Folklore & legend

The Spirits of Le Déhus

Also known as: Pouquelêh de Déhus; Dhus i gou

Le Déhus dolmen, Paradis, Vale

Neolithic; beliefs recorded 19th century

The Déhus stands a short way inland from the Vale coast, in an area of place-names that MacCulloch found suggestive: Paradis and Enfer (Paradise and Hell) close by, and the Hougues d'Enfer nearby. He could not explain those names, but wondered whether they had once belonged to superstitious usages linked to the old chapel of St Magloire just beyond the dolmen.

The excavation, by Frederick Lukis in the nineteenth century, found a large chamber with several side cells. There were bones of both sexes and all ages, a stone axe, pottery and limpet shells, and "two kneeling skeletons, side by side, but placed in opposite positions, that is to say, one looking towards the north, the other towards the south". It is not hard to see why such a tomb kept its reputation for ghosts.

Breton writers gave the name "Duz" to goblins who, like fairies, lived in dolmens, and MacCulloch linked these with the Déhus spirits. The same beings may be the fairies who moved the Castel church from the haunted field of Les Tuzés. The monument is recorded separately on this site as an earth mystery. This record covers its ghost and fairy lore. It is in the care of Guernsey Museums and can be entered, with a light switch inside.

Déhus dolmen is open to visitors; there is lighting inside the chamber.
Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
Open ground
Location
49.498, -2.507 (Sited to the building or field)

Sources: Edgar MacCulloch, ed. Edith F. Carey, "Guernsey Folk Lore" (1903), Project Gutenberg [public-domain]; Visit Guernsey, "Folklore from Hugo's Day" [other]

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