Rowan & Pine: A Feminist Folklore & Mythology Podcast - July 25, 2025


Pine Cones： Corpse Roads ｜ Rowan & Pine Shorts

Episode Forty-Five： Inanna, The Final Girl - Full bush⧸no bush (with Ewan) Episode Forty-six： Astrology Part 1 - Final Boss Scorpio (with Megan)

Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

130.75

Word count

1,755

Sentence count

73

Harmful content

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Now it is that time of night that the graves all gaping wide, everyone lets forth his sprite
00:00:13.460 in the churchway paths to glide. Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare.
00:00:19.700 long ago when roads were little more than cattle tracks and the dead had to be carried on the
00:00:31.980 shoulders of the living there were places along the way where a coffin might be set down to rest
00:00:37.940 and where that happened something lingered they called it the stray
00:00:44.300 walk across such a spot by moonlight and light will do you no good you'll be turned around
00:00:52.360 not in body but in sense you'll end up wandering the same patch of earth over and over again
00:00:59.300 thinking that you're bound for home but your own gate never appears
00:01:03.640 no matter how you twist or turn the ground just won't let you go
00:01:08.620 even if someone is with you
00:01:11.380 someone who sees the path clearly
00:01:13.440 they can't bring you out of it
00:01:15.280 you're alone inside the stray
00:01:17.400 Paddy Dunn from County Sligo in Ireland
00:01:21.600 reportedly learned that the hard way
00:01:34.160 Corpse Roads
00:01:35.360 Corpse Roads
00:01:35.400 often known as Coffin Roads
00:01:37.640 lichways, beerways or burial paths were historic routes used to carry the dead from rural homesteads
00:01:45.500 to churches that had burial rites. Born of necessity in remote parts of medieval Europe
00:01:52.160 these sombre trails wove through moor and woodland over streams and stiles. The last journey of the
00:01:59.280 dead. In many areas, particularly Ireland and Upland Britain, the surrounding farms had no
00:02:08.060 church nearby. Only one mother church in the district had the right to consecrated burial
00:02:14.280 and so the deceased had to be carried, sometimes for miles, across difficult country. These paths
00:02:22.260 emerged out of a blend of religious necessity, geographic isolation and a deeply held belief
00:02:29.020 in the importance of a proper Christian burial.
00:02:42.620 These roads were normally as straight as possible.
00:02:46.200 The shortest route was thought not only to be practical,
00:02:49.360 but also the most spiritually sound.
00:02:52.340 A straight path helped the soul travel swiftly and surely,
00:02:55.620 but a winding road was said to confuse the spirit.
00:03:00.760 In the Netherlands, for instance, Charlemagne ordered that burial roads be laid straight just for this reason.
00:03:07.720 In the Gouy region, seven straight paths known as Doodwegen converged in one cemetery.
00:03:15.980 Many of these routes crossed through private land, leading to the belief, mistaken but widely held,
00:03:22.140 that a coffin being carried through a field
00:03:24.520 turned it legally into a public right-of-way.
00:03:28.760 Some farmers left unplowed strips along edges of their field
00:03:32.400 that were wide enough to carry a coffin without touching the crop.
00:03:37.780 In Ireland, land crossed by a funeral was often considered tainted or cursed.
00:03:42.080 in some communities particularly in costa rica and upland sweden evidence of ancient corpse
00:03:55.120 routes has been discovered built along spiritual or ceremonial lines the viking cult road at rosa
00:04:02.420 ring for example was used to carry chieftains in ceremonial wagons along these routes just like
00:04:10.380 in Ireland you might find resting stones, large flat boulders used by pallbearers to stop and rest
00:04:16.420 without placing the coffin on the ground. Coffins themselves were often made of wicker,
00:04:22.040 much lighter and easier to carry than wood and these stones too became fixed places in the
00:04:27.720 landscape known by name and reputation. Some of the churches at the end of the journey had a
00:04:35.200 dedicated death's door or leper's door, only used for bringing in corpses. The body would never pass
00:04:41.800 through the same entrance as the living. Death, like birth and marriage, had its own threshold.
00:04:49.740 Corpse roads were more than practical paths. They were lines of power, haunted places.
00:04:56.820 They were thought to be the tracks the dead would take again and again. A ghost, once it walked the
00:05:02.640 path to the grave would walk it over and over in the spirit world. To prevent the dead from
00:05:07.820 returning traditions evolved. Bodies were always carried feet first so the soul would not be able
00:05:14.160 to find its way back. Sometimes the coffin would be turned or spun at a crossroads to confuse the
00:05:20.380 ghost. At some churches the procession circled a cross three times sunwise before burial just to
00:05:27.540 make sure. Water was a strong defence. Ghosts can't cross running water, so many corpse roads
00:05:34.900 were ridded deliberately over streams or fords. Dartmoor's Lichway, for instance, crosses eight
00:05:41.700 or nine streams depending on the path taken. This created a sort of supernatural barrier,
00:05:48.020 ensuring that the dead stayed where they were laid.
00:05:50.280 but even with precautions things went wrong lights appeared along the paths corpse candles
00:05:59.220 or you might know them as will-o'-the-wisps these glowing orbs skimmed low along the earth
