The Paranormal Database

A carved mermaid (from Lincoln).

Killer Mermaid

Location: Leek (Staffordshire) - Blakemere, the Mermaid's Pool
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The fish woman surfaces to comb her hair at midnight - anyone approaching too close are dragged down into the deep waters with her. One legend says that the mermaid last appeared in the nineteenth century to prevent her pool being drained, threatening to flood the nearby town of Leek if people proceeded to dig away at her home.

An old woodcut of a ship caught in a storm.

Singing

Location: Lemorna (Cornwall) - Mermaid's Rock
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to sinking
Further Comments: Although this creature has not been seen, it can be heard singing - a ship will sink nearby exactly seven days later.

The Seal People

Location: Loch Duich (Highland) - Waters of the loch
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The area is home to a colony of seal people - sea creature while in the water, human when they climb out... Mermaids have also been reported, as have sea serpents.

Seaton

Location: Looe (Cornwall) - Nearby beach
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Upset with the residents of the village Seaton, a mermaid caused all the buildings to be buried by sand.

Line engraving of a mermaid by B Cole, 1759.

Angry Mermaid

Location: Lornty (Perth and Kinross) - Waters between town and Loch Benachally
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These waters were once the swimming area of a mermaid renowned for her bad temperament.

Abducted Woman

Location: Lough Sheelin (County Meath) - Waters of the lough
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A farmer spotted a beautiful woman leave the lough and forced her to return to his farmhouse. Eventually she agreed to stay with him, on the condition that she never glazed upon the lake again. Twenty years passed and the farmer and the mermaid had several children. While waiting for the farmer to return from the fields on a clear day, the mermaid spotted the lough in the distance and fled towards it, never to be seen again.

A mermaid combing her hair, engraving circa 1757.

Thieving Mermaid

Location: Marden (Hereford & Worcester) - River Lugg
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An accident sent a church bell into the waters of the local river - a passing mermaid took the opportunity to steal the bell and can sometimes be heard ringing it. As a sidenote, a bell was recovered from the water in 1848.

Best not to date mermaids.

Mermaid

Location: Mersey Estuary (Lancashire) - Black Rock
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A sailor once fell in love with a mermaid here. The woman gave him a golden ring, informed the sailor that she would be back in five days to meet him. Five days later, the man died.

Mermaid

Location: Morridge Moor (Staffordshire) - The Black Mere, also known as the Blake Mere
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Appears at midnight, daily
Further Comments: This fishy female comes to the surface of the pool at night, ready to pull any witnesses down to the dark waters where they remain forever.

Upset Mermaid

Location: Newport (Shropshire) - Aqualate Mere
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The last time this area of water was cleaned, a mermaid popped up out of the water and threatened to destroy Newport and Meretown if the pool was emptied.

Therianthropy

Location: North Ronaldsay (Orkney) - Exact location not known
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Goodman of Wastness, a farmer by trade, stole a selkie's seal skin and hid it, forcing the woman to become his wife. After many years of marriage and a house full of children the selkie found her seal skin and ran off back to the sea, never to be seen again.

Mermaid's Grave

Location: Nunton, Benbecula (Outer Hebrides) - Exact location not known
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: The area reportedly contains the grave of a mermaid killed in the early nineteenth century. The mer-creature had been seen for a couple of days, before a teenage boy threw a rock at it, killing the entity. Accounts stated that the upper part of the creature was the size of an infant, while the bottom resembled a salmon.

Mermaid's Stone

Location: Old Cambus (Borders) - Road leading to Church of St Helen
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The concave nature of a stone on the road leading to the church was attributed to the foot of a mermaid (an untraditional untailed one) escaping from her jailor.

The sea off Orford Castle, Suffolk.

Merman

Location: Orford (Suffolk) - Coast near to Orford Castle
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Circa 1167
Further Comments: Fishermen caught a naked, hairy man just off the coast. The man did not speak, even when hung upside down and tortured. His diet considered of fish, which if given to him raw, he squeezed with his hands and drank only the liquid. He was held at the castle for a while (some sources say six months) before being allowed to swim in the sea, albeit guarded in a netted enclosure. The wild man managed to escape the enclosure and played in the waves, occasionally disappearing under the sea. Just as the guards had given up of hope of recapturing him, the wild man returned and was taken back to the castle. As he had returned voluntarily, the wild man was not guarded as intensely as previous and stayed at the castle for another couple of months before once again escaping into the sea, but this time never returning.

Padstow Harbour, home to a mermaid.

Angry Mermaid

Location: Padstow (Cornwall) - Padstow Harbour
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local tale states that the harbour here was silted up by a mermaid, more than a little upset after she was shot at by a fisherman. The area has also been home to sea serpents.

A selkie out at sea.

Selkie Prince

Location: Papa Stour (Shetland) - Exact location not known
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A group of hunters who arrived at the island killed and skinned many seals before a violent storm began to batter the island - unbeknown to the hunters, a selkie prince was amongst the seals. The hunters finally returned the skins to the remaining seals, after which the storm ceased.

Mermaids

Location: Perranuthnoe (Cornwall) - Cudden Point, off the coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This area is another haunt for the Cornish merfolk.

Merman

Location: Portgordon (Moray) - Off coast
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 15 August 1814
Further Comments: This figure normally warned of ill fortune at sea - if the crew of a fishing vessel spotted him, they would return to port for the day. Two fishermen spotted two of the creatures in 1814 - one they described as black in colour, with curly hair and long arms, while the other was female with long hair.

Church Ope Cove, Portland.

Mermaid

Location: Portland (Dorset) - Church Ope Cove
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One story says that a mermaid came ashore here but died soon after being discovered by local people heading to church.

Pond in Rendlesham, Suffolk.

Rake

Location: Rendlesham (Suffolk) - Pond shaped like an 'S'
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This freshwater mermaid was reputed to be armed with a rake, ready to drag in any children who strayed too close.

Mermaid

Location: Rinns of Islay (Argyll and Bute) - Small island off Rinns of Islay
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: There are several entities said to haunt this small island, including a mermaid, the sound of rattling chains, and water horses. A woman supervising cattle on the island was attacked by something tall and hairy, with no skin upon its face. She managed to survive by throwing boiling water over the entity and creating a magic circle, remaining inside it.

River Gipping, Suffolk.

Gipping Girl

Location: River Gipping (Suffolk) - General area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The mermaid that frequented the Gipping would prey on children who played near the deeper waters of the river.

Rostherne Mere's mermaid.

Mermaid

Location: Rostherne Mere (Cheshire) - General area
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Easter Sunday (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Her reasons unknown, this mermaid returns once a year to ring a bell hidden deep underwater and sing.

Rothesay

Location: Rothesay (Argyll and Bute) - Shoreline within a mile of town
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 19 (or 12) July 1826
Further Comments: Three men spotted a mermaid carefully combing her long black hair along the shoreline. One of the witnesses also reported a large sea monster nearby, which had the body of a man 'but with the head of a brute'.

Remains in the Bay

Location: Scalloway (Shetland) - Bay
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 1810
Further Comments: The remains of a large mystery sea creature drifted into Scalloway Bay. Described as a looking like an upturned vessel, it remained in the bay for two weeks before disappearing - during this time, no one was brave enough to approach it for a closer look.