Mawnan church — the Owlman, 1976

OVERVIEW

The Owlman, or Owlman of Mawnan (Cornish: Kowanden), is an owl-like humanoid reported in 1976 above the tower of the church of St Mawnan and St Stephen in the village of Mawnan, Cornwall.

HISTORY

Tony 'Doc' Shiels, who had been staging 'monster-raising' exploits that year, said two girls on holiday, June and Vicky Melling, saw a large winged creature over the church tower on 17 April 1976 and that their father cut the holiday short; he said one of them gave him the drawing he named the Owlman. The story spread in a 1976 pamphlet, Morgawr: The Monster of Falmouth Bay. Shiels said two fourteen-year-olds, Sally Chapman and Barbara Perry, met it on 3 July while camping: 'a big owl with pointed ears, as big as a man'. Reports near the church followed in 1978, 1979, 1989 and 1995.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

DISPUTED. Joe Nickell notes that barn owls nest in church towers; Lionel Fanthorpe suggested a Eurasian eagle-owl. The occult historian Gareth Medway observed that the witnesses were either connected to Shiels or told only him, and thought the whole story might be his hoax.

VISITING

A parish church above the Helford estuary.