Is this the Beast of Hackney Marshes?
A strange creature has been captured on camera on Hackney Marshes - 30 years after the unexplained sighting of another mystery beast sparked a full-scale search for a suspected bear on the loose.
Terrified university student Helen Murray said she took the snaps while out for a stroll near dense woodland close to a path near the Old River Lea on bank holiday Monday earlier this month.
She said she was stopped in her tracks by the unknown animal, which was larger than a person and covered in shaggy black fur.
“I tried to stay calm as I wasn’t sure what kind of animal it was or if it was even alive,” she said. “I had my phone ready to call 999. Then the creature moved. Somehow I managed to take a couple of pictures before I ran.
“I managed to get away but was scared half to death.”
Ms Murray says she didn’t contact the police because she thought they wouldn’t believe her.
A spokeswoman for Hackney police said there have been no other reports of sightings, while experts at London Zoo said the pictures were not clear enough for them to comment.
The photographs have revived memories of the unexplained case of a bear reportedly sighted on the Marshes in 1981 - 50 police officers, army marksmen, and a helicopter were drafted in to search the area, but the beast was never found.
Officers at the time stressed the people who’d seen the animal were not hoaxers, although they admitted they could have been victims of a hoax.
Two bear carcasses had previously been found nearby in the River Lea and it remains a mystery how they got there. - london24
NOTE: More on The Beast of Hackney Marshes...Lon
The Story of Hackney Marsh. Reprinted from the North London Guardian.â.
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'Body Jars,' Cliff Coffins Are Clues to Unknown Tribe
Perched in some cases on precarious cliff ledges, centuries-old log coffins—such as this one, pictured alongside researcher Nancy Beavan—and "body jars" are the only known traces of an unknown Cambodian tribe. Now new dating studies are beginning to assure the unnamed culture a place in history.
Ten such burial spots have been found in the Cardamom Mountains (map) since 2003, and at least one is at least 160 feet high (50 meters)—the intention apparently being that "anyone trying to disturb the burials would break their neck," said Beavan, who led the new study.
Beavan's team has radiocarbon-dated wood, teeth, and bones from four of the sites to between A.D. 1395 and 1650, placing them smack-dab in the decline of the Khmer Empire, based in Angkor. However it's unclear what, if any, influence the empire had on these mountain people, said Beavan, of the University of Otago's Department of Anatomy in New Zealand.
Until now, experts had no idea when the sites had been established or how long they'd been in use, she added. - NatGeo
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Incidents of strange lights, property damage - Nottingham 1987
Hi Lon, hope you are good and well. Ive found another tale from the UK that may interest you. It centres around a bright light sighted by many in my area in the year 1987. Hundreds of people witnessed a bright light zig-zagging through the sky. Many reported electrical shortages in their houses, household equipment going crazy, roof tiles pulled away from houses. A friend I worked with in the 1990s told me about a car dealer who had witnessed the event (Based near Newstead Abbey – thats another subject to share with you sometime). This man was very angry after the incident as his roof tiles lifted into the air and fell hitting many of his cars on offer to the public. His insurance claim was put down to some – act of god policy. The object sighted by so many was described as a ball of light that moved very quickly and made a very odd sound. It zigzagged along high in the sky, sometimes appearing to descend and then correct itself. Near Edwinstowe it seemed to lower in altitude. Two other similar objects where witnessed heading towards an old mining village called Blidworth. In all areas where it was sighted there was a trail of insurance claims for damaged roofs, faulty electrical equipment and cars that had been electrically damaged.
The media coverage of this was little if nothing – strange light reported in sky, yet near Sherwood Forest a large army presence was noticed coming and going soon after these events. Some locals near the centre of the military presence felt like marshal law was in place and got fed up with the noise of the helicopters. Country paths where now off limits with armed men in place ordering dog walkers to turn back.
What ever crashed will never be known, but there are young trees growing that look out of place in that area where the army made a base.
Thanks to Mark C. for forwarding!
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Solar Eclipse Anomaly...craft, bird or something else?
Hi Lon!
I am a fan of your website! We live in Northern Nevada, where they said one could see the solar eclipse the best. The skies were clear and we got a great view of the sun! Both my husband and I were snapping pictures, off and on, of the eclipse around 6:30 PM. I neither heard a "craft" nor saw one during the whole time we sat in our back yard during the eclipse. There were no clouds. I noticed in one picture that some sort of "craft" appeared. I had not seen it with my own eyes nor did I hear it, but my digital camera photographed it. Neither the picture before nor after included the object. Could it have been a UFO? You decide. I am not capable of tampering with the camera, as I am electronically "impaired", so what you see is what I got on my camera.
NOTE: OK...is this a bird, craft or something else? Lon
The Everything UFO Book: An investigation of sightings, cover-ups, and the quest for extraterrestial life (Everything Series)
True UFO Accounts: From the Vaults of FATE Magazine
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'Cursing stone' found on Isle of Canna
A stone discovered by chance on the Isle of Canna is Scotland's first known example of a bullaun "cursing stone", experts have revealed.
Dating from about 800 AD, the stones are associated with early Christian crosses - of which there is one on the isle.
It was found in an old graveyard by a National Trust for Scotland (NTS) farm manager.
The stone is about 25cm in diameter and engraved with an early Christian cross.
It was later found to fit exactly into a large rectangular stone with a worn hole which was located at the base of the Canna cross.
NTS manager of Canna, Stewart Connor, said the importance of the stone became clear after he was notified of the discovery.
He said: "We knew of the importance of bullaun stones and that it could be a really significant find.
"Our head of archaeology confirmed a possible link to the stone at the cross and I was so excited that I went back out at 9pm that night to check whether it fitted the stone with the hole and it did."
Katherine Forsyth, an expert in the history and culture of early Celtic-speaking peoples, based at the University of Glasgow, described it as an "amazing find".
"Stones like this are found in Ireland, where they are known as 'cursing stones', but this is the first to be discovered in Scotland," she said.
"They date from the early Christian period but have continued to be used by pilgrims up to modern times.
"Traditionally, the pilgrim would recite a prayer while turning the stone clockwise, wearing a depression or hole in the stone underneath."
Dr Forsyth said bowl-shaped lower stones had been found elsewhere in Scotland, including on Canna, but this was the first discovery of a top stone.
She added: "This exciting find provides important new insight into religious art and practice in early Scotland and demonstrates just how much there is still to be discovered out there."
In the early-Christian period, Canna belonged to the monastery on Iona.
The island was gifted to the National Trust for Scotland in 1981 by Gaelic scholar John Lorne Campbell. - BBC
The Saints of Scotland
A Scottish Christian Heritage
