Galley Trot

From Northern Britain to Suffolk comes the legend of the Galley Trot.

Said to live underground in hollow hills or fairy mounds, a Galley Trot is supposedly hard to spot — which is curious, considering these phantom dogs are described as the size of a bullock, pure white, with glowing red ears and eyes.

To witness one was enough to inspire mortal terror. Sightings were considered an omen that severe illness or injury would soon strike the observer — not necessarily at the creature’s fangs or claws, but all the same, inevitable misfortune.

They were also known to sit silently outside the home of a dying person, waiting without movement until death finally arrived. Perhaps they lingered to guide the soul to the afterlife; perhaps this is why, in Wales, they earned the name “Dog of Death.”

And yet, other tales paint a much more vicious picture: Galley Trots stalking lonely roads, chasing travellers through the dark — and killing and devouring them. Because what’s a phantom hound without the occasional dramatic mauling?

In rarer variants of the myth, the Galley Trot isn’t a dog at all, but something stranger still: a white-furred humanoid with the head of a hound.

So if you find yourself wandering the hills of Wales, or anywhere across Northern Britain, keep some iron and salt close at hand. It might just be enough to ward off a Galley Trot.