From waterfalls and windswept islands to ethereal forests and sacred mountains, some of our planet’s most incredible natural wonders aren’t just pretty to look at. Hidden beneath the surface are often fascinating myths and mystical histories tightly wound around them, passed down through centuries of storytelling traditions that shape whole communities and cultures.
Click through to discover amazing wild places to visit around the world that are rich in lore and legend...
One of the most awesome stops on Norway’s scenic Flam Railway, the Kjosfossen waterfall looks almost like smoke as it crashes into the black rocks that cradle it. As passengers make their way down to the water’s edge to stretch their legs, they blink in disbelief at the sight of an unearthly woman dancing in front of the falls. Dressed in red, she is said to be a huldra – a siren-like creature from Norse mythology hoping to coax men into the forest and seduce them.
Perhaps the world’s most famous place with a mythical connection, the murky depths of northern Scotland’s Loch Ness have long been written into folklore as the domain of a mysterious beast. The Loch Ness monster ('Nessie') is universally believed to be dinosaur-like in form, with a long neck and humped back like a brontosaurus. While accounts of Nessie can be traced back more than 1,500 years, its existence has never been scientifically proven. Nevertheless, as of November 2023, there were over 1,100 sightings being investigated.
Every Walpurgisnacht (the last night of April), legend dictates that a coven of witches meet at the summit of the Brocken, the highest point of Germany’s Harz mountain range. These tales of revelling witches are so entrenched in Saxon lore that they have a hiking trail designed around them. The Harz Witches’ Trail, or Harzer-Hexen-Stieg, carves a 60-mile (100km) path through this eerie landscape of dark forests, echoing valleys, misty peaks and medieval towns.
In ancient Irish mythology, Medb (Maeve in English) was a formidable warrior queen from Connacht who waged two bloody wars against Ulster, actively participating in combat where war goddesses from other belief systems would often only contribute with magic. While she ruled from Rathcroghan in Co. Roscommon, Queen Medb is now more commonly associated with Sligo. It is here, atop the limestone hill of Knocknarea, that she is said to be buried upright beneath a cairn – armed with a spear and facing Ulster, always ready for battle.
On the island of Kyushu, hidden in the heart of an emerald wilderness intersected by leafy tracts and dramatic gorges, is one of Japan’s most legendary sites. This cave, near Takachiho in northern Miyazaki, holds the Shinto shrine of Ama-No-Iwato-Jinja. It is dedicated to Amaterasu, the sun goddess, who withdrew to the cave to escape her volatile brother Susanoo, the storm god, taking all the light of the world with her. She was eventually lured out by her fellow deities, lifting the spell of darkness.
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Deemed sacred by many of Kenya’s tribes, including the Maasai, Kikuyu and Embu, Mount Kenya is the African continent’s second-highest mountain and an extinct stratovolcano. The spiritual beliefs and myths surrounding the mountain are embedded in the cultures of the communities that live around it; to the Kikuyu people, Mount Kenya is called Kirinyaga and is the site of where the supreme god Ngai gave the first man and woman a place to live. Ngai watched from his throne atop Kirinyaga as Kenya’s first children were born.
Myth and mystery have always swirled around the Devils Tower, an unusual monolith looming above the Black Hills in America’s Wild West. Contemporary whisperings would have you believe that aliens created it, but the area’s Native American peoples have considered the rock sacred since ancient times. While different tribes have their own origin stories for the Devils Tower, the Sioux believe the Great Spirit raised it from beneath the ground to protect two boys from a giant bear, which left its claw marks etched in the rockface.
In the Arthurian legends of Breton tradition, the ancient forest of Broceliande (or Paimpont Forest as it is also known) is the final resting place of the wizard Merlin, trusted advisor to the fabled King Arthur. Aside from Merlin’s supposed tomb, nestled among this blend of age-old deciduous and coniferous trees is also the ominous Valley of No Return, where the sorceress Morgan le Fay imprisoned adulterous men. With gnarly oaks, fairy pools and purportedly enchanted fountains, this woodland has myth and magic woven into its roots.
The eponymous hero of Homer’s Odyssey came across the Cyclopean Isles – home to the one-eyed, man-eating giant Polyphemus – while attempting to return to his homeland from the Trojan War. Lying just off Sicily’s east coast, grey boulders and gloomy sea stacks shape the coastline of these mythical islands, where Odysseus was held captive by the cyclops before managing to escape with some of his men. Today, the Cyclopean Isles can be seen on sailing trips and boat tours from Catania and the nearby town of Aci Trezza.
Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) is one of Australia’s most recognised sights, but it is also ingrained in Aboriginal folklore. A designated national park brings together this sacred sandstone mound with another unique rock formation in the Red Centre – Kata Tjuta (pictured). Comprising 36 boulders, Kata Tjuta (or the Olgas) appears in several Dreamtime legends, including those that tell of the great snake king Wanambi who lived atop Mount Olga, the highest dome in the park.
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The southwesternmost tip of England is packed full of mythology and folklore. From the terrifying Beast of Bodmin, a black panther-like creature said to stalk Bodmin Moor, to yarns spun about mermaids, giants, piskies (pixies) and legendary doomed lovers, Cornwall is a land built on stories. Tintagel Castle (pictured), on the county’s north coast, is also said to be the birthplace of legendary King Arthur; while today’s ruins are too young to have stood when he was born, there is evidence here of an earlier settlement.
In ancient Greek mythology, a fire-breathing hybrid monster exists with the features of a lion, a goat and a snake. Made famous by Homer’s Iliad, the legend of the chimera is said to have been inspired by this fiery mountain in modern-day Turkey. From afar, Yanartas appears ordinary. But approach the summit and you’ll find flames flickering from the rocky surface that have been burning for at least 2,500 years, kept alive by methane gas. Though the chimera was slain by the hero Bellerophon, her breath burns on.
Just two hours from Bogota, Lake Guatavita is a mystical oasis tucked away in the Colombian Andes. A sacred site to the Indigenous Muisca civilisation, the almost perfectly circular lagoon attracted international attention when rumours of its untold treasures made it to Europe. And so the myth of the golden empire of El Dorado was born. However, its reality is tied to a historic Muisca ritual where the tribal chief would sail to the centre of the lake and drop offerings of gold and jewels into Lake Guatavita for the goddess of water.
Mount Olympus needs little introduction. The mythological abode of Zeus, Hera and 10 other gods and goddesses from ancient Greek culture is a real mountain (the highest in Greece) that forms the centrepiece of the country’s oldest national park. From their divine peak, the Olympians are said to have feasted and drank to the soundtrack of Apollo’s lyre, as well as squabbled over the fates of the mere mortals below. According to the Odyssey, Olympus never has storms or clouds, though its snowy reality suggests otherwise.
Crafted by the seismic might of three active volcanoes, Tongariro National Park is a place of immense elemental majesty and deep spiritual importance to New Zealand’s Maori peoples. In Maori belief, the mountains that make up this landscape were once great gods and warriors; all but one of them were male, who fought for the love of Pihanga with eruptions of passionate fire. Mount Tongariro emerged victorious and has stood by Pihanga’s side ever since.
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This foreboding swathe of coastal forest shivers with a number of urban legends and ghost stories. The most harrowing is that of the Jersey Devil, a cryptid said to have been born in 1735 as the 13th child of a woman named Deborah Leeds. After killing its mother, the hellish infant flew up the chimney and escaped into the Pine Barrens on its leather wings, where it has allegedly been slaying livestock ever since. So if you’re walking in the Barrens and spy something with the head of a goat, a forked tail and cloven hooves, run for your life.
Decorating the shoreline of Iceland’s most-visited black sand beach are a collection of inky basalt columns and barbed rocks (Reynisdrangar) that protrude ominously from the barrelling North Atlantic. In Icelandic folklore, these stacks began life as dark-dwelling trolls who were one day turned to stone at sunrise. Unaware of the approaching dawn, a pair of trolls were wrestling with a three-masted ship when daylight struck their skin and instantly petrified them for eternity.
Located in Canada’s remote subarctic north, Torngat Mountains National Park is an ancestral homeland of Labrador Inuit that thrums with mystical energy. Inuit mythology and spirituality revolves around the interdependence of humans, animals and the land, with traditional stories passed down orally by the community’s elders over generations. These tales are intended to be both entertaining and enlightening, often teaching the listener morals and principles around strength, survival, family, and matters of right and wrong.
This forested site in central Poland holds 12 separate stone circles, all dating back to the time of the Goths (the 1st and 2nd century AD). The Iron Age rings of Odry are steeped in legend – perhaps their legacy of malevolent magic and witchcraft is what has kept them so well preserved, with few people daring to venture near. Though, by contrast, some of those who have stepped inside the circles claim to have been touched by a calming, healing power.
