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Dozmary Pool

Dozmary Pool, meaning ‘Drop of Sea is a moorland lake to the south of Bolventor on Bodmin Moor. According to legend it was bottomless and had a whirlpool in the cen tre and a tunnel connecting it to the sea, but in 1869 it dried up completely,whkh quashed that idea. However, it is still home to many tales of the supernatural.

It is claimed that Dozmary Pool is the lake into which Sir Bedivere threw King Arthur’s sword Excalibur after the king was mortally wounded. The Lady of the Lake, guardian of Excalibur, reached up a hand and caught the sword, holding it aloft for a moment before drawing it beneath the water, where it remains to this day.

The site is also linked with local legends of a man called Jan Tregeagle. He was an early seventeenth- century magistrate famed for his cruelty. He was rumoured to have murdered his wife and children, sold his soul to the Devil and made his fortune by rob bing an orphan of his estate. After his death some of the people he had swindled went to court to try to get back their land. At the end of the trial the judge was about to sum up when a final witness was called: Jan Treageagle himself. The court laughed, but was horri fied when a shadowy figure began to appear in the witness box. Undeterred, the judge calmly questioned the ghost, who testified that he had indeed swindled the defendants.

After the trial, Jan was reluctant to go back to hell and the vicar decided that he should be kept busy in the area instead. He was set to emptying Dozmary Pool with a leaking limpet shell while the dogs of hell watched over him, waiting to drag him back to hell if he stopped working.

After a while he couldn’t stand it any longer and escaped, only to be set other impossible tasks. He ended up at Porthcurno Cove, sweep ing the sand to the Mill Bay every day only to see the tide turn and sweep it all back again. It is said that he is still there and his screams of frustration can be heard on the howling wind. Dartmoor | Drummer Boy | East Anglia | Inverness | Northumberland |