Beware The Owlman
The feathered fiend of Cornwall
Something odd haunted the seaside village of Mawnan, Cornwall in 1976 and 1978. Two teenage girls had burst into the local police station and reported a winged monster at the local churchyard. After the girls had spied something strange hovering in nearby trees, the thing had then suddenly shot upward and vanished; to make both teenagers flee screaming. The girls would also draw what they had seen, and while crude, their art depicted something far more sinister than a mere bird . . . a creature resembling a huge, humanoid owl with glowing eyes, a wide mouth and pincer-like claws. Its feathers were said to be either greyish or white in color.
Word soon spread of the encounter and the creature was quickly dubbed ‘Owlman’, in terms of its appearance, and possibly playing on the Mothman of West Virginia (that cryptid’s own name having been inspired by the Batman tv show). The Owlman was seen again by two more girls, who were camping near the church. This time the creature had apparently made a ghastly hissing sound, before vanishing up into the trees again. The Owlman was seen again the next morning. Now lurking in trees by a nearby cliff, the monster again vanished upwards after being noticed by the witnesses —yet more girls.
The Owlman was not seen again until June 1978, when a lone girl saw something like a ‘devil’ vanish up into trees by the church. In August, not one, not two, but three girls (and French to boot) saw the beast again. This time it was watching them from a high tree branch, before it yet again vanished upwards. The Owlman was never reported again after that.
There are three possible answers to the Owlman mystery:
(a) That the monster had just been a large, if regular owl. These birds are known to nest in church towers, and perhaps this one had simply been defending its young from anyone unlucky enough to stray too close.
I’ve already covered the misidentifications between the banshee legend and barn owls in another article, as well as a childhood story involving an aggressive crow (which again, was probably defending its nest).
Owls seem larger in the dark, appear to have glowing eyes when those catch the light, and also make the most bloodcurdling sounds. Misidentified owls might also explain those other cryptids, the Mothman and Flatwoods Monster — both sharing features with the Owlman.
(b) That the whole thing was an elaborate hoax. One investigator of the case, Anthony ‘Doc’ Shiels, is also an artist, writer, magician and self-proclaimed monster hunter/raiser. At the same time as Owlman was being seen, a sea monster, Morgwar, was also witnessed in nearby waters — with Shiels attempting to ‘raise’ this other beast as the BBC filmed it.
It is now known that Doc Shiels had faked two previously acclaimed photographs of the Loch Ness Monster (using an admittedly great model since nicknamed The Muppet), so his investigations of the Owlman and Morgwar need to be taken with a pinch of salt. That said, Shiels’s hoaxing seems to come more from a sense of mischievous fun, than being in any way mean-spirited. He‘s an interesting character.
So would it logical to deduce that someone had made a monster suit? Some of the witnesses had initially thought the Owlman to be ‘someone in a costume’ and had even laughed at it— before the creature shot upwards. Though this ‘flight’ always occurred within trees, which begs the question as to whether wires might have been hid amongst the branches.
Though why some joker (or pure lunatic) would go to the trouble of wearing a weird costume, then hang precariously on (what would have to be) an elaborate setup in the local churchyard, and then hope for a random encounter with locals is even more unbelievable than a monster.
But crazier things have happened in the pursuit of attention, as we now sadly see on reality television. Perhaps each ‘sighting’ emboldened a hoaxer to continue, with an almost guaranteed audience of curious visitors (always girls!)— before he finally called it quits; his creation consigned to an attic chest, where it still might be.
One notable feature in some so-called witness descriptions of the Owlman, is that it had backward bending legs — like those of a true bird. This would be hard to fake in a simple costume, if not totally impossible. The so called glowing eyes would also be difficult to pull off, if again, not unlikely. And if not a costume used, then perhaps it was some sort of animatronic model.
(c) That the Owlman really was some unexplained being. A mutant owl, an otherworldly visitor, an apparition, a prehistoric throwback that had somehow survived, a were-owl, an experiment gone wrong . . . take your pick! Despite calling myself an open-minded sceptic, I have a lifelong fascination with cryptozoology and the weird in general. So a tiny part of me would love to think the Owlman was the real deal.
So who really knows what happened back in 1976 and 1978. Though I personally think we’re dealing with a mere owl that got misidentified through fright and possibly a little embellishment (added for flavor).
Others have covered the Owlman story in far more depth, with a whole book dedicated to the subject by cryptozoologist Jonathan Downes, and there was even a horror movie inspired by the creature made some years ago. But whether real, hoaxed or imagined, the Owlman still makes for an entertaining spooky story. And don’t we all love a pleasant scare.
So maybe its best to avoid your local churchyard as the evenings now grow longer . . . for you may encounter something frightfully feathered there.
This article was triggered by my art above, which was recently made for the Drawlloween Halloween art challenge on Instagram (31 days of spooky art). So after finishing the piece, all those stories I had read about the Owlman (and other weird beings) as a kid came flooding back — and made me want to write about it here for the spooky season. Thanks for reading.
