Horror Research Reveals: The Corpse Roads of England

Because nothing says, “rest in peace” like a haunted footpath through the middle of nowhere.

There’s something deeply unnerving about old roads.

Not highways. Not quaint cobbled lanes. I’m talking about the narrow, moss-covered footpaths that wind between fields and forests in the English countryside—places where your phone signal disappears, and the trees start whispering things you really hope are just the wind.

Now imagine carrying a dead body along one of them.

Welcome to the Corpse Roads.

What Are Corpse Roads?

Back in medieval England, many remote villages didn’t have cemeteries. So, when someone died (as people were prone to do), their body had to be carried by foot to the nearest consecrated ground—sometimes miles away.

Enter the corpse road, also called a lych way or coffin path. These trails were literally trodden by the dead, again and again, until the paths themselves felt carved from grief and ritual.

And, of course, folklore being what it is, those roads are now famously not empty.

Ghosts, Lights & Lingerers

Corpse Roads quickly gained a reputation for being thin places—where the veil between the living and dead was sheer as mist. Local superstitions bloomed like fungus:

• Never build your house over a corpse road unless you enjoy unexplained cold spots and waking up to a ghostly funeral parade in your hallway.

• Stones, crosses, and even iron gates were installed along the paths to keep spirits from… looping back.

• Many travellers reported phantom lights, murmuring voices, and the sense of being watched—even followed.

Honestly, who needs horror movies when you have medieval ghost traffic?

Corpse Roads That Still Whisper

Want to go ghost-hunting on foot? Here are some of the most notorious corpse roads in England:

• The Lych Way (Dartmoor): A desolate 12-mile stretch where monks once bore the dead through mist and moor. Still eerily silent. Still unsettling.

• The Coffin Path (Cumbria): Scenic. Windy. And home to the ghost of a headless traveller because, of course, it is.

• Corpse Road of Rosedale (North Yorkshire): Rumoured to host an annual phantom funeral procession. If you see lanterns bobbing in the distance, maybe don’t follow them.

Unless, of course, you’re writing a story about what happens when someone does.

Folklore or Something More?

Are these just eerie old trails with excellent marketing? Or did the act of repeated mourning, over centuries, really leave a kind of spiritual imprint?

Some believe the trauma of death rites—grief, ritual, the literal weight of the dead—etched itself into these paths. Others argue it’s just the power of suggestion (but those people have never walked alone through Dartmoor at dusk).

Final Thought: Don’t Look Back

Corpse Roads may be relics of a bygone time—but their legends still walk.

So next time you find yourself on a lonely path in the English countryside…

Feel the chill.

Hear the rustle.

And maybe, just maybe, don’t turn around.