S06-E08 - Vampires in the UK
Haunted UK Podcast: History, Hauntings and the Unexplained
Steven Holloway
4.5 • 652 Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2025
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Vampires are often treated as creatures of fiction.
But long before cinema, gothic novels and Dracula, people across Europe were opening graves, driving stakes through bodies, placing bricks in mouths, burning remains, and taking extraordinary measures against the fear that the dead might rise again.
In this episode of Haunted UK Podcast, we explore the folklore, history and alleged real-life cases of vampires — beginning with older European accounts before turning to some of Britain’s most unsettling vampire legends. From the infamous Croglin Vampire of Cumbria to the blood-soaked stories of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Hunderprest of Melrose Abbey, and the modern hysteria surrounding the Highgate Vampire, this is a journey through some of the strangest stories ever attached to graveyards, vaults, abbeys and old houses.
Along the way, the episode examines how vampire belief took hold, why certain burial customs were used to contain suspected revenants, and how fear, disease, folklore, violence, superstition and the occult all became entangled in the vampire myth.
Atmospheric, strange and historically rooted, this is a dark folklore investigation into the undead of Britain — and the enduring question of whether vampire stories are simply legend, or something older and more troubling that refused to stay buried.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Want to stay up to date with everything that's happening on the show? Or do you have a story that you'd like to submit for one of our listener stories episodes? You can get in touch with the show via the website at www.hunted UK Podcast.com, on Instagram at Haunted UK Podcast, on X at Haunted UK pod, or you can email us at contact us at haunted UK podcast.com. |
| 0:24.0 | We're also on Facebook and TikTok. |
| 0:26.6 | And if you want to support the show, you can do it via either Patreon or Coffee. |
| 0:31.3 | Both platforms have exactly the same content, but work in slightly different ways. |
| 0:36.0 | One of the advantages of Patreon is its sleek user interface, |
| 0:39.5 | but if you want to avoid those pesky additional charges, |
| 0:42.5 | Apple, Google and Patreon apply to your subscription, |
| 0:45.6 | then why not give coffee a try? |
| 0:47.6 | Simply open a browser window and type K-O-Hawnted UK-Four-Shunted UK podcast. |
| 0:55.3 | That's coffee forward slash haunted UK podcast, and you'll soon find us. |
| 1:00.7 | Whichever platform you choose, we're sure you'll enjoy the bonus content. |
| 1:04.3 | Thanks for listening and enjoy the episode. |
| 1:25.8 | Amelia lay awake for what seemed like hours, and with her windows closed but the shutters open, she decided to gaze out her window and admire the beautiful moonlit countryside. |
| 1:34.0 | Amelia's bedroom window gave her an ideal view of the large lawn and the border of trees, which stood between Cogland Grange and the old graveyard. |
| 1:49.0 | As her eyes scanned the silhouettes and shapes cast by the moonlight, she noticed that two small bright lights had now appeared in the tree line. |
| 1:55.0 | These lights were moving through the trees and steadily towards the lawn. |
| 2:00.0 | But what were they? I shined from an animal. moving through the trees and steadily towards the lawn. |
| 2:01.8 | But what were they? |
| 2:06.2 | I shined from an animal, possibly a fox. |
| 2:08.4 | Amelia doubted it, |
| 2:13.4 | as the lights appeared to be too high off the ground to be any animal. |
| 3:38.4 | Music moment....you know... The This is episode 58 of the Haunted UK podcast, and in this episode, we're going in search of vampires in the UK. For those of you who enjoy a good horror film, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Steven Holloway, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Steven Holloway and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.