“The old coffin road to Loch Shiel” (Scotland) by LHOON on Flickr

Corpse Roads

Welcome to Weird Wednesday! Today we’re wandering weird roads that go to graveyards. Sound fun? Let’s go!

Corpse roads are paths over which one carries a coffin to its final resting place. Like crossroads, corpse roads are physical places with metaphysical properties, according to folklore. Such pathways are found all over the world, but the origin of corpse roads in Great Britain is a little more political than you might expect.

Back in late medieval times, the population was growing, so people were building new churches and their associated graveyards. Some established churches insisted that new outlying churches were under their spiritual (and financial) control. Thus, they had to use the graveyards of the mother church, even though they were sometimes quite a distance away.

So how to get the dearly departed to their final destination? Unless you had money for transportation, you and a few friends had to carry the coffin. Thus, paths sprung up between far flung churches and central cemeteries. These paths were called corpse roads, funeral roads, coffin walks, lych ways (lych or lich is a Germanic word for corpse), and other similar names. Eventually, the outlying churches did break away and make their own cemeteries, so corpse roads ceased to be used, though some are still preserved today as footpaths.

Often, corpse roads were as straight as possible through rough terrain, because, well, coffins are pretty heavy. In fact, sometimes large stones along the way were used as places to rest the dearly deceased for a while. These are called “coffin stones.”

But there may have been other reasons for straight roads and resting stones. Because of course, a corpse road is the dedicated pathway of the dead, and has much folkloric significance. First, it was thought that mazes and winding roads confuse ghosts and other supernatural creatures, like fairies, so straight paths were attractive to them. Thus corpse roads were left unplowed and unbroken by fences, because nobody wants a spiritual creature who’s using that road to get confused and linger. In fact, there’s some evidence that straight-lying corpse roads and possibly the beliefs around them preceded the medieval age by quite a lot. Neolithic burial sites may have had similar mostly-straight paths between them.

A coffin stone. Text reads in part: “Before “St Mary’s” Church in Ambleside was consecrated, coffins had to be transported along the “Corpse Road” from Ambleside 4km to “St Oswald’s” Church at Grasmere for burial. This route is now the present day bridle path to Rydal. This stone along with others along the way was used for supporting the coffin while the bearers rested.”

In addition, corpse roads often pass over running water, which spirits can’t cross unless carried by the living, to keep the ghost from trying to get back home on its own. And as for those resting stones, well, they were also about ritual cleanliness. A coffin laid directly upon a field was said to make the whole place barren.

Of course, a body without a coffin was dangerous everywhere: if a body itself was laid on a coffin stone or other resting area, such as a lychgate, an Irish tradition holds that anyone who stood on that ritually unclean spot afterwards could be cursed with insatiable hunger.

Other folkloric phenomena associated with corpse roads include corpse candles, which are a form of ghost light. Obviously, the appearance of a ghost light at someone’s house which then moved along the corpse road to the cemetery was an omen of death. Hell hounds are sometimes seen on the corpse roads as well.

As for humanoid spirit sightings on corpse roads, the pathways often host ghostly processions of monks or mourners. It’s also said that those who keep watch on the eve of St. Mark’s Day (April 24) between 11 pm and 1 am, can see the spirits of those marked to die in the coming year. There is a similar superstition about crossroads on certain nights.

And now some writing prompts for the road!

The hunter becomes the hunted. Stories about modern folks disbelieving old superstitions can be a lot of fun. You could write a story about ghost hunters plying their trade along a corpse road, and perhaps its associated cemetery. Obviously, they find the frights are all too real. Now, it’s easy for ghost hunters to get trapped in a haunted house by a malicious spirit, but how might they be meet their fate in a graveyard or on an open road?

A corpse road near Shap, England

Coming and going. I love the idea of corpse roads being especially significant on the night of April 24, because some years ago, I personally spend the night of April 24 in labor with my youngest. That has me thinking about the whole cycle of life that’s represented by a road leading from a living town to a resting place for the dead. You could write a story where only people actively engaged in that cycle, like those dying, recently bereaved, or due to soon give birth, could see the spirits on the corpse road.

Nearly departed. Also, the idea of being able to see not only the dead but the soon-to-die on a corpse road is very creepy. What would your character do if they saw a family member there? A stranger? Themselves? What about a whole crowd of people? Would there be a way to avert the coming deaths? Maybe so, if they could see the cause of death as well—wounds or signs of disease. And what if a long-missing person was glimpsed on that night? That would prove they’re still alive—but not for long, and the hunt to find them would become desperate.

The long and winding road. Not all stories about a corpse road have to be creepy. You could have a family drama that takes place in one scene: the hours-long journey over a corpse road. Let the reader glean the family’s backstory: its loves, arguments, history, and future. All crystalized around the death of someone central to the family, and the difficult march where they share the burden of carrying the coffin.

The good people. Ghosts are not the only spirits said to use the corpse roads. The fae travel the same paths, and as we know, meeting them can be a mixed blessing. A funeral procession, with all its noise and crowd, might be less likely to encounter faeries than a single mourner wandering the road where their loved one was last carried. Would the fae be able to grant the return of the deceased loved one? Or offer to take the bereaved across the threshold of death to join them? Or would they steal the mourner away to a happier life in fairyland?

Thanks for spending your Weird Wednesday here! Wherever you’re off to next, I hope your burden is light.

Want to chat about the blog? Did you use one of the prompts? Hit me up on social media.

If you like folklore and legends, you can check out my story Branwen and the Three Ravens: The creepy adventures of a woman trying to free her brothers from a curse. Find it in the anthology Clamour and Mischief from Clan Destine Press or Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine.

Sources & further reading:

Corpse Roads, Coffin Roads, a Medieval Legacy: Rural Historia

Take Your Dead to These Old Corpse Roads: Atlas Obscura

Corpse Road: Wikipedia

Guide to Britain’s corpse roads: history and the best coffin roads to visit: BBC Countryfile

Curiosity of the week: the coffin stone: Contrary Life