Tuesday 16 August 2022

The Beast of Barrisdale

 

 Barrisdale Monster.

The Beast of Barrisdale is said to have been seen in the area around Loch Hourn in Scotland.It is classed as a lake monster by some but it can fly. The description is that it has three legs, two in front and one in back and  huge wings . It is said to have a home/nest  in the Knoydart Hills, near Ladhar Bheinn. It has a very loud roar often heard at night.

In the late 1800’s  a crofter from Barrisdale said he often  saw it flying  over the Knoydart hills. Once it chased him  but he made it home to safety. An old man by the name of Ranald MacMaster also claimed to have found the tracks of the monster in the hills .

In 1845 a wild roaring was heard  Alasdair Macdonald said  that he was there  near Arnisdale, on the north side of Loch Hourn. A few local men  had got together to push a boat out to go fishing. As they  were pushing the boat out a wild roaring was heard. The boat was dropped and they ran into the house scared.

 In 1903, two men, gamekeepers,John MacMaster and John MacGillvary, were  up on a mountain on the east end of Loch Hourn. There were  six small dogs with them. The roaring started coming across the valley. The dogs tried to get under the legs of the two gamekeepers, hiding with their hair standing on end, frightened out of their wits.

In 1866 it was seen by another gamekeeper. Described as  the size of a donkey but with a mane and a tail like a horse. The head was broad at the top like that of a wild boar but there was no snout. It was a heavy over-hanging jaw and terribly, terribly ugly.It left tracks in the snow, almost round, and about 4 inches(10 cms) in diameter, and gave the impression of a very heavy animal.Behind the impression of the paw there was the mark of a long powerful claw.

No other sightings have been recorded .What was it? Some say it was a dragon,some a wild hybrid,a cross between a boar and something else.

It however is not the only monster in the area.

Loch Hourn runs inland from the sea opposite the island of Skye. Sometimes described as the most fjord-like of the sea lochs of Scotland. It is open to the sea which is important to remember when looking at explanations for sightings in the Loch.  Hourn is Gaelic for Hell, and the Loch is so  named because of the spin drifts which capsized many sailing boats. Quite a few lives have been lost on the Loch . Around a hundred years ago Loch Hourn was busy with small boats fishing for herrings.

Most people will have heard of the famous sea serpent sighting in the Loch that was reported in The Zoologist . According to R T Gould in August 20 and 21 of 1872 6 people on board the cutter Leda saw the creature described as a line of black humps with a  head and neck occasionally seen above the surface on the Loch. In the 1950’s Willie MacKenzie was 9 years of age when he was sitting on a small knoll, near the sea, waiting for his father, to return from delivering the mail, by boat. The head of a creature, that could only be described as a big eel or a serpent emerged, ten feet out of the water, moving its head from side to side, about 250 yards in front of him. Willie had to be forced back in the boat to go home, and to this day, his heart still races when he crosses that part of the Loch. It was suspected that Rob Foster, a fisherman from Corran also saw the monster, around this time

Read more here : https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2010/06/more-loch-hourn-creature-sightings.html

Once again a place that seems to have much strangeness going back years.

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