The Last of the Boons

High above Dartmouth, where the River Dart carves its shimmering path through South Devon’s embrace, Mount Boon cradles a shadowed legacy beneath the modern naval college—a tale of Squire Richard Boon and his daughter Eleanor, whose broken promise in 1715 unleashed a vengeful spirit that haunts the hill with unearthly wails and the gallop of a spectral “link-horse.” Once a manor of wealth and warmth, the squire’s home became a prison of restless fury after his death, his ghost tormenting Eleanor and her forbidden love, James, with crashing furniture, dancing flames, and a chilling bargain that claimed her life by 1719. Though bound by an impossible task—to empty the Dart with a pierced cockle-shell—Squire Boon’s wrath lingers, his presence felt in the fog-draped nights when hooves thunder and the air hums with a father’s unyielding grief.