A dedicated dog has completed a four-mile pilgrimage to find the grave of his master.

Spot, a border collie, escaped from his new owners' home - appropriately named Dunroamin' - in Macclesfield, Cheshire, to embark on his quest.

The grieving animal dodged traffic as he crossed busy main roads on his trek to find the grave of farmer Denis Goodier, 73.

Echoing the classic tale of Greyfriars Bobby - the hound who doggedly refused to leave his master's tomb - Spot was eventually discovered lying on the grave in St James' Church, in the village of Sutton, near Macclesfield.

Mr Goodier's widow Margaret said Spot had never been to the grave as she had found the animal a new home immediately after her husband's death, which followed a long illness.

But she said: "They always had a very close bond. Denis thought the world of Spot, but I was amazed when I heard he had trekked all that way to the grave.

"I had to give Spot away after my husband died because I couldn't cope with him."

After being allowed to pay his respects, Spot was returned to sheepdog-trainer Brian Belfield, 58, and his wife Sheila, who had originally sold him as a puppy to the Goodiers.

Mr Belfield said he thought Spot's Christmas Eve pilgrimage was "amazing".

He said he had worked with border collies all his life and found them very intelligent, but had never heard of them doing something like this.

Mr Belfield says he plans to train Spot and enter him in local sheepdog trials.

Robin Page, presenter of the BBC's One Man And His Dog programme, says such behaviour is inexplicable, but not unusual.

'Navigation system'

He told BBC News Online: "Some dogs have got some sort of navigation system based on scent and all sorts of things that we just cannot understand.

"But it does happen. I know of one foxhound in Snowdonia that got lost yet found its kennels 80 miles away.

"It trekked over some awful terrain and turned up a fortnight later, after search teams had given up looking."

Craig Hamilton-Parker, a spiritualist medium who specialises in psychic links with pets, says there may be metaphysical explanations for the Spot's pilgrimage.

"It could be that the dog used it's sense of smell, but I would believe it was the spirit of the dog's owner in touch with the dog. The power of love has created a bond and made this work."