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Cryptids In The UK & Ireland

Bosbaba

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Messages
149
I would like to produce a working list of the various types of cryptids reported as existing within the UK and Ireland. Please contribute any you know of, even if it is only a half remembered description without a name.

So far that I know of:

1. Alien Big Cats - various types described. What regions do
they most commonly occur in?

2. Woodwose/Bigfoot - again, where are they believed to occur?
Or are these two separate creatures?

3. Loch Ness Monster and co - I know of a number of lakes and
more commonly, marshes where these are said to occur.

4. Werewolves - Fermanagh - only one report on this and they
were described as double the size of normal wolves, but no
mention is made of shape shifting so they may not be
werewolves.

Would the fair folk be classified in here as well, for lack of a separate forum for them? Anyone have any stories or locations known to be inhabited by them that they could share? Also, different types of fair folk - i.e. fairies, the De Danaan(Irish), Sidh (Irish), sprites, goblins, etc.

Thanks.
 
Off the top of my head -

1. The "Devil's hoofprints" of 1855 (?) (Exeter and Devon?)

2. The Gray Man of Ben McDhui (Scotland) - described variously as a bigfoot type creature or a malevolent mountain spirit

Re: fairies - there is a line of thought that the stories of the little people are legends based on the cultural memory of our non-human forebears, with whom we co-extisted for a while (or co-exist still), and could, therefore, come under British bigfeet/wildmen etc.

The 19th Century Welsh writer Arthur Machen used this as a theme for some of his stories.
 
What about worms? Would they come under the same heading as Nessie? Or is Nessie a worm?
 
worms/wyrms as big squishy bugs or as subterranean legless lizards of the giant variety? If you could flesh that one out for me as I am unfamiliar with this one.

Of course there are dragons as well but the myths I know of are a bit hazy.

Re the fairy thing - where do elves fit in?

In Ireland you get the Sidh, who seem to be basically indifferent to humans but do develop a nasty streak when disturbed and there is a story of the early history of Ireland when the Fir Bolg still ruled here. The invading Tuatha De Danaan fought a great battle against them and won. They were the ruling and apparently very magical race here until the Celts invaded. When the De Danaan realised they could not stand up to this invasion their magicians turned them into little people who fled into the subterranean cave systems. I must admit I like the de Danaan legend. The Sidh story has always bothered me.

What about dryads? Where are they meant to fit in?
 
There is a new book out called 'Paranormal Ireland' by Dara deFaoite. Has stuff on wild cats in Tipperary and Sligo. Also very interesting tale on a *crocodile* like crature that emerged from a hill fort in Mayo in the 1960s and was killed by dogs. Only a short eyewitness report on that, so might be something in local papers at the time. Also Master Otter, water hippos, lake monsters on Shannon and Achill. Somewhere to start anyway.
 
dartmoor is full of local myths surrounding fairies and imps
 
Bosbaba said:
worms/wyrms as big squishy bugs or as subterranean legless lizards of the giant variety? If you could flesh that one out for me as I am unfamiliar with this one.

Of course there are dragons as well but the myths I know of are a bit hazy.

Worms as in the usual UK type of Dragon , the sort that eat maidens and drink all the milk.

This site has lots of legends and mention of carvings etc , their homepage won't work but the lists of UK counties do , this is the first page:

http://www.dragoncrafts.co.uk/page4.htm
 
How bout Black Dogs? Known by various names and various guises in various counties,
 
Wild wingless Ayrshire Tumshies!

No seriously..........the Twayblade and the Albino Plum that grows on my estate. I know the wood like the back of my hand and I still cannot find that plum.

I have encountered the Grey Man of Ben MacDui on a lonesome jaunt (Hah, 16 bloody miles!) across the Cairngorms and crossing Ben Macdui the second largest mountain in Britain.

There are quite a few wallabies in Scotland. Only the other day I heard my sons friend tell him that he and his dad had seen a "Deer Rabbit" on the road before it jumped away.

While birdwatching in North Ayrshire I was among the few lucky people to see the Flamingo, the Stork and the....wait for it....the Hoopoe!!
 
I've seen Devil's Hoofprints in the snow in Brighton, about '93.

re Worms, some writers, most notably my fave FW Holiday ( The Great Orm of Loch Ness, The Dragon and the Disc), class Nessie as a worm and uses all the worm/dragon slaying stories to back up his Nessie theories. There are some similarities, in as much as they're both pug-ugly water monsters.

Worms off the top of my head :)confused: I must be hallucinating ) include the Lambton worm, uh, the Stoor worm, which is a Shetland Isles myth... uh, the Linton worm. I have a book of dragon stories somewhere, but the basic story in each case is "worm cause trouble, worm get slain."

How about the water-horses/water-kelpies that lurk around Highland lochs and drown unwitting travellers who try to ride them? Or do they get classed as Nessies as well?

There are also water-bulls in them there lochs.

And! Those jewelled flying serpents in the Welsh valleys. I have more details on all of these somewhere, but it's all upstairs, and oh, that's so far to walk. :eek: :)
 
Thanks for all that information. Irish legend also tells of water bulls and the water horses. I have an old book that was written by the mother of Oscar Wilde that details Irish legend. Sadly by then most of the legends had been Christianised, so it is a little bit difficult sometimes to work out what the original story must have been.

Anyhow, on a scale say, how would you classify:

elves
fairies(or is this a generic term?)
imps
sprites
withies
goblins
wraiths
trolls
dwarves
dryads
etc??

