Strange Sea Creature of Portland

Location: Church Ope Cove, Portland

The Mermaid of Portland

On the southeast side of Portland there is a beautiful little cove called Church Ope Cove.

'The Mermaid Inn' above the cove commemorates that a mermaid actually once came ashore there!

Some say she was there as the people were going to a service at St. Andrew's Church, while others suggest that she was taken up to the church and died at noon. But what ever may be, this incident must have happened many centuries ago, for the church was abandoned in July 1756 and now lies in ruins.

Merchicken!!

Documented in the Holinshed's Chronicles, another strange creature was witnessed emerging from the sea near Portland in the mid-fifteenth century.

The account is as follows: -

"In the moneth of November 1457, in the Ile of Portland not farre from the town of Weymouth, was seen a cocke coming out of the sea, having a great creast upon its head and a red beard, and legs half a yard long: he stood on the water & crowed foure times, and everie time turned him about, and beckened with his head, toward the north, the south and the west, and was of colour like a fesant, & when he had crowed three times, he vanished awaie."