It has been reported since the 1920’s but the first documented report I found was in 1975.
Dowie Bowen, the former lake warden, saw something strange. "I was looking out at the lake and saw this thing coming towards the shore," he says. "It was at least 8ft long, similar to a crocodile, with its front and rear ends about 4ins above the water." He rushed to the shore but found nothing.
Then in 1979 I found two reports. One in the The Sunday Express. Anne Jones was gazing out on peaceful water when the surface began to foam and bubble. For a few seconds she saw what looked like a huge hump-backed beast. "I shall never forget it," said Mrs Jones. "All I saw was its huge back, and froth boiling around it."
Then in the same year John Melville Rowlands, a local businessman, was fishing in the lake with his cousin. The pair saw something they described as having a large head like a football, big eyes, nearly 8 feet(2.2metres) long. It swam towards them and then disappeared within a few yards of the boat. Mr Rowlands said he wouldn’t describe it as a monster, just something very large unlike the large pike normally seen.
Then I found this on the internet :
My encounter with the monster took place when I was 14 in the summer of 1992. It was twilight and I was on the shingle beach of the lake, in front of the Catamaran Club, looking for flat stones to skim on the lake's calm surface. Without thinking, I suddenly turned a full 180 degrees and looked straight at the monster. The reason for my sudden turnaround was because it was looking right at me. It was about twenty metres away, it's black head and neck clear above the surface of the water. The instant I saw it, it ducked under. My first thought was that a diver was playing a hoax, swimming under the surface with a Loch ness monster head. I immediately disregarded this for two reasons. The head had ducked under the water extremely quickly - only an animal with fins or paddles could have ducked under the surface that fast. Furthermore, there were no tell-tale bubbles indicating the presence of an artificial underwater breathing system. It looked to me like a plesiosaur and I would estimate its length to be approximately twelve feet (3.66 metres). B Vickers BSc (Hons),
In March 1995 Paul and Andrew Delaney, were fishing from a small boat on the lake They were visiting from London
. One windsurfer recently reported being strangely "lifted out of the water". And many boating accidents have been attributed to the beast.
Some of the explanations put forward include one from the First World War. Secret military experiments were said to have been carried out with seals, which were trained to place limpet mines on their targets. Some escaped and Teggie was born. Others believe that Teggie is actually the 'Pontrhydfendigaid witch, Mari Berllan Biter' who can transform herself into all kinds of shapes and forms. Could it be some sort of seal? It certainly is the size for one and a seal can have the look of a long neck if it stretches itself to see something. The crocodilian type creature described could not be a seal though. I also would have thought a seal would have been seen more often and on the shore, they don’t live permanently in the water. Maybe there is more than one creature from the Ice Age still living in the lake, only further investigation can tell.
5 comments:
On the 10/04/2013 my son and i were fishing for pike at the top end of the lake using very large surface lures. When attempting to cast out again we saw a large black shiny head surface where we had been casting our lures. We watched this thing glide along to surface about 20 yards out making its way to the shore. We watched it for about 20 seconds until it disappeared under the surface. The head was about 2,5 feet long with about 2,0 feet sticking above the surface. It was about 2 meters in length. I believe that our contstant casting in and out must have brought this thing up to see what was going on. We have been pike fishing Bala lake for over 25years and have never witnessed anything like this. We have seen all types of birds and mammals so what we
saw was not any of those.
I will never wade out in Bala lake again we have reported this incident to Bala police. It has given us a greater respect for Bala lake and we know what we saw was not natural, now its sunk in its left us quite scared to go near the water again as this thing was hunting for a meal.
Paul Rushton
Richard Rushton.
