Tradition / Region: English Mythology
Alternative names: Old Martin’s Ghost
Category: Bear

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The Myth

The Ghost Bear of Old Martin is a legendary apparition associated with the Tower of London. The tale centers on Old Martin, a massive grizzly bear presented to King George III by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1811. Already fully grown when he arrived in England, Old Martin was kept in the Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London, where he became famous for his enormous size and fierce temperament. Despite years in captivity, he never became tame and remained feared even by his keepers.

According to the legend, a Yeoman Warder standing watch at the Tower in 1816 encountered a ghostly bear near the Martin Tower during the night. Believing it to be a real animal, he thrust his bayonet at the apparition. The weapon passed straight through the spectral bear and struck the wooden door behind it, revealing that the creature was no living beast.

The terrifying encounter is said to have so shocked the guard that he died only a few hours later. The apparition thereafter became one of the many ghost stories connected with the Tower of London, and the phantom bear was remembered as the restless spirit of Old Martin.

Old Martin himself was later transferred to the newly established London Zoo after the Royal Menagerie closed, where he died in 1838. More than a century later, his preserved skin and feet were rediscovered in the collections of the Natural History Museum and temporarily returned to the Tower of London for a special exhibition, further reviving interest in the legend of the ghostly bear.

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Sources

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Old Martin. In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 29, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Martin

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