A bogle, boggle, or bogill is a Northumbrian,[1] Cumbrian[2] and Scots term for a ghost or folkloric being,[3] used for a variety of related folkloric creatures including Shellycoats,[4] Barghests,[4] Brags,[4] the Hedley Kow[1][5] and even giants such as those associated with Cobb's Causeway[5] (also known as "ettins", "yetuns" or "yotuns" in Northumberland and "Etenes", "Yttins" or "Ytenes" in the South and South West).
[13] One of the most famous usages of the term was by Gavin Douglas, who was in turn quoted by Robert Burns at the beginning of Tam O' Shanter:[14] Of Brownyis and of Bogillis full is this Buke.There is a popular story of a bogle known as Tatty Bogle, who would hide himself in potato fields (hence his name) and either attack unwary humans or cause blight within the patch.
In this ghostly ode, the Bogle is heard in the wind and in the trees to "fricht wee weans" (frighten small children).
In the Scottish Lowlands circa 1950, a bogle was a ghost as was a bogeyman, and a Tattie-Bogle was a scarecrow, used to keep creatures out of the potato fields.
[18][19][20] The Larne Weekly Reporter of 31 March 1866, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, carried a front-page article entitled Bogles in Ballygowan, detailing strange goings on in a rural area where a particular house became the target for missiles being thrown through windows and on one occasion through the roof.