CONTINENT FILE

Cryptids of Europe

Lake monsters, phantom black dogs, big cats and the beasts of old folklore.

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England7 cryptidsScotland6 cryptidsIreland3 cryptidsWales2 cryptidsFrance2 cryptidsNorway2 cryptidsIceland2 cryptidsRussia2 cryptidsSwitzerland1 cryptidSweden1 cryptid

Cryptids of Europe

The 1934 “Surgeon’s Photograph”: a dark head and neck rising from rippled water – a hoax later shown to be a model on a toy submarine. LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1933

Loch Ness Monster

Loch Ness, near Inverness, Scottish Highlands

Scotland’s long-necked lake monster, reported in Loch Ness since 1933 – the world’s most famous cryptid, most searched-for loch and best-known hoax.

WIDELY REPORTED Title page of Abraham Fleming’s 1577 pamphlet A Straunge and Terrible Wunder, with a woodcut of a black dog DOGMAN & CANINE · 1577

Black Shuck

Bungay and Blythburgh, Suffolk, and the coasts of East Anglia

East Anglia’s ghostly black hound, blamed for the deadly church storm of August 1577 in Bungay and Blythburgh and still said to roam the coast.

REGIONAL LEGEND Brown Willy seen from Rough Tor – the highest point of Bodmin Moor and of Cornwall BIG CAT · 1978

Beast of Bodmin Moor

Bodmin Moor, Cornwall

A big black cat said to stalk Cornwall’s Bodmin Moor, investigated by the government in 1995 – days before a leopard skull turned up in a river.

WIDELY REPORTED HOMINID · 1876

Almas

Altai Mountains and Gobi margins of Mongolia

Central Asia’s “wild man”: a hairy, human-like figure reported from the Altai and Gobi to the Pamirs and Caucasus, once hailed as a surviving Neanderthal.

REGIONAL LEGEND A 1801 engraving of a colossal octopus rising from the sea and wrapping its arms around a sailing ship. LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1752

Kraken

Norwegian Sea, off the coast of Norway

The island-sized sea monster of Norwegian fishermen’s lore, made famous by Bishop Pontoppidan in 1752 – and probably inspired by the giant squid.

FOLKLORE The broad, grey waters of Lagarfljót with the forest of Hallormsstaður on the far bank in East Iceland. LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1345

Lagarfljót Worm

Lagarfljót lake, near Egilsstaðir, East Iceland

Iceland’s glacial-lake serpent, recorded since 1345 and made famous by a 2012 farmhouse video that a local “truth committee” later endorsed.

REGIONAL LEGEND A dragon-like sculpture of the Storsjö monster on the shore of Lake Storsjön, with the city of Östersund in the background. LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1635

Storsjöodjuret

Lake Storsjön, Östersund, Jämtland

Sweden’s Great Lake Monster, a dog- or cat-headed serpent said to swim Storsjön – once hunted with a royal-backed trap and even legally protected.

REGIONAL LEGEND Penny-dreadful illustration of Spring-heeled Jack leaping, from Aldine Publishing’s Spring-Heeled Jack, 1904 HUMANOID · 1837

Spring-heeled Jack

London’s outskirts, Aldershot and Liverpool

A leaping, fire-breathing phantom who terrorised Victorian London in 1838, later spotted at Aldershot and Liverpool – part prankster, part urban myth.

FOLKLORE An 18th-century engraving of the Beast of Gévaudan, a wolf-like animal, published in The London Magazine in 1765. DOGMAN & CANINE · 1764

Beast of Gévaudan

Margeride Mountains, Gévaudan, south-central France

A man-eating predator that killed scores of peasants in south-central France in 1764–67, defying the king’s huntsmen and inspiring werewolf legends.

EXTINCT ANIMAL? HUMANOID · 1820s

Tommyknockers

Gold and silver mines of Colorado’s Front Range, around Idaho Springs and Central City

Little mine spirits brought from Cornwall to the American West, said to knock in Colorado’s gold and silver mines – warning, teasing or guiding the miners.

FOLKLORE Glaslyn, a deep blue mountain lake beneath the summit of Snowdon, where the afanc is said to have been banished. LAKE & SEA MONSTER · c. 1350

Afanc

Llyn yr Afanc on the River Conwy and Glaslyn, Snowdonia

Wales’s legendary lake monster, a flood-causing beast dragged out of a River Conwy pool by oxen and exiled to a lake high on Snowdon.

