The monster of Rhayader

[nivek]

25th anniversary of this unsolved Welsh mystery

Rhayader is one of the oldest towns in mid-Wales, with evidence of human settlement dating back over 5,000 years, including both axe heads and mysterious standing stones. The Welsh countryside is filled with centuries of myths and legends, but this year we celebrate a newer one: this is the 25th anniversary of the mysterious Monster of Rhayader, which terrorized mid-Wales from September through December, 1988.

The mystery has never fully been solved, although the evidence is clear: during those months, something was slaughtering Welsh animals and livestock at night.

Many people attribute the problem to an ABC: Alien Big Cat, which is basically the British equivalent of the chupacabra. From escaped leopards to breeding colonies of ancient large cats, rumors of big cats stalking the Welsh and English fields have been common for centuries.

The problem in this case is that the monster did not kill the way a cat would. Large cats will invariably kill by biting an animal's throat, either tearing it out or asphyxiating its prey.

By comparison, the animals killed during this time were slaughtered by a single deep bite to the sternum. A strange (and generally inefficient) means of dispatching a large animal. Stranger still, the animals were surrounded by circular tracks of flattened grass, as if a very large predator had circled the animal several times before killing it.

These tracks led off into the distance. When followed, they led to the banks of a nearby river. This led some to speculate that it might be the work of a river monster. A giant serpent, perhaps, or a Loch Ness monster/plesiosaur type of animal.

Hunting dogs were brought in, but they were unable to trail any scent very far. No paw prints or other evidence were ever found.

Here is what I think is the most salient fact of this case: none of the animals had been eaten. They were killed and their bodies abandoned, seemingly untouched (beyond the original fatal injury). This is definitely not the work of a normal predator. A predator, after all, is out for a meal!

This fact leads me to believe that the monster which terrorized Rhayader was not a paranormal beast, but a human being suffering from a psychiatric condition which compelled them to commit these acts. Perhaps a serial killer in the making, a delusional schizophrenic, or just your garden variety psychopath.

If I could go back in time, I would research who in Rhayader owned a small boat, and left town in December of that year, either moved away, was committed to a mental institution, or died. (Let's hope they didn't simply move away and start killing other animals or people.)

 

[Castle-Yankee54]

I'd say it was likely a serial killer in training.......otherwise the author left out leprechauns.

 

[August]

This from 2010.


"Sometimes, in an investigation of the cryptozoological kind, not only do we not catch the critter in question, but we don’t even get a good handle on what it is, where it came from, or to where it ultimately went. Such are the trials and tribulations of a monster-hunter!

A classic example of this is the very strange – and now-largely-forgotten – story of what became known as the Beast of Bodalog that briefly captured the attention of the British public and the nation’s media in the late 1980s.

The oldest town in mid-Wales, and with an abundance of old standing-stones at the foot of which the ancients dutifully worshipped, Rhayader is, to this day, an atmospheric locale and one filled to the brim with rich history and magical folklore. For example, 5000-year-old Neolithic axes are periodically discovered there, and in 1899 a collection of gold jewellery was unearthed on nearby Gwastedyn Hill that was thought to originate with a legendary, 5th century princess named Rowena - the daughter of the Anglo-Saxon leader, Hengest, and wife to High King Vortigern; a powerful and brutal warlord in his own right.

Against this historic backdrop, between September and December 1988, a series of very weird animal-killings occurred in and around the vicinity of Rhayader that had the people of the area in absolute fits of frenzy and fear. The Bodalog Farm suffered greatly: no less than thirty-five sheep were mutilated and slaughtered in that particular time-frame by a highly stealthy, and unknown, predator whose modus operandi was always the same: a deep and fatal bite to the sternum."