Sunday 24 January 2010

Was this another sighting of the Lough Fadda creature?

As a follow up to the Lough Fadda sighting I came across this in F.W. Holiday’s book “The Great Orm of Loch Ness”. It is on page 148-149 in the 1971 Faber edition.:


The Rector of Clifden Mr Edward C. Alston told Ted Holiday of a strange creature , both he and a Mr Hunt, the fishery inspector, saw in the Killery Inlet near Clifden.

He said it was in November 1965 and he was going to a meeting about the fisheries when he stopped to look at some seals who were themselves watching something. Then he saw what they were watching. He described it as having a neck about as thick as a telegraph pole standing about 5 feet( about 1 and half metres) out of the water .The creature was quite still and seem to be intent on the seals and Mr Alston said it ‘s head resembled a large conger eel’s. He said there was the impression of a large body under the water . It disappeared after about 1 and a half minutes sinking vertically into the water and the seals also disappeared.He estimated it was a 100 yards ( 33 meters) from where he was watching.

Mr Hunt , saw the creature from his house and added he thought the creature was 20 – 25 feet long( 6 to 8 meters approx)and he had seen it move quite fast exhibiting humps. There was also a report to him from a water keeper north of the point who asked for an identification of the same creature he had seen but Mr Hunt was unable to give one. The creature was fairly light in colour so stood out against the sea and Mr Hunt described it as being shaded , lighter underneath when it turned.


What makes this extraordinary is that Lough Fadda is only 10 minutes drive from Clifden and therefore could that distance ( approx 10 or 11 kilometres) have been traversed by this creature? Could it or one like it, have been the creature seen in Lough Fadda in 1954, nine years before.? The area was not built up at that time and would be quite deserted in places. There were apparently fish farms in the Lough then as they were at Killery (Possibly spelt Killary ) inlet and that could have been the attraction for a large creature. An interesting tale which leaves lots of unanswered questions to think about.

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