The Paranormal Database

Each Ceannan Dubh

Location: Shandra (County Antrim) - Loch an Eich
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Each Ceannan Dubh was a magical horse with fire burning in its eyes. The creature also had a large spear embedded in its chest. Each Ceannan Dubh died after galloping into a wall, the impact pushing the spear further into its chest and piercing its heart.

Peist

Location: Shannon Estuary (County Clare) - Close to Scattery Island
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Circa AD 500
Further Comments: Saint Senan engaged a peist in this body of water. The creature, with fiery eyes and venomous mouth, fell after the saint made the sign of the cross, and was bound and thrown into Doo Lough (or Doolough).

Scaly Horse

Location: Shapinsay (Orkney) - Off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1902
Further Comments: A creature with the body of a horse was observed by several fishermen, who reported it had scales like a fish, and a spotted effect over its body.

Each Uisge

Location: Shawbost, Isle of Lewis (Outer Hebrides) - Valley in the area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Two cousins, Dark Mary and Fair Mary, spent the night in a shieling in a valley near to Shawbost. One night an each-uisge (a water spirit) appeared in the guise of little old lady and tricked the cousins into letting her spend the night with them - Fair Mary was murdered by the each-uisge, and it escaped into the night.

To Be Seen Alive

Location: Sheffield (South Yorkshire) - Rawson's Arms, Tenter Street (no longer operating), and River Dun
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: June 1835
Further Comments: This pub featured in local news as it offered a sea serpent 'to be seen alive'. The creature, pulled from the River Dun, weighed around twenty-two kilograms, a head resembling a mastiff, and fine mouse-like hair. Music would calm or anger the creature, depending on the number of instruments played.

Flying Lizard

Location: Sheffield (South Yorkshire) - Rivelin Valley
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: It was said that there were three types of lizard in this area, the Running Asker, the Water Asker, and the Flying Asker, the latter being the smallest of the three.

Bench End

Location: Sheringham (Norfolk) - Parish Church
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Still present
Further Comments: A carved wooden bench arm is in the shape of a mermaid. A notice in the church said that, in days of olde, a mermaid tried to enter but was turned away by a mortified crowd. She later snuck in undetected and remains to this day.

Upright Beast

Location: Sherwood Forest (Nottinghamshire) - Deep within the forest
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A local teenage myth says that the forest is home to a tall hairy man, whose eyes glow red in the dark. There is a chance that this is a modern version of the tree spirits that were once said to live here.

Shoepultie

Location: Shetland (Shetland) - Exact areas unknown
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This creature was said to be like traditional water horses, other than it would use its tail like a propeller once in the water.

Cursed

Location: Shetland (Shetland) - Exact location not known
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Pre-1822
Further Comments: A fisherman who caught a mermaid while out at sea killed the creature with a knife. It was said that from that moment, he was cursed.

Noggle

Location: Shetland (Shetland) - Near water wheels
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Noggle was a type of water horse that could be found stopping water wheels. When a miller appeared to chase the beast off, he would often be tricked into mounting it - being taken to deep water and his doom.

Upset Sea Creature

Location: Shetland Islands (Shetland) - Southeast of the island of Fetlar
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1881 or 1882
Further Comments: The crew of the fishing vessel Bertie fired several shots at a sea monster they passed - this angered the beast, which created waves of such force that they washed over the boat, taking away fishing gear and other supplies. The creature continued to stalk the crew until night fell.

An Octopus Devours a Ship, by Orra White Hitchcock.

Killer Octopus

Location: Sidmouth (Devon) - Off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1890s
Further Comments: An octopus was said to have killed several people along the coast here during a year in this decade, although the story is likely fake.

Green Creature

Location: Skeffling (East Riding of Yorkshire) - Off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Circa 1938
Further Comments: Joan Borgeest spotted a large green creature off the coast of Skeffling. She described the beast as having a flat head, long mouth and protruding eyes. It dived when she shouted for others to come and see it.

Serpentine Beast

Location: Skegness (Lincolnshire) - Area of sea between town and Maplethorpe
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1930s and beyond
Further Comments: This creature, or possibly creatures, has been reported on and off for many years now - its humped form moving quickly and quietly through the water.

Camel Headed Creature

Location: Skerries of Work (Orkney) - Sea in the area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1910
Further Comments: The arrival of this creature was introduced by a school of whales leaping from the water and fleeing the area. The head and neck of the sea monster reached out of the water at the height of a small sailboat.

A Sea Man

Location: Skinningrove (North Yorkshire) - Off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Pre-nineteenth century
Further Comments: A man was caught in the sea by fishermen and kept for many weeks in a cottage where he lived on a diet of fish. After a while, the 'sea man' returned to the sea, waving goodbye to people standing on the coast before diving down and never returning.

Bear

Location: Skipwith (North Yorkshire) - Skipwith Common
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: February 1975
Further Comments: A man reported seeing a dark brown bear standing 150 centimetres high. No trace of the creature could be found later.

Washed up

Location: Smerwick (County Kerry) - Beach
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 18 November 1839
Further Comments: Following a storm, a sea creature (curiously described as a sea orangutan) washed up on the beach. From head to toe, the creature measured 4.14 metres, and when stretched, the creature's arms spanned 3.4 metres. A newspaper said the creature to be 'a frightful looking devil'.

Afanc

Location: Snowdon (Gwynedd) - Llyn Glaslyn
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: Witness Oliver Vaughan spotted the pale head of strange animal in Llyn Glaslyn, which was thought to be an Afanc, a lake monster from Welsh mythology.

Sea serpent, from Konrad Gesner's Historiae Animalium, 1558.

Speared Serpent

Location: Solway Firth (Dumfries and Galloway) - General area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: After finishing off the local fish population, a large serpent came ashore and started snacking on the local population. Survivors set a trap for the creature; a long line of sharpened wooden stakes were placed along the waterline, which the beast impaled itself upon.

Glassy Eyed Mermaid

Location: Sound of Mull (Argyll and Bute) - Sea
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Pre-twentieth century
Further Comments: Becalmed in their skiff after setting out from the Sound of Mull, two men spotted a creature in the water which had the head, neck and upper torso of a woman, although the hair was coarser and the eyes glassy.

Monkey

Location: South Cockerington (Lincolnshire) - Mill Hill Way
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 13 August and 15 August 2010
Further Comments: On two separate occasions, two different police officers reported seeing a monkey along this road. Both described the creature as 'a similar size to a squirrel, dark brown in colour with a long, straight, upright tail'.

Man-Like Monster

Location: South Mimms (Hertfordshire) - Bridge along Wash Lane
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Circa late nineteenth / early twentieth century
Further Comments: A man crossing the bridge watched as a human-like creature rose from the ground and leapt over the bridge, vanishing into the mist. The witness fled.

Off the coast of Southwold, Suffolk.

Long Grey Creature

Location: Southwold (Suffolk) - Off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 21 October 1938
Further Comments: While casting their nets, two fishermen watched a long creature around thirty metres away. They stated that the beast was grey in colour, moved at great speed, and estimated the length to be around twenty metres. However, a story later appeared in the local press that the 'creature' was nothing more than several pieces of lumber bound together.