black dog: a ghost, an inn, a town

In Devon, UK, near Dartmoor, you may find your way to the village of Black Dog. (It's near Washford Pyne and Morchard Bishop, if that helps.) While you are there perhaps you might like to stop at the inn placed at the town's crossroads, also called The Black Dog Inn. (Here is their menu.) You probably at some point will wonder precisely whose black dog started all this.

The answer? No one's. The Black Dog belonged to himself. The tale is told that during the English Civil War the Dog stood guard in front of the tunnel leading from the local well to Berry Castle nearby. Guarding what? Hoping to catch wrongdoers? Barring access to treasure?

He has been seen now and again over the years, as this tale from 1993 may convince you. And here is a bit more of his history.

Just FYI for black dog ghost tourists, another black dog kept his territory at Uplyme.