Something followed me home from the moors last October - still can't explain it

Right, I've been putting off writing this up for months because I wasn't sure anyone would take it seriously, but here goes. It was the 14th of October last year, a Thursday evening, around half nine at night. I'd been walking a stretch of the North Yorkshire Moors near Goathland - solo, which I know isn't ideal but I do it all the time and know the paths well. Weather had been overcast all day, no wind to speak of, temperature probably around 8 or 9 degrees. I had my head torch and my phone but signal out there is basically nonexistent.

About two miles from where I'd parked the car, I became aware of a sound behind me. The only way I can describe it is a low, rhythmic clicking, almost like someone dragging something metallic across a wooden fence, but there were no fences nearby. I stopped. It stopped. I started walking again and after maybe thirty seconds, it started again. I turned around and shone my torch back along the path and there was absolutely nothing there, just the path disappearing into the dark and the heather either side.

I picked up my pace and so did the sound. By the time I got back to the car I was practically jogging. And here's the bit that really gets me - when I got home to my flat in Whitby and took my boots off in the hallway, I could hear it again, faintly, from outside the front door. I opened the door and nothing was there. It stopped that night and I never heard it again, but I've not done a solo evening walk since. Has anyone had anything similar on the moors? I've read a few things about the Barguest legend in that area and I'm wondering if there's something to it.

The Barguest thing is genuinely interesting - there are dozens of recorded accounts from the North Yorkshire area going back centuries. Usually described as a large black dog with rattling chains, which could explain the metallic clicking sound you're describing. I wouldn't want to be dismissive about it. The fact that it seemed to follow you all the way back to Whitby is what stands out to me though - that's a significant distance for an animal, spectral or otherwise.

Okay I don't want to be the boring one but... could it have been a grouse? They make absolutely bizarre noises at night and if one was moving through the heather alongside you at a similar pace it might have sounded like it was following you. I've been startled by them on evening walks more times than I'd care to admit. The sound at your door though, that's harder to explain away.

I grew up near Goathland and that specific stretch between the car park and the village has a reputation locally that most people don't talk about much. My nan used to say you shouldn't walk it after dark in autumn specifically. Whether that's old superstition or something more, I genuinely don't know. But you're not the first person I've heard say something followed them on that path.

I've read a few things about the Barguest legend in that area

There's a decent chapter on the Barguest and related Yorkshire black dog sightings in "Supernatural England" by Eric Maple - might be worth tracking down a copy, it's quite old but the folklore sections are really thorough. Your description does match the older accounts more closely than a lot of the modern ones.

Did you notice anything in the days after? Sleep disturbances, strange smells, electronics acting up? Not trying to spook you further but a lot of encounter reports include a sort of lingering aftereffect for a week or so afterward. Might be nothing, might be psychosomatic, but worth noting down if anything did happen.

Goathland is famously Aidensfield in Heartbeat so really the only paranormal thing there is nineties nostalgia. I'm joking, I'm joking - genuinely unsettling account though, especially the door bit. That would have had me sleeping with the light on.