Legendary Creatures of Britain - Documentary

[Music] britain this island is home to a remarkable number of myths and legends concerning the paranormal some of the creatures reported here have appeared quite recently others however are the subjects of tales which seem to predate recorded history indeed this island has been associated with eerie mysteriousness ever since the romans and greeks first wrote of the celtic inhabitants and what they claimed lived among them to many of these observers both ancient and modern some of these beings what we might call cryptids monsters or mythical creatures are anything but mythical hello and welcome to fire of learning i'm justin in this video we will be going over many of the most famous british cryptids and legendary creatures reviewing the associated folklore and encounters and considering if perhaps some of these witnesses may in fact be telling the truth thank you for joining us as we now add another video to our campfire series now then let's get to it the cairngorms a mountain range in the highlands of scotland this desolate landscape has been home to a number of unusual events for centuries it is said by some who travel here specifically to the largest mountain which is the second largest in all of britain for that matter ben mcdui that an unusual being lurks in the mist and snow which seems to possess a sort of power to induce a feeling of intense anxiety in travelers as if it were a spirit that could enter into their minds it is what the scottish call ampharlamor that translates to the big grey man also known as the gray man of ben mcdui or simply the gray man sightings of the grey man are relatively rare often his presence is merely very strongly sensed a bit like a ghost the feeling of the gray man's presence as mentioned is often accompanied by a sensation of uneasiness fear anxiety at times even outright panic the first recorded encounter occurred in 1891 an english scientist man later professor and inventor j norman cauley was making his way through the mountains on a cold misty day the mist made visibility difficult but off in the distance cauley claims he was able to hear something unusual the crunching of footsteps which he claimed were following him at about three to four times the length of his own after a few moments of disbelief kali felt more strongly that a malevolent presence was following him he took off running in a panic for what he claimed was four to five miles towards rothy marcus forest nearby kali returned home unscathed and kept the incident private for fear of ridicule for 34 years until 1925. such a story from a generally reasonable and level-headed man of science attracted a wide amount of interest when he finally reported the incident mentioning in his story that he would never go back to the mountain he found others who had experienced similar things some of the incidents travelers and climbers noted were attributable to wild animals but others had experiences much like holly hearing footsteps which did not match the pattern of their own sensing a presence and feeling a sense of apprehension and panic the mountaineer historian and ironically named affleck gray began to record these reports kali didn't claim to see anything as again most people who believe they've encountered the grey man don't but throughout the decades a handful of people would it is described in various ways but generally as a very large grave figure hence the name sometimes it is shrouded in the mist and appears much more like a shadow others however describe it as a short-haired ape-like creature a bit like a scottish bigfoot or as a giant humanoid with olive skin it has appeared so real that some observers have even shot at it what are these individuals reporting researchers aren't exactly sure but have offered a number of very reasonable explanations the fact that most people don't see anything but rather experience intense emotions with the creature being detected sometimes solely by a kind of gut feeling leads many researchers to suggest that the encounter is all on their heads many hikers and mountain climbers may be experiencing anxiety from as graeme reed puts it prolonged exhaustion and isolation the ominous environment may also have a powerful psychological effect on people on its own it has been suggested that low frequency sound or what is called infrasound sound with a frequency below 20 hertz can cause anxiety for unknown reasons the footsteps may be the products of echoes or can be attributed to animals that are difficult to see in the fog despite their proximity both possibilities feature prominently in a number of stories and indeed the footsteps often only follow people while they themselves are walking however this doesn't necessarily explain the unusual rhythm of the footsteps which is again a main feature of many stories and indeed is generally what sparks the feeling of alarm to begin with one man reported that he thought he was being followed only to discover that what sounded like footsteps was actually the sloshing around of his drink in his backpack and what about the giant humanoid figures that people are observing it could be an illusion again triggered by the excited mental state and exhaustion although it could very well be that these people are seeing something real there is an optical illusion known as a broken spectre which occurs when the sun casts a shadow on the fog giving the appearance of a giant figure in front of someone which people may not immediately recognize as a shadow this requires very specific circumstances but the phenomenon has been observed on ben mcdui itself on a few occasions as far back as the 1700s however it is often accompanied by a colorful halo which is not always reported fog is also capable of amplifying sound under the right conditions some people have produced photographs and found footprints of the grey man but the subjects of the photographs