Around Scotland there is a history of sea monsters,
not just loch or lake creatures:
- In the Orkneys a sea monster
with a 6-7 foot neck was seen in 1919.
- In the Linnhe sea-loch a
long-necked monster was seen in the 1940s and a three-humped creature was
spotted in 1954.
- A 30 feet long beast with a
camel's head, a giraffe's neck and a tail covered with long hair was seen
by fishermen in the Firth of Clyde (1953).
- A 30-40 foot monster was
seen on the beach at Helensburgh, Strathclyde in 1962.
- In 1964 on the Isle of Jura,
a 25 foot monster was seen swimming south.
- A monster was seen by the
side of the road near Perth in 1965.
A serpent was seen off Stonehaven near Aberdeen . The skipper of the
fishing boat said it was longer than his boat which was 34 feet ( 11 metres) long
and had fins twenty feet(6 metres) apart .
Various
sea monsters have been reported as being seen off the shores of the Scottish
Isle of Lewis over the years, including a sighting reported in 1882 by a German
ship off the Butt of Lewis. The ship, 15 kilometres off the coast, reported a
sea serpent around 40 metres (about 120 feet) in length, several bumps
protruding from the water, along its back. Sea serpents have also been reported
at the southern side of the island.
In 1958:
A sea
serpent was reported to have been seen on Saturday night in the Tay. The report
was made to Fife police by Mr Ronald Avery, bus driver, 3, Milton Crescent,
Anstruther and was confirmed by the conductress Miss Betty Kay, Cellardyke.
Yesterday Mr Avery said "The bus was standing at the Newport-on-Tay
terminus. We were waiting for the starting time and I was standing on the step
of the bus looking over the water. It was misty, but about five minutes to
eight I was distinctly, about a mile out from Newport Pier, a strange creature
moving in the water. Three humps were visible and although it was difficult to
tell their colouring I thought they were dark. They were movinh towards the Tay
Bridge. They disappeared, and then came to the surface again in exactly the
same manner a short distance forward. I drew the attention of Betty Kay and
together we watched the creature moving towards the Tay Bridge. We must have
seen it disappear and surface eighty or nine times, it made a circle towards
some boats near the opposite bank. Then it was time for us to move, but I was
so impressed that I reported it to the police. I would say it was a sea snake
or serpent, about 15 to 20 feet(6 metres) in length. I don't think the object I saw was
porpoises or seals. I've seen sharks and whales in the Indian Ocean but this
was the strangest thing I have ever seen in the water.
New Sea
"Monster" Comes To Scotland
The Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW)
Date: August 30, 1953
Page Number: 4
From Our
Staff Correspondent
LONDON, August 29.
The 5,000 people of the placid fishing village of
Girvan, on the coast of Ayrshire, West Scotland, are on the hunt for a
prehistoric monster.
They firmly believe they have seen one swimming
off shore during the last few days, searching for its lost mate.
The mate, they say, was a grotesque 30ft monster
washed up on the beach on August 15.
The beast, left by the tide on rocks, had a
four-foot "giraffe neck," a camel-shaped head with bone-shielded
eyes, four stumpy appendages like legs, and a 12-foot tail.
According to the Provost (Mayor) of Girvan, Mr.
D. M. H, Smith, the beast also had "the intestines of a mam- mal, mon, so
it could nae have been ony feesh, ye ken."
BURNT BEAST
All Girvan flocked to gaze at the creature,
thrilled by the thought of having acquired a plesiosaurus, a marine reptile
active millions of years ago.
The Scottish papers, remembering it was 20 years
since the birth of the still elusive Loch Ness monster, made Girvan front page
news the next day, and Fleet Street (London) papers carried stories and
pictures.
Experts were hurriedly summoned from Edinburgh,
but before they could arrive at Girvan, the people, revolted by the smell, had
poured oil on the beast and burnt its whole carcass, except the head.
That had unaccountably vanished almost before
their eyes.
From photographs taken before the burning, the
thwarted experts decided Girvan's "missing link" was a basking-shark
that had died a natural death in the sea, but had been battered by rocks and
half eaten by other sea creatures. They returned to Edinburgh disappointed.
But in London, the famous zoologist, Professor
Julian Huxley, could not dismiss the affair so lightly.
"It was a grave mistake to destroy the
creature," he said. "The long neck, tail and legs were most unusual."I
would welcome fragments of jaw bones and feet for analysis."
Local people believe they have now solved the
mystery of the absent head—it may be on its way to Professor Huxley under the
arm of Tony McTaggart, 60, a wartime liaison officer with General de Gaulle.
HELPED HIMSELF
McTaggart, a tall bearded man in a black
Astrakhan hat, is a local recluse, who is reported to have been seen putting
the monster's head into a sack on the beach. He is now missing from his
cottage.
The Provost, Mr. Smith, also confessed he had
helped himself to some of the monster before it was destroyed —a part of the
backbone, which he has sent to London for analysis.
This week-end lookouts on the harbour wall and
the sloping green hills behind Girvan are maintaining a non-stop vigil for the
next appearance of the monster's mate, while the village has become a trippers'
paradise.
Thousands are booked to go there by train and
road, a local manufacturer is turning out women's scarves with a monster
pattern, and outsize potatoes are being sold as "other Girvan
monsters."
So-called fragments of the remains will be sold
to the highest bidders.
Skipper "Geisha" Sloane, who was the
first man to see the strange creatures in the Clyde, will run hourly hunts for
the monster in his ketch Amethyst, with 12 passengers at 10/ each.
(It was most likely a basking shark)
The strange creatures do not end there, as there are also tales of mermaids
around the Galloway coast.
The mermaid, or in Gaelic, Maid-of-the-Wave, was said to be beautiful with a
lovely singing voice. The bottom half of her was like a fish and compared to a
salmon skin glittering in the sunshine. She was said to have long copper
coloured hair and sometimes would take off her fish skin and wear garments like
any woman.
There was once a man in Galloway ,a healer , and it was said that he
received some of his knowledge from a mermaid. A girl named May was ill with
consumption. The healer t was very sad when he found that his herbs did not cure
her as he loved her . One evening he sat on the shore and
a mermaid raised her head above the waves and
sang:
Would you let bonnie May die in your hand
And the mugwort
flowering in the land?
Then she vanished. The man went at once and gathered the flowers of the
mugwort, and made a medicine. This restored May to health.
Mermaids can be easily offended according to folklore too. They are not
always helpful. An old family lived in a house, which stood on the banks of the
Water of Girvan in Ayrshire.
(same place
as the sea monster mentioned earlier) There was a black stone at the end of
the house, and a mermaid used to come and sit on it, combing her hair and
singing. A woman who lived in the house could not get her baby to sleep because
of the noise from the mermaid so she had the stone removed. The mermaid was
angry yelled :
Ye may think on your cradle--
I think on my stane;
There will ne'er be an heir
To Knockdolian again.
Not long after this the baby died. He was the only child in the house, and
when his father and mother died the family became extinct.
Another tale concerns a Forfarshire landowner who nearly
lost his life by rushing into a lake to save what he thought was a young lady in
trouble in the deep water. She called to him: "Help! help!I am drowning "
When the landowner went to dive in to the lake his man-servant stopped him .
"That wailing woman," the servant said, "is not a human being
but a mermaid. If you had touched her, she would have dragged you down and
drowned you." As he spoke the sound of laughter came over the lake, and
the mermaid swam away.
Many
people have said mermaids are simply seals or manatees that people have
mistaken for something half human. As for sea serpents ,well keep your eyes
open around the Scottish coast, you may see Nessie’s cousin.
