve.

The next day, a local couple were walking in the woods near the Witches' clearing. Suddenly their dog started barking viciously. Startled, they walked over to the clearing, treading carefully as they knew the local legends. There, in the branches, were all 12 members of the Witches Coven (they say the Devil is the 13th member of every coven) hanged in the branches.

It's a strange thing, but though they never found the culprits, that month saw a mysterious spate of deaths among young men in the area. Young Johnny Walker was the first to go, a tragic accident, and him so young too. Then there was Freddie Jackson, who died in a house fire. Finally, Sam Holleron caught a strange illness that no doctor could diagnose, and wasted away before his lovely fiancee's very eyes. He was dead by the time the full moon next lit the night sky over Bidston. They say his last words were "We should never have stepped foot in that place..."

They say that, on the night of a full moon, especially around Hallowe'en, if you're brave enough to climb Bidston hill after dark, you'll hear the laughter of the Witches. Stand very still and listen - the laughter will swiftly turn to screams. But don't step foot in the Witches' clearing, or legend has it you'll be dead within a month.

That was entertaining. =P