and origins of the footprints remain disputed is this sufficient to say that there is a natural explanation for the gray man perhaps so or perhaps there is more we have to understand about the desolate seemingly featureless than magdui and those who may call this mountain home either way its reputation as an eerie and strange place is well deserved with believers and non-believers recognizing it as such we remain in scotland to address our next being or perhaps breed of beings which have been terrifying inhabitants of the north for centuries it is described as a horse a seemingly beautiful friendly strong horse white dark grey or black often found near bodies of water it appears quite normal apart from its hooves which are backwards and its mane which is always soaking wet the horse is quite inviting especially towards children who naturally want to climb and ride the beast and weary travelers looking for a ride it may even encourage them to mount by singing once on the horse's back however the victims find they cannot get off they have become stuck to the horse bound to it the horse reveals itself to be a sinister being and carries its victims off into the nearby body of water where they are drowned and eaten this demonic horse is known as a kelpie it's a part of a much larger mythology of demonic water dwelling horses found throughout northern europe with tales of other similar creatures reported throughout britain as well which will address the legends of the kelpie date back to the ancient celts there is a kelpie legend associated with nearly every large body of water in scotland though other accounts hold that kelpies are more restricted to certain bodies of water specifically rivers and streams notably many legends hail from a specific lock in the highlands of scotland called loch ness which we will be returning to later in this presentation some legends state that the kelpie has the power to change its form namely in the daytime as it would be returned to its horse form when the sun set it sometimes appears as a handsome lord or less traditionally as these horses prefer to prey on women a beautiful lady which draws in lonely wandering travelers inviting them to swim often with the same intentions and therefore often with the same result one can telekelpie however even in human form by the water weeds or sand in their hair also according to some accounts they retain their hooves in this form other times the kelpie takes the form of an elderly man or sometimes as a large brutish man who captures victims directly in some of these tales however the kelby does not consume the victim but rather seeking companionship cast a spell upon them causing them to fall madly in love with them despite its strength and intelligence legend holds that one can defeat a kelpie one way to achieve this is by fitting it with a halter with the sign of the cross on it another more common way is to grasp its bridle or the equivalent which is transformed along with the beast when it takes a false appearance such as a necklace once taken it becomes a servant of any who obtained it as it will die within a day without it the individual also gains control over any other kelpie no matter whose bridal they have possession of once a servant its powers and great strength are sometimes used for labor the castle of the laird of murphy is said to have been built using a kelpie who upon its release placed a curse upon his family preventing them from having children and causing the family to die out one can also kill a kelpie namely with a silver bullet once killed it melts into what is often described as a jelly-like substance as a side note some legends hold that there are positive kelpies which save children from drowning rather than drowning them themselves though these are less common the origins of the kelpie mythology are quite old likely predating christianity the legends may not have originated in scotland and may have been brought over by the norse the legends may have descended from tales related to horse sacrifices made to water gods indeed sinister shape-shifting water spirits like the nyx or the fosgrim are common throughout germanic mythology and the shuplety or nuggle of shetland and the tangy of orkney are likewise similar monstrous water horse creatures on islands which were settled by the norse during the viking age however similar tales seem to be spread throughout celtic mythology as well there is the glashden of the isle of man the keffel doer in wales the morgans of wales and brittany and more another closely related beast is the akishka scottish gaelic for waterhorse the manx equivalent being kabul ushti and the irish being ogiski in ireland it is pronounced gaelic in scotland it's pronounced gaelic the kelpie and akisha are so similar that the legends appear to have been confused in some circumstances over many centuries however the akishka is considered more ferocious one primary difference between the two is that the akishka are more commonly found in the sea much like its kelpie relative it attempts to lure riders to mount them who become stuck after doing so where then it takes them underwater and devours them whole apart from as many legends hold the liver it too is capable of shape-shifting generally into a handsome lord but sometimes into a large water bird the akishka is also open to consuming livestock and even each other should another akishka carry the smell of a prior meal overall however the most sinister of these water horse demons is the knuckle of e the knuckle of e does seem to stem from a legend brought by the norse during the settlement of the northern isles it is said to inhabit the waters around the orkney islands many tales were collected by the researcher and orkney native walter trail denison in the late 19th century where he often wrote of what he had heard from local farmers directly though he encountered only one firsthand account the