Beithir is a creature of Scottish folklore, also known as a cryptid.
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Description[]
As a cryptid, the beithir is reported to be a snake-like creature, 3 metres（10 feet）to 6 metres（20 feet）long. There are reports of an ear-like structure on the head and reports of the head making up 10% of the total length, but these are features that have only been confirmed in one of the sighting cases.
Sightings[]
In the 1930s, a 3-metre beithir was sighted moving onshore near Loch a' Mhuillidh.
On 30 September 1965, around 11.30 pm, a person named Maureen Ford was driving with a friend on the A85 near the River Tay when they saw a strange creature. The creature was grey, legless and had a long body. It had an ear-like projection on its head.
About an hour and a half after Ford's sighting, at about 1:00 am on 1 October, a person named Robert Swankie, passing on the same road, spotted a similar strange creature and observed its features in more detail. He said it was over 20 feet long, with a head of 2 feet and humped like a caterpillar.
In early 1975, five fishermen found a beithir upstream of the Falls of Kilmorack; when the beithir realised that the fishermen were observing him, he was so startled that he sprawled out and swam across the gorge near Beaufort Castle and disappeared.
Trivia[]
- In Japanese books, beithir are sometimes described as having the appearance of caterpillars. This is probably an incorrect translation of the sentence "was humped like a giant caterpillar".
- There is a beer called beithir fire, named after the beithir.