I and my dad were fishing there yesterday and we saw it! We have fished Bala for years and used to be told by a farmer who has sadly passed away now, who we used to camp in his field about 15 years ago. He used to ask us if we saw the Bala monster as we would camp on the edge of the lake but we never did, until yesterday. Yesterday we travelled up there to catch pike and there was a lot going on in the day time, I think it was a training day for the fire rescue team as there was the rescue helicopter doing a rescue attempt with people on the roof of a sunken caravan. Also there were numerous rescue power boats surging up and down the lake. The waters were being parted from the blades from the helicopter as it hovered over the caravan whilst winching the people from off the caravan. With all this commotion going on we decided to fish another lake further out from Bala. Anyway we decided that around 5pm we would head back to Bala presuming that all the noise would have calmed down, we fished various points around the lake with no joy and we ended up towards the nature reserve end where there are 3-4 rocks that go out in the lake looking slightly towards your left you would see a fence going into the water where the cormorants perch themselves where the river dee flows in, in the background. We fished and had no joy the water was flat calm and there was a cold chill. It just felt very eerie. The gate behind us went and a farmer was watching us from up the top of a very large bank we walked down and as I turned around to look, my dad said to me "what’s that" We looked and we saw a large head and it was black and it was though it had two parts where its head was above the water and its back was also above too. It was swimming toward the shore and it’s as though it appeared from out the lake. Our first natural reaction was that it was a dog but the more we stared it resembled something very unusual. It wasn't a dog. The farmer was asking us if we had caught anything and that’s when he told us about the sad loss of the farmer we knew. We didn't mention what we just saw because it hadn't quite sunk in and after he had gone we decided to walk down in that direction along the railway track. Whilst on the way down in that direction toward the nature reserve end we talked about what it could have been
. As it's a nature reserve area there is a bird watching hut where this unexplained creature was swimming toward the shore so we kept thinking despite our doubts maybe it was a dog. We got near to where this hut should have been but it wasn't there anymore??? We don't know how long ago it has been gone but if it was still there then it could have been a bird watcher with his dog but there was nothing. Nobody could have thrown a stick in the water for the dog because you couldn't throw a stick from the railway because of all the trees and you would have to climb over a wired fence which would be awkward to say the least. We didn't hear a stick thrown in the water nor any noise which would resemble a dog swimming out to swim back in to the shore again. As I explained it was quiet and it appeared from the lake. When I looked around to see the farmer making his way toward us it was my dad that first spotted it as it was so quiet the way it swam in; only sight could verify it being there. It was so subtle and we weren’t far away from it at all not to hear it. The evening was very quiet as it was around 19:30pm. Our theory as to why we saw it was because of all the noise at the other end of the lake during the day from all the power boats and the helicopter, where the deep contours are (only electric outboards can only usually be used for boats normally)... must have driven it up the other end of the lake where it could find peace and to back it up we were using heavy lures which we were using for pike with the noise of the splashes must have intrigued it to surface. When we thought about it though it was too big to be a dog, seal or anything else I could relate it too. It could have been at least 8 ft or more. What’s really reassuring to know is it tallies up with what other people have witnessed that its black, at least 8 ft long swimming toward the shore. My dad has notified the police at Bala today and that the Warden for Bala Lake will keep on the lookout for anything unusual in the water. My summary is that I shall not call it a monster but rather it must be a large rare creature of some kind because the more I watched it swimming toward the shore the more puzzled I was trying to verify what it was. Being a fisherman all my life we get to see it all whether a dog, seal, ducks, otters swimming in the water but nothing like this. It's a large natural lake over 100 ft deep and has so much history. Even the Gwyniad fish only seems to be native in this lake, and I've seen one of these in there too.
When I was about 15 years old, my friends and I went camping to Bala lake, we used to go to the Pant yr Onnen campsite on the opposite side of the lake about two thirds of the way across. Anyway my friend Nigel and I decided to swim the width and back one particularly warm day, so we set off with a football to help in case we got tired. Having made it to the far shore we then set off back to the campsite, when half way across a large creature between 12ft and 14ft in length swam underneath us. At first I thought it was a large sheet of polythene but then noticed it had fins/flippers on the side which it was using to propel itself downwards. It soon disappeared into the murky depths and we took one look at each other and swam back to camp in blind panic! No one believed us of course but we both knew that we had seen something totally inexplicable that day, which was only fueled the next day by seeing a very large, dead pike on the shore with large bite marks on it.
I have been prompted today to write this comment after reading yet another story about the Loch Ness Monster, but let me tell you about my experience whilst diving in Bala many years ago.
For the record I,m a 68 year old retired person, who has seen this creature under the water, whilst diving there in 1975.
A team of us had dived the previous week in the lake, but due to the visibility at that time which was poor, we decided to return the following week with our families.
But this time we were better equipped with torches.
As I recall there was about 9 of us in the team, we headed in from the shale shore on the backside of the lake on the opposite side to the town. After 30 foot out and 30 down, it blacks out, so we lined up holding onto each others back packs which held the tanks.
As we descended it got darker, I was second in the team with the leader holding one of the two torches. At 98 feet I suddenly saw a browny grey flank of something very large go through the beam. I normally describe it as the size of the back of an office swivel chair, but the curvature of it was much bigger.
I never seen the head, and I never stayed around to see the tail of this very long creature, which was very very long. As it seemed to keep going through the beam for a long time.
With shock I broke off the line and made my way to the top, when the rest of the lads came up shortly after, each said that they had seen something, but could not define exactly what it was.
Shortly after Scofields Quest was on TV talking about the "monster", I called the show producers and told them of my experience, this was some years later. They ask for any information to be sent in, whichI did.
The following week on tv, my experience was quoted, they also read out the entries in my Divers Log Book, which had the incident logged. Also in the log book it had the dated entries, which showed all of the dive dates both before and after, prooving it was a genuine entry.
Shortly after a Japanese tv show spoke with me in regards the experience !
Apparently at that time also, the Lake Manager had also reported that he had seen it himself.
Its without doubt that there is something very very large in that lake.Wheather it there now,I do not know.
What is good about this story, is that it happened many years ago, but it can be proven, because it was a featured story on Scofields Quest !!
Can I say "the plot thickens"
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