#gallows hill

[lexaprolexicon]

Finally finished this today. Such a good read. Also, it was a very easy read, in my opinion. Some of the stuff I'm reading is written in a way that requires a lot of brain power, but this book is written in a way that lets me get lost in the story. It feels very down to earth and conversational but in a very good way. Highly suggest it for anyone thinking about reading it!

[ducissatenebrarum]

Cute little 1703 illustration of the "Galge Berget" (Gallows Hill, with a tiny gallows drawn in there too for clarity) 

[iwontknowyouanymore]

bro how are you gonna tell a woman not to be worried about nooses hangin ousside her new house when a) she just moved in, b) she livin alone, and c) she just attended a funeral and too damn shook to even remember to charge her phone!?

not to mention, the author left her character racially ambiguous, and won’t say if the townfolk got ‘opinions’ on people who not all white. they did this girl dirty. run sis 😭

[hijasdecain]

[the-final-sentence]

It was clear and transparent as window glass.

Lois Duncan, from Gallows Hill

[horrorgems]

Louisa

[myhauntedsalem]

Gallows Hill Salem, Massachusetts

“This was the field where superstition won her darkest triumph […] the high place where our fathers set up their shame, to the mournful gaze of generations far remote. The dust of martyrs was beneath our feet. We stood on Gallows Hill.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Alice Doane’s Appeal, 1835 Almost two hundred years ago, famed author Nathaniel Hawthorne spent his afternoons wandering the depths of Salem, Massachusetts’ most notorious execution place.

Each afternoon, after spending the mornings penning his latest novels, Hawthorne took his children and brought them to Gallows Hill, where nineteen victims were put to death for witchcraft.

Legend has it that the descendants of the accused families would pass on the secret location of Gallows Hill to the family members who came after them. Nathaniel Hawthorne was the direct great-grandson of Judge John Hathorne (note the missing “w”), the man almost wholly responsible for standing trial for the accused and sentencing innocent people for practicing the evils of witchcraft.

Since the days of Hawthorne’s leisurely strolls through the woods, the specific location of Gallows Hill has been lost to time. Historians argue over its location in the same way that others fight over the identity of the Holy Grail; others, merely curious, spend the odd day or two reenacting Nathaniel Hawthorne’s pilgrimage with their wee ones in tow.

But where does Gallows Hill exist? And do the souls of the accused still haunt its blood-stained land?

It seems that we may never know, but that hasn’t stopped us from trying to parse this grisly, ghostly information together.

For decades, especially with the growing popularity of ghost tours, talk of ghosts roaming Gallows Hill has made for a spooky story.

Though we now know that Gallows Hill (the “famed” spot for Gallows Hill) is not the true hanging site of the 1692 victims, tales of ghosts and hauntings have nevertheless pervaded Salem’s paranormal culture.

Salem Night Tour owner, Tim Maguire, informed author Sam Baltrusis that Gallows Hill has a dark history outside of the witchcraft hysteria. In fact, Maguire claims that Gallows Hill has been the site of multiple suicides, as well as truly inexplicable phenomena.

There have been full-bodied apparitions spotted within the woods. Disembodied voices shrieking in the middle of the night, so eerie that the startling sound sends chills racing down the spines of even the most unflappable people.

But still, people worry about demonic happenings at Gallows Hill. In October of 1992, nearly two hundred people gathered together, all from various churches in the area. They desperately worried about the dark energy that stained Gallows Hill. The following day, The Salem Evening News claimed: “Before the formal program of singing and prayer began, a group of close to 100 gathered into a small, tight circle on top of Gallows Hill, raised their arms skyward and chanted, ‘The curse over Salem with witchcraft is broken.’ They then circled the town water tower on top of the hill, which is decorated with the drawing of a witch, and performed a ‘laying on of hands’ on the tower as a sign of spiritual healing.”

Respect for the dead, fear of the evils of witchcraft, and guilt for the slandering of the condemned has been a common reason why many believe Gallows Hill to be haunted. For many who visit, they are immediately consumed with a sense of foreboding dread. Ghost tour guides who once made the arduous trek up the hill with their guests no longer do so, convinced that something evil lurks in the depths of Gallows Hill. As one company put it, something occurs at the eerie spot and it’s not uncommon to see guests burst into tears upon entering the area.

Still, whether or not (and it’s most likely not) the spirits of the condemned still haunt the area, something is causing paranormal activity at the old Gallows Hill.

Strange sounds emerge from the area at night; knocking and thumping that wake the neighbors from their sleep. And, of course, the full-bodied apparitions said to walk the grounds certainly don’t make for a leisurely stroll through the park.

[thebestbookrecommendations]

Gallows Hill - Darcy Coates

The Hull family has owned the Gallows Hill Winery for generations, living and working on the beautiful grounds where they grow their famous grapes. Until the night Mr. and Mrs. Hull settle down for the evening...and are dead by morning. When their daughter, Margot, inherits the family business, she wants nothing to do with it. The winery is valued for its unparalleled produce, but it's built on a field where hundreds of convicts were once hanged, and the locals whisper morbid rumors. They say the ground is cursed. It's been more than a decade since Margot last saw her childhood home. But now that she's alone in the sprawling, dilapidated building, she begins to believe the curse is more than real―and that she may be the next victim of the house that never rests.

Read if You Like:

Horror

Gothic Horror

Paranormal/Supernatural Stories

Thrillers

Mysteries

Hauntings

Recommended if You Enjoy:

T. Kingfisher (The Twisted Ones, The Hollow Places)

V. E. Schwab (Gallant)

Carly Anne West (The Bargaining)

When Mouse’s dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother's house, she says yes. After all, how bad could it be? Answer: pretty bad. Grand

“Pray they are hungry.” Kara finds these words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house

Olivia Prior has grown up in Merilance School for girls, and all she has of her past is her mother’s journal—which seems to unravel into mad

The fact that neither of her parents wants to deal with her is nothing new to Penny. She’s used to being discussed like a problem, a problem

What I Liked:

It was decently scary, well written, and very engaging.

What I Could Have Lived Without:

The ending felt a little anticlimactic after all the build up.

The Rating: 4.5/5