The Owlman of Mawnan

Region: Northern Europe
Location:Mawnan, Cornwall (St. Mawnan & St. Michael’s Church) — modern cryptid, 1976 onward

The Owlman is a modern British cryptid linked to sightings near the churchyard of Mawnan in Cornwall. Witnesses describe a tall humanoid figure with large owl-like wings, glowing red or orange eyes, and sharp claws. Its head is pointed or horned, resembling an owl’s silhouette, and its body is covered in dark feathers. The first widely reported sightings came in 1976 when two girls claimed a terrifying encounter near the church. Subsequent reports over the next few years described eerie screeching sounds, enormous winged shadows, or glowing eyes watching from trees.
Unlike older Cornish folklore beings, the Owlman has no clear precursor. It emerged suddenly and remains tied to the physical location of the church and its surrounding woods. Researchers view it as a blend of local ghost stories, the region’s owl population, and the atmospheric isolation of the clifftop church. Witnesses describe overwhelming fear, paralysis, or the sense of being “studied,” which aligns the Owlman more with modern psychological cryptid encounters than with traditional fae or monster lore.
Over time, the Owlman became Cornwall’s answer to the Mothman — a mysterious winged presence that haunts one specific location. Whether viewed as misidentified owls, a hoax that snowballed, or a genuinely unexplained phenomenon, the Owlman has sunk deep into Cornwall’s folklore consciousness. Walkers along the wooded paths of Mawnan still report strange shadows and the uneasy feeling that something large and silent is perched above them in the trees.

World: Koina
Owner: kaixabu
Views: 5

All content (text, images, maps, audio, code, etc.),
unless stated otherwise, are
copyright © 2023 - 2026 by Morgan Berry. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Comments

Please Login in order to comment!

Table of Contents

World Bible

Menu

Maps