1)Pendle Hill, Lancashire
A young woman named Alizon Device begged peddler John Law for some of the metal pins he was transporting from town to town on a spring day in 1612 as he was strolling down a route near Colne in Lancashire. The vendor declined. Later, with one side of his body paralysed, he collapsed to the ground. Later, Alizon admitted her involvement and claimed a ghost in the form of a black dog had approached her on the road and offered to punish the peddler.
So started the series of occasions that resulted in the Pendle witch trials. Alizon would be executed by hanging on the moors close to Lancaster four months later, along with nine other people who had been judged guilty of performing evil magic. Four more centuries later, Pendle Hill, which towers menacingly over the Lancashire towns below, has come to represent the Pendle witches.
2)Schiehallion, Perthshire
Its name, which means "Fairy Hill of the Caledonians," is appropriately situated almost in the middle of the Scottish mainland. The Caledonians are fiercely protective supernatural beings who have a history of pulling intruders into the underworld. They are not your typical Disney Tinkerbell. In Irish and Scottish folklore, the Cailleach Bheur, a blue hag who freezes the landscape, opposes the arrival of spring, and metes out freezing death to hapless travellers, is claimed to make her home there (or ill-prepared hill walkers.)
3)Mount Prisank, Slovenia
A rock formation known as Ajdovska deklica, sometimes known as the "Heathen Maiden," is claimed to resemble a woman's face in an uncannily accurate portrayal à la Picasso.
A kindly pagan giantess is said to have once foretold the birth of a lad who would grow up to kill a golden-horned chamois and become wealthy as a result, according to local folklore. Before she could say, "Don't shoot the messenger," her fellow maidens had rather harshly turned her into stone out of anger at the prophecy and intended to punish her.
4)Kailash, Tibet
The slopes of Kailash are the source of four of Asia's longest rivers, and four ancient religions revere it.
Shiva the Destroyer resides atop it, according to Hindu mythology. It is close to a mountain where the first "Tirthankara" of Jainism attained enlightenment. For adherents of Bön, the Tibetan religion that predates Buddhism, the area where it is located is the source of all spiritual force. Buddhists believe that it is the residence of Buddha Demchok, who is said to stand for supreme bliss. A holy ceremony, some followers even walk the 32-mile circumambulation of the mountain while bowing their heads at each step.
No one has ever scaled Kailash. Hugh Ruttledge deemed its 6,000-foot-high north face, which overlooks the Tibetan plateau, to be "utterly unclimbable" in 1926.