knuckle of v is described in various ways denison claimed that it was a water demon which turned into a demonic horse as it surfaced on the land what form the creature takes while in water is not known however the one first-hand witness account described it as something far more disturbing than a kelpie he claimed that it was indeed a demonic horse with fins on its legs but had what appeared to be a writer atop it only the rider is but a torso in arms with a head which bobs side to side as if it were limp it is attached to the same body as the horse much like a centaur the creature has no skin exposing its muscle and veins the horse section also has its own head with one giant eye and a mouth which breathes toxic smoke it is said to often roam the beaches of the islands the nakalavi does not merely prey on lone travelers however it is capable of such power that it can inflict hardship on all of the islands plagues droughts famines the deaths of livestock many of these hardships were blamed on this demon and its toxic breath people were so concerned by the knuckle of v that they would not utter its name without saying a prayer immediately afterward despite its great power it is not invincible it is in fact sensitive to fresh water and therefore cannot come ashore when it is raining and can be escaped by crossing a stream or splashing fresh water on it it is also confined to the depths of the ocean during the summer months by the sea mother a much more benevolent sea spirit of arcadian mythology manon a village in cornwall a region in the southwest corner of britain which is no stranger to strange happenings april 17 1976. two young girls june age 12 and vicki 9 melling are on vacation with their family when they spot something horrifying flying above the tower of saint mon and saint stephen's church located about a mile from the center of the village they describe it as a large feathered birdman with an owl's face surely the imaginations of two children at work right well evidently the girl's father was so struck by the event that he cut their vacation short and went back to his home in lancaster immediately there he reported the story to a cryptozoologist named tony doc shiels a few months later two teenage girls spotted the owl man while they were out camping in the woods near where the creature had been reported in an effort to look for it gaining a much more detailed view they described the creature as a man-sized owl with pointed ears black pincer-like claws and glowing red eyes at first they claimed they believed it to be a joke until terrifyingly the yellow man shot up in the air over the years more sightings were reported along with strange owl-like sounds that came from the church every so often descriptions became more detailed but largely remained very similar some would go so far as to claim that they were attacked by it the reports seemed to have stopped around the year 2000 however and there have not been many more sightings reported in the past several years with many villagers referring to it as a memory or especially if they are newcomers not even knowing about it and so what was it many cryptozoologists note a striking resemblance to the mothman of america first observed in west virginia in 1966 and 67. ironically many researchers believe that misidentifications of owls are to blame for the supposed mothman and suspect that as well for the cornish owl man research has shown that people tend to be unreliable at estimating size during brief encounters especially when excited furthermore it is fairly normal for the eyes of owls to glow red when light is shined into them as light is reflected by what's called the tapitum lookidum latin for bright tapestry which is a layer of tissue behind the eyes of these creatures as well as many others many researchers would guess that that's what's going on here noting that owls often nest atop church towers some however suspect that the initial incident was totally made up by the cryptozoologist tony doc shiels who had a reputation for creating hoaxes the mothman of point pleasant is often considered an unusual cryptid not merely a misunderstood animal but a supernatural being which appears as a warning of imminent danger perhaps that could be the case for the owl man of manan as well dartmoor an area of southwest england in county devon the area is home to about 30 000 people and is protected under english law as a national park which stretches well over 300 square miles the grasslands and bogs of this area are famous for their beauty making the area a popular tourist destination however in the famously dreary english weather the area can appear rather ghostly indeed it is an appropriate setting for a number of legends and reports of unusual activity one example of this are the strange events that have taken place on the road known as b-3212 between the hamlet of post-bridge and an area known as two bridges near beliver forest for at least a hundred years motorists and bicyclists have reported having had unusual accidents along this road some claim horses have shied away from the area as well many of the victims of these accidents survive and go on to report that the circumstances of their accidents have left them baffled these aren't your standard cases of distracted driving resulting in your average fender bender many of these drivers have reported that they felt as if they were forced off the road suddenly as if they had lost control of the wheel to another force some claim that it has been occurring since 1910 but the first verifiable incidents are from the 1920s attention to these accidents grew in the summer of 1921 following a string of them the first involved a motorcyclist dr ernest h helby who suddenly lost control of his motorcycle as he struggled to regain control he yelled for his daughters in the sidecar to jump he crashed and was killed instantly but it is said his daughters survived it's