‘Mermaids’ spotted off the coast of Scotland : A Scottish journalist reveals an astonishing image of

3gzylon 2015-03-23

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By David Ferguson (People's Daily Online) 15:14, March 23, 2015

Two strange creatures appear in Ferguson’s image from the western coastline of Scotland.（Photo provided by David W Ferguson - original image reprinted from Yahoo Maps with permission)

China-based journalist David Ferguson has found an astonishing image on Yahoo Maps that appears to show two mermaids off the coast of Scotland.

“I am planning a trip up the west of Scotland this summer,” says Ferguson. “I was browsing a remote part of the coastline with Yahoo’s high-resolution map, when I came upon this extraordinary image. It shows two creatures, one sitting on the rocks beside the sea, and another a few meters away in the water. The figure on the rocks caught my eye first. It was similar in colour to some of the waves breaking around it, but much more sharply defined.”

“The creatures would be more properly described as ‘kelpies’,” says Ferguson. “The one on the rocks is white, and humanoid in form, while the one on the left looks like a dark horse’s head emerging from the water. In Scottish legend the kelpie was reputed to be able to switch in shape from human to horse, and the horse was often said to be black.”

Another intriguing issue is the size of the creatures. “The horse-kelpie was said to be able to carry nine children on its back,” says Ferguson. “Based on the screen resolution, the head in the water is more than 2 meters long. So that would fit. Likewise, the humanoid is much bigger than a man – at least 3 or 4 meters tall.”

Irish mythology also tells of a legendary race of ‘white giants’ called the Fomor, who were said to come‘from the sea’, or ‘from under the sea’. John Rhys, a19th century Professor of Celtic Studies from Oxford University, suggested the name itself comes from the old Irish ‘fo’(under) and ‘muire’ (sea). Some sources say that the Fomor had the bodies of humans and the heads of goats.

“I went on a family camping holiday up the west coast as a boy,” says Ferguson. “I remember seeing a very strange object in the sea. But none of the family believed me, and my brother said it must have been something made of plastic.”

Ferguson has promised to keep the public updated via his Twitter and Wechat accounts. “There are a couple of things I want to check,” he says. “But I’ll release the full co-ordinates of the image in a day or two, and people can see it and judge for themselves.”

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(Editor:Ma Xiaochun,Yao Chun)