00:06:05.320 often seen the night before the death they were said to travel from the home of the soon-to-die
00:06:11.000 to the churchyard tracing the path the coffin was yet to take
00:06:14.900 in ireland where a coffin had once rested a stone was drawn and left over time cairns of these stones
00:06:24.480 actually built up because people passing by would add another whisper a blessing or a warning that
00:06:30.860 the place had been touched by death and you better not forget that lone bushes grew around these
00:06:36.860 cairns white thorn especially said to shelter spirits that would curse anyone who dared cut them
00:06:43.200 some believe that the paths were not just used by human souls but by otherworldly beings
00:06:56.260 fairy funerals were reported along these ways tiny processions bearing invisible coffins
00:07:02.840 gray spectral mares pulling phantom wagons fairy hosts heading off to war and if a house was built
00:07:11.740 to cross one of these roads. The inhabitants could expect nothing but bad luck, illness or worse.
00:07:21.200 On Sowin, the dead were said to travel their old corpse paths to visit their earthly homes.
00:07:27.620 Others spoke of spectral dogs or the clop of hooves where no horse could be seen.
00:07:34.340 Uncle Tom Cobley and his grey mare, this is a Devon song and story, may have begun as a tale
00:07:41.020 of just such an encounter with a ghostly funeral procession.
00:07:45.660 And then there were the devil stories,
00:07:48.720 that he walked these paths at midnight following his own dead
00:07:52.460 or seeking new souls to collect.
00:07:59.940 Dartmoor's Lichway is perhaps the most famous of the corpse roads.
00:08:03.920 A 12-mile path crossing bleak moorland,
00:08:07.000 it once linked remote ancient settlements to the Mother Church
00:08:10.620 at Lydford. The route becomes even longer in poor weather and it's said the dead still walk it on
00:08:16.980 sound, the spirits weaving between the gorse and granite. The path deliberately crosses multiple
00:08:22.200 watercourses, serving not just geography but belief. Each stream and invisible line a ghost
00:08:28.000 can't pass on its return. In Cumbria, coffin trails wind through the valleys near Rydal and
00:08:37.280 grasmere some paths are still marked with resting stones old-style steps and worn ground while
00:08:44.240 certain fields once crossed by these processions are rumored to be barren to this day even now
00:08:50.320 walkers have reported a strange hush or the sensation of being watched
00:08:54.560 those death roads in the rainforests of costa rica even show up in nasa mapping
00:09:03.480 Archaeologists' work have revealed straight ceremonial roads built by ancient peoples leading between burial mounds.
00:09:10.580 Though now overgrown, the land still bears these ghostly scars, tracks built for spirits as much as for feet.
00:09:26.240 Chinese history offers another eerie parallel.
00:09:29.160 In Hunan, Taoist corpse carriers once transported the bodies of workers who had died far from home.
00:09:36.460 Using long bamboo poles, they created the illusion of bodies hopping, leading to tales of the Jiangxi hopping vampires.
00:09:45.400 To avoid bad luck, these processions travelled only by night, ringing bells to warn the living to keep their distance.
00:09:52.800 It's said that the cooler night air helped preserve the bodies, but perhaps it also kept other things quiet.
00:09:59.160 to. Today many corpse roads have faded into bramble and field but the land remembers. Old place names
00:10:13.920 linger. Coffinwood, Deadman's Lane, Churchpath, Churchford, Corpse Lane or Coffinmill. These names
00:10:22.140 are often the only signs of what once passed there. Signs that something moved slowly, heavily
00:10:27.700 across the land with purpose.
00:10:33.180 Resting stones can also still be found.
00:10:36.040 Flat slabs by the side of forgotten tracks,
00:10:39.240 mossy with age.
00:10:41.220 In Dartmoor, the coffin stone still lies
00:10:43.460 in the Whitecombe Churchway,
00:10:45.480 where pallbearers pause to gather their strength.
00:10:49.500 Hikers today might follow these trails,
00:10:52.160 unknowingly walking the paths of the dead.
00:10:54.980 Some could report a chill on the warmest day or an odd silence in the rustling of the trees.
00:11:01.600 Maybe they feel like they're not alone.
00:11:03.840 Walk these paths with care.
00:11:05.740 Step softly.
00:11:06.940 Don't block the way.
00:11:09.240 And if you feel the cold close in, if the road turns unfamiliar,
00:11:13.220 if the moon seems to flicker, stop and sit and wait for morning.
00:11:17.580 paddy dunn that poor soul was caught by the stray in his own land he was crossing what was known
00:11:27.540 colloquially as the big field with his wife at his side when the land turned against him
00:11:32.660 he couldn't find his way not forward nor back his wife begged him to follow her but it was as if he
00:11:39.580 couldn't hear her couldn't see what she saw at last she made him sit down on the grass they stayed
00:11:46.020 there for a long time cold and lost in the dark until they saw a light bobbing near it was actually
00:11:52.880 their own neighbors coming from the very house they'd left hours before they hadn't gotten far
00:11:58.520 at all but paddy could not be reached today the big field is still there and people still take a
00:12:11.440 wide berth of the resting place at night just in case some paths don't forget and some souls like
00:12:18.360 paddy dunn once walked never stop walking the land remembers 0.99
00:12:23.880 thanks for listening and fuck yeah 0.97
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