Also, the legends of worms - are these classic dragons with wings and fire breathing capabilities or are there other types(nessie varieties excepted)?

The black dog one is interesting - I have read stories on these but they always seem to be associated with hauntings or are near to graveyards. Are there other references?
 
St.Clair said:
I have encountered the Grey Man of Ben MacDui on a lonesome jaunt (Hah, 16 bloody miles!) across the Cairngorms and crossing Ben Macdui the second largest mountain in Britain.

Details please!
 
Giant swan-eating catfish in Martin Mere, Lancs (possibly illegally released).

OOP Wallabies, Llamas, a bear I think near Oxford once, and this week's FT mentions a Devon OOP Wolverine.

The weirdest thing is probably the Canvey Island "monster" carcasses - very creepy and HP Lovecraft sounding...

(well that or the talking mongoose on the Isle of Man, but that seems to me to be better classified as a poltergeist type phenomenon, or just a very bored young girl who was a good liar)
 
Inhabitant said:
Details please!
Well.........okay!

I was on my way back from the summit which took me past the highest named water in Britain, Lochan Duibh. I stopped to wash a stone from the summit in the black water of the lochan whose size is probably comparible to a boating pond.

In one of the muddy pits beside the waters edge was a footprint the size of my forearm. Problem was.........it had grips and marks like those found on walking or army boots. :)

However, an hour later and just one mountain peak along I heard footsteps behind me. Every time I stopped to listen....they stopped. Every time I turned round, the footsteps ceased their noise.

I also know something of the behavior of the alpine rabbits of the cairngorms. they play "hide and seek" with travellers. Especially if the travellers are quiet and...erm....un-disturbing.

I was alone.....as I always am when I climb.

The rabbits are known to follow and hide with good reflexes. Which is a concept unfamiliar with those who hunt lowland rabbits which are stunningly daft and...stupid frankly.

It may be convoluted but...there is a ghost story for you.

Not terribly exciting!:D
 
St.Clair said:
In one of the muddy pits beside the waters edge was a footprint the size of my forearm. Problem was.........it had grips and marks like those found on walking or army boots. :)

It must have been Krusty the Clown on an exercise with the T.A.!
 
Thanks, bought the book, Paranormal Ireland last night and read a fair bit before going to bed. Word of caution - don't read a book about ghosts before retiring when there is a massive wind storm raging outside....
 
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/bump.html

and ghosts, boggles, bloody-bones, spirits, demons, ignis fatui, brownies, bugbears, black dogs, specters, shellycoats, scarecrows, witches, wizards, barguests, Robin-Goodfellows, hags, night-bats, scrags, breaknecks, fantasms, hobgoblins, hobhoulards, boggy-boes, dobbies, hob-thrusts, fetches, kelpies, warlocks, mock-beggars, mum-pokers, Jemmy-burties, urchins, satyrs, pans, fauns, sirens, tritons, centaurs, calcars, nymphs, imps, incubuses, spoorns, men-in-the-oak, hell-wains, fire-drakes, kit-a-can-sticks, Tom-tumblers, melch-dicks, larrs, kitty-witches, hobby-lanthorns, Dick-a-Tuesdays, Elf-fires, Gyl-burnt-tales, knockers, elves, rawheads, Meg-with-the-wads, old-shocks, ouphs, pad-foots, pixies, pictrees, giants, dwarfs, Tom-pokers, tutgots, snapdragons, sprets, spunks, conjurers, thurses, spurns, tantarrabobs, swaithes, tints, tod-lowries, Jack-in-the-Wads, mormos, changelings, redcaps, yeth-hounds, colt-pixies, Tom-thumbs, black-bugs, boggarts, scar-bugs, shag-foals, hodge-pochers, hob-thrushes, bugs, bull-beggars, bygorns, bolls, caddies, bomen, brags, wraiths, waffs, flay-boggarts, fiends, gallytrots, imps, gytrashes, patches, hob-and-lanthorns, gringes, boguests, bonelesses, Peg-powlers, pucks, fays, kidnappers, gallybeggars, hudskins, nickers, madcaps, trolls, robinets, friars' lanthorns, silkies, cauld-lads, death-hearses, goblins, hob-headlesses, bugaboos, kows, or cowes, nickies, nacks [necks], waiths, miffies, buckies, ghouls, sylphs, guests, swarths, freiths, freits, gy-carlins [Gyre-carling], pigmies, chittifaces, nixies, Jinny-burnt-tails, dudmen, hell-hounds, dopple-gangers, boggleboes, bogies, redmen, portunes, grants, hobbits, hobgoblins, brown-men, cowies, dunnies, wirrikows, alholdes, mannikins, follets, korreds, lubberkins, cluricauns, kobolds, leprechauns, kors, mares, korreds, puckles korigans, sylvans, succubuses, blackmen, shadows, banshees, lian-hanshees, clabbernappers, Gabriel-hounds, mawkins, doubles, corpse lights or candles, scrats, mahounds, trows, gnomes, sprites, fates, fiends, sibyls, nicknevins, whitewomen, fairies, thrummy-caps, cutties, and nisses, and apparitions of every shape, make, form, fashion, kind and description, that there was not a village in England that had not its own peculiar ghost.
 
What the giddy-hell is a mum-poker?:eek!!!!: Or a Dick-a-Tuesday for that matter?!
 
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