Jon Solo Sebastian 06/08/2025:

If you’re taking a walk at night anywhere in England and you hear a wretched growling howl, it’s best to get indoors immediately. Lock the doors and windows, but most importantly, do not look outside. In fact, looking for the creature making the horrible sound, and making eye contact with it seals your end. What creature carries such power? Well, firstly, it isn’t a power. It is believed this creature is a messenger—albeit a terrifying messenger, and if it comes for you, that means you’ve been tagged with a death omen.

If this sounds familiar, it’s likely you’ve either read my piece on Hellhounds, or you’ve heard of the hellhounds and Barghest’s by these names or the many other names they’ve been called throughout history. While similar, there are some characteristics of the Barghest that are not the same as the usual harbinger of death; I’ll touch on those differences in a moment.

What is the Barghest?

In English folklore, mainly Northern England in Yorkshire, a tale is told of a monstrous black dog with large claws and fangs that haunts lonely roads and graveyards at night called Barghest, or goblin dog. Hearing the howls or seeing the creature and its red fire-like eyes is said to predict the demise of the person seeing or hearing it. Some who see it might pass away the next day, while others live in fear for a year before they meet their end. This is typically what you hear in the folktales about hellhounds, and mostly the Barghest, but what makes these creatures different?

“Barghests are often compared to other canine-like creatures, such as wolves and hellhounds. However, their ability to shapeshift into a goblin form sets them apart from these other creatures. Additionally, their ability to consume the flesh and soul of their victims is unique to the barghest. While they may share some similarities with other fiends, such as demons and devils, the barghest is a distinct creature with its own set of abilities and characteristics.” When they shift into their dog/goblin form, they predominantly look like werewolves, so if these creatures exist, this could potentially be the origin of the werewolf.

As if these beasts aren’t terrifying enough whether they’re harbingers of death or attacking their prey, they come packed with a few more features that make them formidable and more frightening. According to legend, the Barghest has the ability to teleport, or move so fast like the Flash, that it gives the illusion of teleportation. Another feat is the power to become invisible at will. If you’ve ever watched the beloved series Supernatural, you might be familiar with their version of hellhounds. I personally always felt they were cutting costs in the show by not showing the hellhound, but now I believe this was intentional—but also a way to save money. In Supernatural, you only heard the creature and felt its attacks because it was invisible. They may have mentioned the Barghest in the series, but I can’t say for sure since I’m not a pro when it comes to the show… that would be my wife; she’s watched that series at least three times in the ten years we’ve been together.

Pop Culture

I’m just going to segue into some pop culture references/mentions of the Barghest since I already mentioned one popular television show. My friends and I just recently started playing Dungeons and Dragons, and while we haven’t encountered the creature in our campaign, I was excited to learn the Barghest is one of the thousands of creatures in that universe. Similarly to the folklore, it is like a goblin werewolf that can shape shift.

The Witcher games and books have packs of Barghest that are spectral-like hounds that you have to do battle with. The Harry Potter series also makes mention of the Barghest. The Grim was a large spectral black dog that was said to be seen by Ron Weasley’s uncle who then passed away the next day.

Where Might You Find a Barghest?

“Should you want to meet one of these creatures for yourself, your best bet is to go to Yorkshire. There, they have been known to prowl the notorious Snickelways, a twisting collection of narrow alleys and streets in York, where the historic building at 1 The Shambles is also sometimes called the Barghest. 

You might find one in Trollers Gill in the Yorkshire Dales, where a ballad first written down in the early 1800s tells of a man who goes there to “call on the Spectre Hound,” only for the nearby villagers to find his body the next morning, with marks “imprest on the dead man’s breast—but they seem’d not by mortal hand.”

While these locations sound great for sightseeing, I wouldn’t go there with the intention of finding the harbinger of death. If you have any stories about the Barghest, please email me or contact me on my socials because I’d love to hear them… the stories, not the Barghest!