Dullahan

Dullahan is a headless spirit often seen riding a black horse at the margins of lanes and graveyards, an omen that announces the approach of death. Smell: the damp peat and clean, metallic tang of rain on iron. Sound: the sharp clatter of a lone horse's hooves on cobbles and a hard, resonant voice that can call out a person's name from the dark. Temperature: an immediate, sinking cold that makes breath fog and frost gather at the edges of things. A field naturalist notes its presence as a sudden hush in wildlife and the unnatural stillness of lamps and breath.