Where the Map Ends

Oct 15, 2026

Punkie Night's Hollow Lanterns

In Somerset, children still carve lanterns from mangel-wurzel beets and parade them through the dark on the last Thursday of October, a custom older and stranger than Halloween's pumpkin.

Oct 14, 2026

The Púca's Blackberry Night

A field account of the Púca, Ireland's shape-shifting trickster spirit, and the old warning that the blackberries turn foul after Samhain because the Púca has already been through the brambles.

Oct 13, 2026

The Nutcrack Fires of Halloween

A look at Nutcrack Night, the Scottish and northern English Halloween custom of burning paired hazelnuts on the hearth to divine whether a courtship would end in marriage or in parting.

Oct 12, 2026

The Bone Fires of Samhain

A look at Samhain, the old Gaelic turning of the year behind Halloween, and the hilltop bonfires once lit to hold back what crossed over on that night.

Oct 7, 2026

Samhain, Before It Was Halloween

A look at Samhain, the Gaelic festival of the thinning veil, and the slaughter-season bonfires and bone harvests that once marked the start of winter.

Oct 2, 2026

The Last Lantern on the Street

A field note on the jack-o'-lantern, from Stingy Jack's doomed coal-lit turnip to the one carved light that always seems to burn longest on the street.

Sep 29, 2026

The Century Walk of the Green Man

An account of the Green Man, Britain's foliate-headed spirit of the greenwood, and the local legend of his once-a-century Greenwalk through orchard, field and oak.

Sep 21, 2026

The Night the Black Horse Comes

A look at the púca, the shapeshifting night spirit of Irish and wider Celtic folklore, and the blackberry and harvest lore still tied to its name.

Aug 3, 2026

The Face That Grows Leaves

A record of the foliate heads carved into English and Welsh churches, and the strange, still-unsettled question of what — or who — they were made to represent.