Strange Creature in Lough Auna

 Horse Eels of County Galway,Ireland .

Lough Auna is a lake/loch in County Galway near  Clifden Village.. 

There is no definite date but late in the 19th century Mrs. Whalen a turf cutter was working along the edge of the lough. A commotion erupted in the water. She claimed a horse eel  emerged from the water  and onto the shore near her.The front portion looked like a horse and the back end like an eel. The lady fled in shock and fear

Since then, there have been further reports by a number of bog workers who have also  claimed to have seen a large  creature that has the head of a horse and the body of an eel swimming through the water.

During the 60’s, a sighting of grey creature swimming in Lough Auna was reported by a local farmer

Ted Holiday wrote about interviews with people who had seen the creature in his book. The Dragon and the Disc .( The book is now out of print but second hand copies often come up for sale, I have one myself).

An unnamed man said he and his mother had seen  a large eel-shaped creature when they were stacking peat along Lough Auna.  Some two hundred yards away from where they were working a 30 to 40 ft ( 10 to 13 metres) eel-like animal could be seen rising out of the water. It had three or four humps.  One of the humps, had a large mane that stood up as though it were a fin or composed of bristles.  The creature would rise up to the surface and then roll along its side and submerge, causing a commotion in the water .  They said they watched it doing this for about 15 minutes.

A group of people at a party held at a cottage by Lough Auna in about 1969 saw a strange shape coursing across the lake at a "walking pace".  The object appeared to be about five feet ( 1.6 metres) in length and about a foot (.3 metre) in height.  There were  projections along the back of the creature . One of the eye witnesses, Air Commodore Kort of the Royal Netherlands Air Force said  "the un-canning thing about it was the gliding movement without any disturbance of the water on the surface."  The oddity was watched until disappearing into a patch of reeds.

In the early hours in the year 1984 or 1985, Tom Joyce, who lived near   the lough, was saying goodbye to visiting friends when a man  came running down the road.  The man was an off-duty Welsh soldier who had  been fishing at Lough Auna.  He said he had seen something in the light of the moon, like the head of an animal, floating along the surface.  On top of the object were two projections, almost like eyes, which gave the impression it was watching him. The soldier began walking along the shore only to have object begin to follow him .He walked faster but ended up running as it kept pace with him. He told Tom Joyce that in all his years of military service he'd never been so terrified of anything. 

Loch Auna is near Lough Fadda ,the home of another horse eel.Read about it here :

http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2010/01/lough-fadda-horse-eel.html

Could there be a colony of the creatures moving between the loughs? Or is it just a large eel that scares people because of its size? Have there been more recent sightings, please comment if you know of any. Certainly a strange tale and from several people .