Up to no good? Divert attention Norfolk-style by summoning a ravenous, fire-breathing hellhound! And if you can’t find one, there’s always a sheep in wolf’s clothing…

Tales of Black Shuck, Norfolk’s monstrous, one-eyed demon dog, weren’t just fireside yarns spun on wild nights when the wind came howling in from the sea. They were also used as distractions by a shadowy network of smugglers and their accomplices.

Legend has it that anyone who sees Black Shuck is doomed to die, but in case that wasn’t  terrifying enough Norfolk’s smugglers had another trick to discourage prying eyes. They dressed a huge black ram as the Shuck, his face up-lit by a lantern on his collar to cast distorting shadows, a trick later used in horror films.

Moving contraband cross country was a lucrative business and, when waterways were being watched, quiet green lanes and ancient tracks like Peddars Way were favoured routes for slipping under the noses of any revenue men who couldn’t be bribed.

Peddars Way runs from the wooded Brecks close to Thetford to the coast near Hunstanton. The section north of Massingham was once so busy with nefarious traffic that locals called it Smugglers’ Way and the sandy track near Bodney was known as Smugglers’ Road.

To experience these haunting paths as smugglers once did, take a winter walk in their footsteps. The perfect prelude to a cosy night of seasonal ghost stories.

Wait! What’s that sound? Probably just the wind…