I must admit, I kind of gawked at the Bolam Beast stories.
Last week, however, I was on a woodland conservation project working in Borough Woods not far from Morpeth and I guess about ten miles, maybe less from Bolam Country Park.
Naturally, being an avid FT reader I was regaling a couple of my colleagues with the story of "the beast" as nobody, except one or two of the local project officers, had heard of it.
At the end of the first day's work, we were heading back to base on foot as it was a lovely evening, along the River Wansbeck, when there was the oddest noise from up the top of the site where we had been working. I can only describe it as a tremendous scream, but it didn't sound like any animal I've ever heard and it didn't sound very human either.
Everybody looked up to where the noise was coming from but due to the density of trees we couldn't see a thing. We just shrugged our shoulders and carried on.
It certainly wasn't a bird and I couldn't see it being one of the other examples of wildlife that live in the vicinity (red squirrel, roe deer, otter, fox or badger).
It certainly spooked me at the time though. Following that whenever I got the chance though the week, I'd have a look for any mysterious footprints, which should have been evident given the muddy conditions...but of course, found nothing.
My chance to enter the history books on the back of my BHM experience backed up with hard evidence thwarted!
My main concern, if I were to join such a jaunt (and I would very much like to), is that the assumption has already been made about a few things. One shouldn't assume that any old Iron Age or earlier sites necessarily have any folklore attached to them. Folkore can be misleading; sometimes a tall tale to try and explain why something exists in the landscape. And it doesn't necessarily have any links at all with any pagan past. One sure-fire way of seeing if there actually is any connection is to check out the local folklore first, just in case 
