Myths, Legends and True Stories

The Barmouth Sea Monster

For centuries there have been sightings of a strange creature in the waters around Barmouth. Large footprints have been seen in the sand in the Mawddach Estuary and in Llanaber, with other reports of a large sea borne object speeding through the waves. In the 1970s a small group of local secondary school girls were playing truant on Barmouth Beach. After being reprimanded they claimed they had seen a strange creature approaching Barmouth Harbour. This became world news at the time. The story gathered traction when the decomposed body of a giant turtle was washed up on the beach, however 30 years after this particular sighting one of the girls involved confessed to a friend that the story was made up.

Hidden Cargoes

Outside St Mary and St Bodfan’s Church there are tomb graves with large slabs across the top. When ships or shipwrecks would lose their cargoes, and they were washed up on the beach between Llanaber and Tal y Bont, locals would move the slab and hide the cargo inside the grave to escape the Customs and Excise that were looking for it.

The Egryn Lights

Tal y Bont is a village to the north of Barmouth. Between the two places is a chapel named Egryn. In early December 1904 a religious revival was occurring and Mary Jones of Islawrffordd was doing her revival work at Egryn Chapel. While there she saw a large auroral arc stretching from the mountain to the sea with a star. Later in the month 3 people saw a large light to the south of Egryn Chapel with a “bottle or black person” in the middle and “some little lights scattering around the large light in many colours”. In early January 1905 a man reported seeing three lights in formation above a farmhouse and a woman saw lights between Dyffryn and Llanbedr. Other sightings were reported around Gwynedd in the first few months of 1905. Mary Jones reported seeing the lights several times and having visions of Christ and of Satan in the form of a black dog. A Beriah Evans saw five separate lights with Mary Evans between Islawrffordd and Egryn Chapel. The lights seemed to appear wherever Mary Jones went and seemed to strengthen the religious revival. They appeared in Llanfair, Bryncrug, Pwllheli, Towyn, Froncysyllte, Wrecsam and Ystrad in the Rhondda; all at the same time that Mary Jones was in these places.

Reporters were sent from the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror who were full of scepticism but who were soon sending back reports of the lights, having witnessed them themselves. There were many witnesses to these lights and their occurrence in 1904 and 1905. In her later years Mary became a recluse and was said to have turned her back on religion. In 1936 she died and was buried in Horeb cemetery in Dyffryn at one of the biggest funerals seen in North Wales. These weren’t the first strange lights seen in the area though. In Harlech in 1662 strange lights were seen that reportedly set fire to crops and barns and infected grass, then in 1877 blue lights were seen over Pwllheli and the Dysynni Estuary.