Hairy Hands

The Hairy Hands is a ghost story/legend that built up about a stretch of road on a remote area of Dartmoor in the English county of Devon, which was purported to have seen an unusually high number of motor vehicle accidents during the early 20th century.

In many cases, the victims reported that their vehicle had jolted or swerved violently and steered off the side of the road, as if something had taken hold of the wheels and wrenched it out of their control.

Their experiences remained a local curiosity, until June 1921, when E.H. Helby, the medical officer for Dartmoor Prison, was killed when he lost control of his motorcycle combination.

Then, on 26 August 1921, an army captain reported that a pair of invisible hands had taken hold of him and forced his motorcycle off the road,[2] after which the story was picked up by newspapers in London and became known nationwide.

The legend was linked to witchcraft in the short play 'The Hairy Hand of Dartmoor' by Michael McStay, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 8 February 1999.