On the edge of the Basque Country in northern Spain, the province of Biscay is a wild and weather-pummelled plain with a penchant for pagan mythology, named for the North Atlantic inlet that kisses its coastline. Where the Bay of Biscay meets Bermeo, a colourful fishing town, there sits a statue of a lamia named Xixili. As dictated by maritime Basque legend, a lamia was an amphibious woman known to bewitch local fishermen and sailors to the point of either marrying them or drowning them.
If the legends are true, then Lucifer himself built the steeply arched bridge that stands in east Germany’s Kromlauer Park. Known as the Devil’s Bridge (Rakotzbrucke), one myth surrounding its origins states that Satan constructed the crossing after striking a deal with an old woman, whose cow had got lost on the other side of the water. The devil promised he’d build a bridge for the woman in exchange for a human soul, but she tricked him with a dog instead – which did not go down well. In revenge, Satan cursed the bridge.
The world’s highest navigable lake, Titicaca lies at 12,500 feet (3,810m) above sea level, spanning part of both the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes. According to the Inca creation myth, the lake was where the ancient empire was founded, after the god Viracocha emerged from the mountain waters and made the sun (Inti), moon (Mama Killa), the stars and the first people. The Inca believed that their souls would return to Titicaca when they died.
Swaddled in Black Forest firs, Mummelsee inherited its name from a local legend about a mysterious race of women living in a crystal castle at the bottom of the lake. The Mummlein would walk among humans during daylight hours, helping local farmers and woodcutters with their work and families. By night, they would return to the lake and dance upon its surface before disappearing underwater. One little mermaid once defied this rule, remaining on land for too long after falling for a farmer’s son. After she finally stepped back into Mummelsee, she was never seen again.
This far-flung Scottish archipelago consists of more than 70 islands and islets, around 20 of which are inhabited. Orcadian legends, born around firesides in the harsh and long winters, often revolve around the sea and its mystical creatures. One such folktale is that of the selkie, a seal with the ability to cast off her skin and become human on land. But after a man becomes so infatuated with her, he steals the selkie’s skin and dooms her to an unhappy life above the waves.
Up in the Belizean highlands, beneath the forest floor, snakes the most impressive cave system in Central America. The rocky chambers and dripping passageways of the Chiquibul cave system are the subject of a dark legend in Mayan culture – it is here that the entrance to Xibalba, the Mayan underworld presided over by the Lord of Death, is believed to rest. Barton Creek Cave (pictured) is one gateway into the “place of fright”, a known site of human sacrifices that can be explored by canoe.
Pele is a deity in Indigenous Hawaiian belief associated with fire and volcanoes. She, the earth-eating woman, is credited with the creation of the Hawaiian islands, with legend maintaining that she resides within the Halema‘uma‘u crater of Kilauea, the world’s most active volcanic mass. She is described as appearing to mortals as an old woman dressed in white, so be sure to help her if you see her on the Big Island – or prepare to feel her wrath.
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A place of pilgrimage since ancient times, Adam's Peak and its famous legend have permeated many different faiths. The summit of this conical mountain, towering above the Sri Lankan rainforest, is home to the Sri Pada, a hollow mark believed to be the preserved footprint of a holy figure – the Buddha to Buddhists, Shiva to Hindus, St Thomas to Christians and Adam to Muslims, who is said to have stood here on one leg for one thousand years after his expulsion from paradise.
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Spanning eight times the area of Uluru, Wilpena Pound is a natural red-rock amphitheatre in Australia's outback dating back around 800 million years. In Yura Muda folklore, the language of the Aboriginal Adnyamathanha people of the Flinders Ranges, this sacred site was formed after Akurra the Dreamtime serpent drank the land dry, leaving his bloated body to scape the scenery as it stands today. Allegedly, the rumblings of Akurra's still-swollen belly cause the Earth to tremble from time to time.
Notorious in English folklore for stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, Robin Hood was a legendary outlaw who, together with his band of 'merry men', is thought to have lived in Sherwood Forest. Covering part of Nottinghamshire in the British Midlands, Sherwood Forest boasts Europe's largest swathe of ancient oak trees, some of which have been sentinels of the woodland for over five centuries. A Robin Hood Festival takes over the famous forest each year, where performers re-enact tales of England's beloved anti-hero.
The 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns that make up Northern Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway were formed by the cooling and cracking of lava if you follow the science. But in local lore, they are the work of the Irish giant Finn McCool, who long ago created a causeway to Scotland by tossing chunks of the Antrim coast into the Irish Sea. His Scottish rival Benandonner later tore up the path in order to keep Finn at bay; its fragments have since settled back into the unique shoreline.
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