The Paranormal Database

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.

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.

A Sea Man

Location: Skinningrove (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.

Snettisham Beech and The Wash, Norfolk.

Dark Haired Mermaid

Location: Snettisham (Norfolk) - Snettisham Beech & The Wash
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Little is known about the sighting of a mermaid with long dark hair once spotted here.

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.

Blocked Door

Location: St Levan (Cornwall) - Pendower Cove
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Having just dropped anchor in the bay, the captain of a ship was surprised when a mermaid stuck her head out of the sea and asked if the anchor could be moved, as it had landed on the entrance to her home. The captain was happy to comply.

Naked Mermaid?

Location: Thurso (Highland) - Sandside Bay
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1798
Further Comments: William Munro, a schoolmaster from Thurso, watched a naked woman combing her hair on a rock in the bay. After a few minutes she dived under the water and vanished.

Engraving of a mermaid, circa 1757.

Saxi and Herman

Location: Unst Island (Shetland) - General area
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Saxi and Herman, two giants who were brothers, once lived on the island. They both fell in love with a mermaid who said she would marry whoever would swim to the North Pole with her. Both brothers began the trip, but neither returned.

Mathew Trewhella

Location: Zennor (Cornwall) - Church and Sea
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 1400s?
Further Comments: A son of a church warden, Mathew Trewhella one day disappeared without trace. A sea captain later told the village folk that Mathew was with a mermaid, living under the sea.