FOLKLORE Glenade Lough in County Leitrim, the lake where Grace Connolly is said to have been killed by a Dobhar-chú. LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1684

Dobhar-chú

Glenade Lough, County Leitrim

Ireland’s “water hound”: a giant otter-like beast said to have killed Grace Connolly at Glenade Lough in 1722 – a tale tied to a carved local gravestone.

REGIONAL LEGEND A footpath climbing Malmsmead Hill across open Exmoor moorland BIG CAT · 1970s

Beast of Exmoor

Exmoor, on the Devon–Somerset border

A phantom sheep-killer blamed on a puma or panther; in 1983 Royal Marine snipers were sent onto Exmoor to hunt it – and found nothing at all.

WIDELY REPORTED An 18th-century engraving of a cat-headed serpent, one of the Swiss mountain dragons recorded by Scheuchzer in 1723. REPTILIAN · 1660

Tatzelwurm

The Alps of Switzerland, Austria and Bavaria

The “worm with paws” of the Alps: a stubby, cat-faced lizard said to lurk in mountain crevices, hiss, and kill with its poisonous breath.

REGIONAL LEGEND James Torrance’s 1901 illustration of the Nuckelavee reaching for Tammas as he escapes – from George Douglas’s Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales. OTHER · 1891

Nuckelavee

Orkney Islands, northern Scotland

Orkney’s most dreaded sea demon: a skinless horse-and-rider monster blamed for blight, drought and plague, which could not cross running fresh water.

FOLKLORE The Kelpies, two giant steel horse-head sculptures by Andy Scott at The Helix in Falkirk. LAKE & SEA MONSTER · Pre-1759

Kelpie

Rivers and lochs throughout Scotland

The shape-shifting water horse of Scottish folklore, luring riders into lochs and rivers – honoured today by the giant Kelpies sculptures at Falkirk.

FOLKLORE Loch Morar, its still water surrounded by hills – the deep loch where Morag is said to live. LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1887

Morag

Loch Morar, near Mallaig, Lochaber

Nessie’s lesser-known cousin, said to haunt Loch Morar – Britain’s deepest lake – and famously reported to have rammed a fishing boat in 1969.

REGIONAL LEGEND Seljordsvatnet seen from the Grindekleiv viewpoint, a long lake between forested hills in Telemark, Norway. LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1750

Selma

Lake Seljordsvatnet, Seljord, Telemark

Norway’s best-known lake serpent, said since 1750 to swim the narrow lake at Seljord in Telemark, where she now graces the town’s coat of arms.

REGIONAL LEGEND The church of St Mawnan and St Stephen at Mawnan, Cornwall, where the Owlman was reported FLYING · 1976

Owlman

Mawnan church woods, near Falmouth, Cornwall

A man-sized, owl-like figure reported over Mawnan church in Cornwall in 1976 – a modern legend shadowed by the showman who first publicised it.

LOCAL LEGEND LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 13th century (legend)

Brosno Dragon

Lake Brosno, near Andreapol, Tver Oblast

The “Russian Loch Ness Monster,” a dragon said to haunt deep Lake Brosno in Tver Oblast, where legend says it once scared off Batu Khan’s army.

LOCAL LEGEND Rosemullion Head at the southern edge of Falmouth Bay, Cornwall, with ships waiting offshore LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1975

Morgawr

Falmouth Bay and the Helford estuary, Cornwall

Cornwall’s long-necked “sea giant” of Falmouth Bay, made famous by the anonymous “Mary F” photographs of 1976 – widely suspected to be a hoax.

REGIONAL LEGEND Llyn Tegid, or Bala Lake, surrounded by green hills in North Wales. LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1920s

Teggie

Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), Gwynedd

The crocodile-like monster of Bala Lake, Wales’s largest natural lake – a modern legend that once drew a Japanese film crew with a mini-submarine.

LOCAL LEGEND Snow-covered slopes of Ben Macdui with Cairngorm in the distance – the mountain where the Big Grey Man is said to roam. HUMANOID · 1925

Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui

Summit plateau of Ben Macdui, Cairngorms

A towering grey figure – or just heavy footsteps in the mist – said to stalk Ben Macdui, Britain’s second-highest peak, in the Cairngorms.

REGIONAL LEGEND A wide view across Lough Ree, the Shannon lake in the Irish midlands where three priests reported a monster in 1960. LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1960

Lough Ree Monster

Lough Ree, on the River Shannon between Athlone and Lanesborough

Ireland’s best-known lake monster, seen by three fishing priests on Lough Ree in May 1960 – a sighting the BBC carried to the world.

LOCAL LEGEND