worth noting though the initial reports do not mention the daughter's presence and these census records do not mention their existence but it appears that some of the newspapers did mention them more on that later anyway finally on august 26th of that year an army officer claimed to have identified the culprit he claimed that a pair of large hairy powerful hands had grabbed a hold of his motorcycle while he was in the same area and forced him off the road though this character and the reports of the incident remain ambiguous he is said to have survived and reported the incident to a friend whereafter the incident became famous it was the first of many reports to come of the hairy hands of dartmoor reports continued throughout the 1920s and beyond throughout the 20th century most of the reports were very similar a pair of hands sometimes visible large muscular and hairy suddenly materializing in the same section of road and attempting to force motorists and bicyclists off oftentimes succeeding however there were other reports of the hands being spotted outside of these circumstances as well such as in the case of one woman who was out camping with her husband in 1924 she claimed that she found the hands attempting to gain access to her caravan one night until she made the sign of the cross causing them to flee again she described the hands as hairy large and moving on their own these reports may seem like a convenient excuse for poor driving or a quick way for a shallow individual to gain some attention but it seems that many of the victims genuinely believed what they've seen such as rufus endl who survived an accident which he claimed was caused by the hairy hands he kept the incident mostly private recounting his experience to the author michael williams asking of him that he not share it in his book supernatural dartmoor until after his death some have claimed that the hands likely belong to a spirit who died in the area perhaps from a car accident or perhaps they belong to a deceased prisoner formerly held in the local dartmoor prison indeed the first victim in the summer of 21 worked at the prison or perhaps the spirit is much more ancient belonging to a bronze age village that once existed in the area who still attempts to ward off trespassers however many people most notably many of the locals remain unconvinced and attribute the accidents to the road itself which can be dangerous especially to people unfamiliar with it or other causes locals sometimes expressed concern that the tales were fabrications that would lead to a decline in tourist revenue furthermore many of the supposed encounters with the hairy hands such as the encounter with the woman in the caravan in 1924 raise a number of questions that contradict key elements of the story calling them into question at times modern versions of the stories even differ from the original reports thanks to newspapers and careless storytellers indeed some have gone so far as to question the existence of not merely the hands but even some of the individuals claimed to have reported the stories as i hinted at earlier perhaps the nail in the coffin for this one is the fact that the decline in reported incidents parallels an improvement in vehicle and transportation technology but is that truly the end of it well whatever is going on perhaps it would be wise to exercise a little extra caution should you find yourself traveling down this road throughout germanic and celtic mythology there are numerous tales of what scholars call ghostly black dogs britain especially england and wales is a hotbed of these legends across the island there are many different names for these haunting canines with reports of them continuing to this very day the black shuck of east anglia the bargest of northumberland the capithlate of westmoreland the black dog of newgate prison the guy trash of the north the black dog of panic chase the black dog of the welsh saint donna's castle the black dog of tring the freyberg and well the list continues these hellhounds are anything but man's best friend the dogs are simply the forms that demons ghosts or some other unnatural shape-shifting entities are said to assume the origins of the deathly black dog legends from the underworld are quite old even predating christianity the tales may be so old that the greek hound of hades cerberus may stem from the same roots they are generally described as solitary though not always vicious looking dogs larger than most with shaggy black fur large teeth and claws and eyes which glow ominously in the darkness though sometimes it is described as having only a single glowing red eye like a cyclops sometimes even the dog has a human face or is headless as is the case for the one in ivlet a hamlet in yorkshire or can become invisible like the bar guest and padfoot they are said to wander the night namely in churchyards graveyards and empty fields sometimes the footsteps are silent other times they are accompanied by the sound of rattling chains some of them even like the gabriel hounds fly through the night sky the howls are loud and bone chilling legend holds that should you hear such a howl you should close your eyes immediately infamously the black dog is often an omen of death sometimes as with the black shuck a sighting warrants your own death either immediately by the ferocious beast itself or by unnatural forces under his control within the next year black ghost dogs have been written about in england since the middle ages and again likely predate writing on the island there is a tale of the black shuck from the old english sukkah meaning devil specifically which comes from 1577 the 16th century english clergyman abraham fleming tells that on august 4th of that year a black dog attacked the churches of bungie and blytheborough two people were killed at bungie and on the same day another three at blythera by a dog which appeared outside the church