The Hell Hound of Suffolk

In the ruins of Leiston Abbey, in Suffolk - England, archaeologists discovered the skeleton of a huge, massive canine-like creature that would have stood seven feet tall on its hind legs. There was a legend in these parts which spoke of a hellhound named Black Shuck. The creature with flaming red eyes and a rugged black coat, used to terrorize the villagers of that area, and the remains of the creature found by the archaeologists are precisely near the area of the legend.

The name Shuck derives from the Old English word scucca, which means a "demon". The creature is one of the many ghostly black dogs recorded across the British Isles.  Its alleged appearance during a storm on the 4th of August, 1577 at the Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh, is a very famous account of the creature, in which legend says that thunder caused the doors of the church to burst open and the snarling beast crashed in and ran through the congregation, killing a man and a boy before it fled when the steeple collapsed.

The remains of the massive canine creature which was found in the dig site, which is estimated to have weighed 200 pounds, were found just a few miles from the two churches where Black Shuck killed the worshippers. It appears to have been buried in a shallow grave at precisely the same time as Shuck is said to have been on the loose, primarily around Suffolk and the East Anglia region.

Radio carbon dating tests will be carried out to give an exact age for the bones. There is still no proof that these remains belong to a legendary creature, maybe it was probably a huge hunting dog. Regardless of the outcome, it is unlikely to change the iconography of the local area, which relies on stories of Black Shuck to attract curious visitors and tourists.