The Martins Croft Poltergeist: The Devil of Ylöjärvi

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the frozen landscape of Finnish winter, 1885, the quiet croft of Efraim Martin in Ylöjärvi became the center of local attention thanks to a series of unexplainable events that saw almost the entire neighbourhood crowd into the small farmhouse. Rumours of the devils and demons wound through the township, as neighbors swore they saw an invisible force cause havoc throughout the otherwise peaceful home. The story spread like the winter frost, and soon the authorities themselves were forced to ask the question: was this trickery, or had the Devil truly come to Ylöjärvi?SOURCES Stenius, J. Harrison (2020) The Haunting of Martin’s Croft. Independently published, Finland Aamaluheti (1885) The Devil’s Tricks. Superstition or Spiritism? Aamaluheti, Thurs 22 Jan 1885, p4. Tammerfos, Finland. ------ For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at ⁠⁠⁠darkhistories.com ⁠⁠⁠ Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: ⁠⁠⁠http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories⁠⁠⁠ or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories⁠⁠⁠ The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: ⁠⁠⁠http://author.to/darkhistories⁠⁠⁠ Dark Histories merch is available here: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3GChjk9⁠⁠⁠ Connect with us on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast⁠⁠⁠ Or find us on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠http://twitter.com/darkhistories⁠⁠⁠ & Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/⁠⁠⁠ Or you can contact us directly via email at ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠ or join our Discord community: ⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf⁠⁠⁠ The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, this is Matt and McKinley from History Dispatches.
0:07.6	We are the father-son duo bringing you the weird, the wild, the wacky, and the craziest tales from across time.
0:13.2	From the Ice Bowl to the Great Heathen Army and the head of Oliver Cromwell.
0:17.6	The same head they kept on a pike for three years?
0:20.1	Yep, all here on
0:21.3	History Dispatches. New episodes every weekday. Find out more at history dispatches.com or wherever
0:27.5	you get your podcast app. In the frozen landscape of Finnish winter 1885, the quiet
0:35.4	croft of Ephraim Martin in Uliavi became the centre of local attention
0:40.0	thanks to a series of unexplainable events that saw almost the entire neighbourhood
0:44.3	crowd into the small farmhouse. Rumours of the devils and demons wound through the township
0:49.9	as neighbours swore that they saw an invisible force caused havoc throughout the otherwise peaceful home.
0:56.0	The stories spread like the winter frost, and soon the authorities themselves were forced to ask the question.
1:02.3	Was this trickery, or had the devil truly come to Uliavi?
1:07.0	It's the dark histories where the facts are worse than fiction.
1:20.6	Hello and welcome to Dark History Season 9 episode, I don't know, I think it's 18.
1:25.5	I'm Ben, your host as always, and this week got a couple of little short notices.
1:28.7	So first I'll just do with the simple one.
1:31.9	If you would like to take part in this year's Christmas campfire,
1:35.8	now is probably the time to send your story in between now and December.
1:38.3	But I'll start giving a quick shout out for it now.
1:41.5	If you're new to the podcast and you're not sure what it is,
1:44.4	this is something I do every year, every Christmas.
	...

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