The Screaming Skull of Bettiscombe
A skull kept in a Dorset manor house is said to scream, and bring storms, whenever anyone tries to take it away.
What was reported
Bettiscombe Manor, a farmhouse in west Dorset, has long kept a human skull. The legend says it belonged to an enslaved African man brought back from the Caribbean by a member of the Pinney family, who owned the house. He asked to be buried in his homeland, and when he was buried in the village churchyard instead, screams were heard from the grave until he was dug up and brought back to the house.
Later stories say that whenever the skull has been removed, it has screamed, crops have failed or storms have come, until it was returned.
Explanations offered
When the skull was examined in the 1960s, it was found to be most likely that of a woman, and very old, possibly from prehistoric times, perhaps from a nearby hill fort. It fits a group of 'screaming skull' legends from English houses. Historians also see the story as a trace of the wealth that Dorset families like the Pinneys made from Caribbean plantations worked by enslaved people.
- When
- Told since the 1700s
- Where
- Bettiscombe Manor, Dorset, England, UK
- Witnesses
- Dorset folklore
- Status
- Legend
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