The word 'boggart' is especially associated with
Lancashire. But distribution maps show that "Boggartdom" (the area in which stories of boggarts are found) extended to northern
Cheshire, much of
Derbyshire, northern
Lincolnshire, the old
West Riding of Yorkshire, parts of the
North Riding, the fringes of
Westmorland, and perhaps
Nottinghamshire, and possibly, at one time, as far north as
Cleveland and as far south as
Skegness. In other parts of northern England and the Scottish
Lowlands, alternative 'bog' words were used such as '
bogie' and '
bogle'. A variety of geographic locations and architectural landmarks have been named for the boggart. Most famously there is a large
municipal park called
Boggart Hole Clough, which is bordered by Moston and
Blackley in
Manchester. "Clough" is a northern dialect word for a steep-sided, wooded valley; a large part of Boggart Hole Clough is made up of these valleys and is said to be inhabited by boggarts. The clough is the setting for many boggart stories, including one of how a local farmer, George Cheetham, and his family were forced to leave their home due to the torment inflicted by a boggart. However, as they were taking their possessions away in a cart, the voice of the boggart was heard issuing from a milk-churn on the cart. Unable to escape the boggart, they returned to their farm. There is a Boggart Stones on
Saddleworth Moor where the
Moors Murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, buried the bodies of Pauline Reade and Lesley Ann Downey, children they had abducted, in 1963 and 1964. The children's bodies were buried just below the location, and in sight of, Boggart Stones (OS Map 1864). There is a Boggart Bridge in Burnley,
Lancashire. Tradition says that whoever crosses the bridge must give a living thing to the boggart or forfeit his or her soul. Boggarts Roaring Holes are a group of
potholes on the
moors of Newby Moss near
Clapham in the
Yorkshire Dales. Legend has it that these potholes are the dwelling place of grotesque flesh-eating boggarts whose angry growls have allegedly been heard reverberating from the depths of the dark caverns beneath (hence the name). In the
Seacroft area of
Leeds in
West Yorkshire there is a
council estate named Boggart Hill; Boggart Hill Drive, Boggart Hill Gardens and Boggart Hill were all given the name of the estate area. Boggard Lane, between the villages of
Oughtibridge and
Worrall in South Yorkshire, is generally believed to derive from the term "boggart". There is also a Boggart Lane at
Skelmanthorpe. On
Puck, a moon of
Uranus, there is a crater named Bogle, in deference to the system of
nomenclature on this satellite, whose features are all named after various mischievous spirits. == The Boggart Census ==