broke in and began attacking churchgoers the dog is said to leave scorch marks behind as well as the smell of brimstone aka sulfur wherever it goes holy trinity church in blythesburg claims these marks called the devil's fingerprints remain on its door to this day in dartmoor there has been a legend since the 17th century of a man who sold his soul to the devil the squire richard cavill upon his death black hound surrounded his burial chamber his tale served as the inspiration for sir arthur conan doyle's the hound of the baskervilles a sherlock holmes story in the north of england in northumberland and durham specifically it is said that the bar guest roams the bar guest is quite similar to the shock save for a few notable attributes firstly interestingly it is unable to cross rivers secondly it appears to be more likely to vary in the forms that it takes at times appearing in forums such as a headless person who disappears in flame or a white cat the bar guest is said to haunt the countryside though it has been reported even in urban areas such as the city of york preying on innocent people in william henderson's 1879 notes on the folklore of the northern counties of england and the border territories he claims that like many ghostly black dogs the bar guest signals death though not necessarily the death of the individual to whom he appears but rather an important member of the community following the death of the individual the bar guest forms a kind of funeral procession with the local dogs should anyone get in the bar guest's way it inflicts a wound on them which never heals the yeth hound of devin is said to be the spirit of an unbaptized child who has taken the form of a headless dog and wanders the forest at night wailing like a baby one protection from the dogs it is said is to carry a cross or a picture of a saint the black dogs are not exclusively evil however some are said to be merely apparitions who keep to themselves others may even do services for the community of which they are apart the church grim for example are said to be spirits of dogs which protect churches from vandals and evil-doers they too announce impending death when one rings the church bell at midnight the gert dog of somerset is even said to be benevolent and watches over children specifically protecting them from evildoers there is a famous tale of two convicted criminals from the early 1900s who admitted that they intended to rob and murder a man in the forest but were scared off by the presence of a black dog in scotland the dogs are said to guard treasure the gulagi of wales interestingly is said to take the form of a mastiff not only is it the island's most famous cryptid but it is unquestionably one of the most famous in the entire world on par with the sasquatch loch ness in the highlands of scotland is the largest lock by volume in the british isles containing more water than all the lakes of england and wales combined the lock has long been considered a home of many of these strange water creatures said to haunt scotland such as the aforementioned water horses the most famous monster said to inhabit these murky waters however attracts the interests of millions from around the world to this day she is no horse not even a demonic one when the first encounter with what is called the loch ness monster or nessie took place is unclear some believe the first report comes from as far back as the 6th century a.d the abbot yunnan mentions something intriguing in the biography he wrote of a relative whom he never met saint columba a central figure of scottish christianity who lived in this time while on his mission to convert the native picts to christianity he encountered a group of men burying a man whom they claimed died after having been attacked by a water beast in the nearby river ness which is connected to but is technically not the lock itself saint columba decided to confront this beast sending one of his followers into the river when the beast approached this swimmer it is claimed saint columba made the sign of the cross and commanded the beast back into the water the beast paused and then sank below it's unclear what kind of beast the tale refers to as we've seen throughout this presentation the celts loved their water monster mythology whether or not this was the origin of the loch ness monster mythology in unrelated tale or if in fact it was a medieval report of an encounter with something actually in the water remains debated overall the true fascination with nessie doesn't seem to have started until the modern era the earliest reports of what we could clearly call nessie come from the early 1800s when there were reported sightings of something unusual moving around in the water sometimes referred to as sea serpents these reports became more popular in the late 1800s the most famous string of incidents however which sparked public attention from around the world took place in 1933. on april 15th of that year jon and aldi mckay were driving along the ae82 route next to the lock while looking out the window aldi claimed she saw a creature which resembled a whale rolling and plunging in the water for about a full minute before finally disappearing into the water she said it had two humps and was about 20 feet in length it's worth noting aldi was aware of the mythology surrounding the beast prior to the sighting on july 22nd of that same year a report came from a man named george spicer he claimed that while he and his wife were out driving on a road by loch ness a large creature about four feet high and 25 feet long passed in front of their car reportedly limbless it slithered across the road toward the lake its neck alone it was claimed accounted for about half of its length he claimed it was somewhat like a dragon or prehistoric creature sightings continued throughout the years immediately as the newspapers blew up with stories people set out to try to be the first