Month: May 2025

Finding the Lort Burn, One of Newcastle’s Buried Rivers

Much is often made of London’s lost rivers, like the Tyburn, Fleet, and Walbrook. Yet Newcastle upon Tyne also has rivers we cannot see. Ours are not lost, rather they’re simply buried. The Skinnerburn, Erick Burn, Pandon Burn, Lam Burn, and Lort Burn all continue to flow beneath the city, down to the mighty Tyne….

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Ghosts, Lantern Men, and Treasure in the Norfolk Broads

The Broads National Park, often known as the Norfolk Broads, is one of the UK’s 15 National Parks. Seven rivers and over sixty waterways called Broads comprise the park. In the medieval era, locals dug peat from the land for fuel. By the 14th century, these channels flooded and created the Broads. They’d become a…

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Geomany & Practical Divination with Dr Alex Cummins

Dr Alexander Cummins is a contemporary cunning-man and historian of magic. His magical specialities are the dead (folk necromancy), divination (geomancy), the cunning-crafts of traditional British service magic, and the grimoires. His published works include The Black Raven with Brian Johnson, Nazarth: Pillars of Gladness, The Art of Cyprian’s Mirror of Four Kings, An Excellent…

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Haunted Canals of England, Scotland & Wales

Canals occupy a strange place in the cultural imagination. They’re manmade, yet offer a connection to nature, and they offer a means of transport, but one that’s only accessible by boat. Some cities depend on canals, like Amsterdam or Venice, while in the UK, canals are often overlooked or forgotten spaces that have long outlived…

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Healing Springs and Wells at Glastonbury, Carrawburgh and Lourdes

We’ve no doubt seen plenty of content online about water’s power to be a great healer. We need to drink it (this is your reminder for today), while people swear by cold water baths for their wellbeing. Then we think about how much water appears in nature, somewhere we’re often counselled to go to improve…

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Following the route of the Walbrook, one of London’s lost rivers

A sense of mystery gathers around London’s lost rivers, with their names whispered like forgotten deities from an ancient cult. Fleet, Tyburn, Walbrook, Effra, Westbourne, Neckinger. In some cases, they aren’t so much lost, as buried. Sometimes, they break ground, appearing where you least expect them. Take the grey duct that carries the Westbourne above…

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