For more than a thousand years, the church had inordinate power over the lives of Europeans. When someone died, they had to be buried under consecrated ground in the parish cemetery. But that could be quite a long way from the small villages across the parish. Therefore, paths were made to get the deceased to the church in the straightest line possible, even if it cut through farms and forests. Even better if such a road could avoid passing by houses, because a funeral procession might bring bad luck to a household. These are called corpse roads, and there are many of them still in existence. Britain alone has 42 documented corpse roads.
Of course, when the purpose of the road is to transport the dead, there will be superstitions that grow up around them. There will also be stories of lights and apparitions. Messy Nessy Chic tells us about those traditions and superstitions, as well as the "rules" for building and using a corpse road. Oh yeah, there are plenty of pictures, too.
(Image credit: Alan Cleaver)