Treasures on Earth: Buried Wealth in Landscape and Legend by Jeremy Harte

From haunted barrows to ruined castles, Britain’s landscape is rich with tales of hidden treasure – stories not just of gold, but of ghosts, curses and forbidden knowledge. Treasures on Earth (Reaktion Books, 2026) gathers hundreds of these traditions for the first time, showing how folklore, shaped by local memory and longing, has imagined wealth not merely as currency, but as power, danger and loss. These legends tell of dragons, demons and seekers armed with spells, but also of real hopes stirred by poverty, war and the mysteries of place. Through vivid storytelling and careful insight, this book reveals how treasure lore carries the emotional weight of history. In the end, these are stories not just about what is buried, but about why we still yearn to uncover it.

Jeremy Harte is a folklorist inspired by landscape and stories of encounters with other worlds. He is the author of Cloven Country: The Devil and the English Landscape (2022) and Travellers through Time: A Gypsy History (2023), both published by Reaktion.