to photograph the beast the first alleged photograph was taken in november of 1933 by hugh gray though this was quickly deemed to be a fake depicting either a labrador retriever or an otter another photograph was taken the following spring by robert kenneth wilson a local surgeon and gynecologist this photograph shown here known as the surgeon's photograph because of wilson's desired anonymity became the most famous piece of evidence for the existence of the monster and remains famous to this day however after extensive examination it is now recognized as a famous fabrication indeed many years later it was revealed to be a hoax after all with the main perpetrator being a man named marmaduke weatherl who had already faked evidence of the monster before wilson was merely the one who claimed to have taken the photograph to avoid suspicion some individuals were so convinced of the monster's existence that they began to advocate for its protection fearing hunters others however including many who had been living near and working on the lock for decades remained quite doubtful of the presence of any such monsters lurking below attention on such things subsided during the war but the subject became more common again in the 50s amid the numerous sighting reports came more photographs and even videos many of which were quickly proven or considered quite likely to be hoaxes or misidentifications one family on a boat even claimed to have collided with the monster causing the grandfather on board so much shock that he had a heart attack thankfully there was some flesh from whatever they hit left on the engine of the boat this was extremely useful to the search for the loch ness monster or at least it could have been had the flesh not been scrubbed off from the engine and discarded immediately by a work crew in 1977 an even clearer picture of the monster was taken by tony doc shields remember him from the initial owl man of modern incident which had occurred shortly before this this is why he earned a suspicious reputation the monster does in fact appear to be yet another hoax in this photograph not every event was so easily explainable however in 1954 the boat rival 3 claimed it picked up a large object following the vessel from about 500 feet below on its sonar readings this event has been left unexplained it wasn't the first attempt at using sonar to find the animal and certainly not the last there have been many more attempts throughout the decades many being much more complex and thorough which also have found interesting things large moving masses under the water were observed in many different surveys such as the ones undertaken by robert h rines though what exactly these were remains unexplained many different things could turn out to be the culprits because the water is quite murky it's often hard to see far below the surface because of incidents like these despite the fact that there is no shortage of hoaxes science has yet to conclude without a doubt that there is no undiscovered species of large marine animal in loch ness the question not only carries on into this day but there is an average of 10 reported sightings every year some of which are occasionally photographed or even recorded and make international news it's so popular that the animal quickly became a kind of national symbol of scotland naturally however we must remember the fact that a situation is unexplained does not vindicate the wildest explanation available there is a whole list of more rational explanations for what people are seeing as one would expect essentially anything large floating in the water could be mistaken for the monster mistaken nasty reports have been attributed to otters dogs boats and boat trails driftwood drifting peat moss fish seals birds deer optical illusions waves geologic activity anything unusual in the water and oftentimes even usual things that are easily mistaken it's quite easy for excitement to blind the skeptical eye of many people and the legend is certainly exciting however again there are other explanations which maintain that people really are seeing something radical and they're not as wild as one might expect most of them anyway a famous hypothesis is that nessie or nessies are a remnant species or at least a descendant of what are called plesiosaurs now as an amateur fossil hunter and paleontology enjoyer i find myself compelled to mention that everyone says that this means nessie could be a dinosaur but plesiosaurs are technically not dinosaurs but they did exist at the same time living from about 200 to 65 million years ago the thinking is that nessie could be as i said a remnant of these ancient creatures this hypothesis goes back to the 1900s when paleontology was really starting to take off and people were curious about what these fossilized creatures were and if perhaps any of them were still around recall of course spicer mentioned he thought nessie could be a prehistoric creature indeed nessie's description is quite similar to what your average plesiosaur is believed to have looked like although reported descriptions admittedly vary widely which is quite important some people have even described it as looking like a camel which walks on all fours it would not be the first time that a species of animal previously assumed to have been extinct for millions of years was discovered as i briefly mentioned in the north america video the coelacanth was also assumed to have gone extinct during the kpg extinction event 66 million years ago but was found swimming off the coast of south africa in 1938. that's an intriguing example but in imperfect comparison the coelacanth was far less exciting lived in very far-off regions from where researchers were primarily working and is not quite as big or radical as what nessie is claimed to be there are a number of critical problems with the plesiosaur hypothesis itself furthermore such as that plesiosaurus