Strange Creatures Seen in the U.K., Part 2

Yesterday, I wrote the following words: “Just recently I was asked if the kinds of cryptid creatures seen in the United States are broadly similar to those in the United Kingdom. That’s an interesting question. Notably, yes, they are mainly the same. For example, in the U.K. we have reports of (1) huge, winged things, (2) Bigfoot-type creatures, (3) water-based monsters, and (4) out of place regular animals – just like those encountered by people in the United States. So, having said that I thought I would make this a 4-part article that would address each of these four, very similar, mysterious phenomena in the U.K. – that also exist in the U.S.” Yesterday’s article was on Bigfoot in the U.K.. Today’s is on strange, water-based creatures in the U.K. There’s no doubt at all that the most famous water-based beast in the U.K. is the Loch Ness Monster. Or, more likely, the Loch Ness Monster. The fact is, though, the Nessies are far from being the only unidentified animals in the lakes, rivers, pools and canals in the U.K., as you will now see.

Let’s begin with what might be called the little cousin of the Nessies. For decades, the creatures have been seen in the waters of Loch Morar, Scotland. As for the animals themselves, they are collectively known as Morag. The Scotsman says: “First reported in 1887 – over 80 years after the first sighting of the Loch Ness Monster, discounting St Columba’s possible encounter in 565 – Morag has been seen over 30 times since…In 1948, a ‘peculiar, serpent-like creature about 20ft long’ was reported by a group of people in a boat, in the same location as the sighting in 1887. And in 1969, Duncan McDonnel and William Simpson claimed they’d struck the creature with their speedboat, prompting her to hit back. McDonnel reportedly retaliated with an oar while Simpson opened fire with a rifle, at which point ‘Morag’ sunk out of sight. The duo described what they had seen as a brown creature, 25-30ft long and with rough skin. It had three humps rising about 20 inches above the surface of the water, and a head a foot wide, also held about 20 inches above the water.”

Never mind just Scotland, but what about a large, unknown creature in England? It was a warm, sunny day in June 2015, when a large animal was encountered by a pair of amazed and frightened fishermen on the River Nene, which is located in the Fens region of Cambridge, England. They quickly shared the details of the sighting with the BBC, such was the pair’s concern for what was lurking in the waters of England. One of them said: “I enjoy going out on my boat. One day we were on our boat going up towards Whittlesey and the boat suddenly juddered as if there was something large in the water. My friend and myself looked at each other and I looked down to see what we had hit. I saw the most extraordinary thing. I saw the biggest fish I have ever seen in my life. I like boating and I like wildlife, but I had never seen a fish like this before. It was absolutely huge – it was over six-foot long. It was swimming alongside us and our boat had struck it and it was as if it was showing us the side of itself where the propeller had hit it and we could see the white flesh. My friend saw it and exclaimed ‘Blimey is that a dolphin?’ It was so big. We’re going to go out again this year and see if we can see it.”

 

Now, let’s have a look at giant eels in the U.K. Back in the late 1980s, when I was working as both a fork-lift and a van-driver for a company in the West Midlands, England, I heard a number of noteworthy stories pertaining to sightings of huge violent eels, which were said to roam the dark, winding canals of both the nearby city of Birmingham, and certain rural areas of the adjacent county of Staffordshire. Rather like some 1950s era street gang from the Bronx, they seemed to travel in packs, prepared to take on just about anything and everything that had the misfortune to cross their path. One memorable account originated with a truck driver who recalled such a sighting somewhere in Birmingham on a summer’s day in the late 1980s. It reportedly “shook the staff rigid” at a store that overlooked the stretch of canal in question. In this case, the mighty animal of the waters was described as being dark brown in color and said to be no less than 15 feet in length. Supposedly, it had briefly been seen by an employee who, completely mesmerized by its presence, watched it “circling” one area of the canal frequented by a large number of semi-tame ducks that the staff at the store regularly fed with bread during their daily lunch break.

As you’ve seen, the waters of the U.K. are filled with mysterious creatures. Part 3 is coming very soon.

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