would have to appear frequently since they rose from the water to breathe there doesn't appear to be enough food in the lock to support a significant population of the beasts and most importantly the lock is only 10 000 years old and the entrance to the ocean is too narrow and shallow for a large beast across so probably not a plesiosaur but still perhaps a large sea animal has yet to be discovered some have posited that it could be a species of shark native to the northern oceans such as the greenlandic shark another suggestion is a giant catfish such as the elves catfish or the european sea sturgeon which are often bigger than the average man another suggestion is a giant eel as eels are common in the lock the problem with that is that nessie hasn't ever been reported to swim side to side like eels do and eels generally prefer the bottom of these large bodies of water but many scientists still claim it remains a viable hypothesis more viable than the others in fact why well in 2018 a dna analysis of the lock was undertaken by a team from new zealand which found no presence of sharks sea sturgeons catfish anything reptile or anything unknown but there was a heavy dna presence of eels as well as amphibians although this analysis did not find any dna of otters or seals either which are present in the lock and rare creatures do occasionally wander in from the ocean through the narrow river ness some have speculated that nessie could therefore be a giant undiscovered amphibian though this explanation still does not take precedence over the many simpler explanations for now the nessie debate continues and perhaps it will never be solved for certain it's a bit more likely than many other cryptids reported around the world but in my personal opinion the evidence is weaker than that which is presented for the sasquatch whatever nessie is though assuming she is something she thankfully appears peaceful but she's not alone there are multiple locks and other bodies of water said to harbor nessie-like creatures as well in scotland and throughout the british isles some may be myths inspired by the nessie myth others claim they could be members of the same species and still others say that these creatures are different monsters entirely another example lies 70 miles to the west of loch ness in lake marar here too it is believed by some a sea monster dwells called morag it's of course less popular than nessie but excluding the ambiguous account of saint columba sightings appear to be roughly as old indeed sightings of the morag go back to the late 1800s and much like nessie continue to this day at times with multiple witnesses morag appears to be nessie's more temperamental sister one famous encounter in 1969 holds that two men accidentally hit the creature with their boat causing her to attack them leading to a brief fight which may have led to her being shot however the legend of morag originally referred to a mermaid-like creature said to be half-human half-fish and rather beautiful her sighting was not desired however and as it was claimed her appearance was an omen of death often as a result of drowning today however morag refers to a reported creature more along the lines of nessie finally we return 600 miles south to cornwall to the falmouth bay some locals claim a creature similar to nessie lurks here as well the morgower cornish for sea giant not to be confused with morag the first purported sighting came from a woman named mary f in 1976. mary f was not the one to report the beast however at least to the falmouth packet news outlet which reported the story rather the information was sent by a man named tony doc oh the legend which some claim shields invented himself although i'm not making any accusations here purportedly goes back to the first world war shields claims to have cited it as well in 1976 and even claims to have photographed the beast in fact he has even claimed to be able to summon it it is described as a sea serpent with a long neck and dark skin being either black or brown ever since these initial reports however many other witnesses have claimed to have seen the beast specifically in an area known colloquially as morgower's mile myths and legends doubtlessly as old as humanity itself perhaps these are all fairy tales inspired by things like misunderstandings misidentifications and the simple fun of making up a good story and the usefulness that such legends could bring to people such as discouraging encounters in strange areas with real threats in the world or perhaps there is indeed something to at least one of the creatures featured here perhaps something quite efficient at evading detection like nessie or something practically unexplainable whose existence is attributable to forces currently beyond human understanding either way i believe that these stories are important they are pieces of culture which should continue to be passed down and preserved i hope you enjoyed this video if so i invite you to come check out the rest of fire of learning especially our campfire playlist which has more videos on things like cryptids legendary creatures as well as holidays and to subscribe for more videos like this in the future you can help support the production of videos like these by donating on patreon the link to which is in the description i'd like to thank my current patrons listed here for their support fire of learning is also on instagram and i have a science channel called lusinox so come check us out there too thank you for watching you

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 1,113,628

Rating: 4.8987074 out of 5

Keywords: Britain, England, Wales, Cornwall, Scotland, Cryptids, Owlman, Loch ness monster, Kelpie, Black Shuck, Barghest, Barguest, Each Uisge, Grey man, Ben Macdhui, Mawnan, Hairy hands of Dartmoor, Morag, Morgawr

Id: qa5P1e19BRg

Length: 44min 52sec (2692 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2020