The Dragon of Filey Brigg

 


The Filey Brigg is a low, rocky peninsula off the coast of North Yorkshire, right outside the village of Filey. There are many myth of supernatural things happening at Filey Brigg and it's the location of legends and monsters. One such legend is of a fierce dragon living in the waters around the peninsula. The exact time frame of this legend varies, some put it in the medieval era, while others say it only happened a few centuries ago.

There was a massive dragon living in the waters off the shores of Filey. It was said said to be a wide range of sizes, up to a mile long in some cases. The dragon was a menace to the area, sinking ships and sweeping people out to sea. No one could approach the shore without risking their lives. The dragon had one weakness however, a love of the local sticky cakes known as parkins. The locals tried to appease the dragon with its favourite sticky cakes, but its apatite could never be satiated.

There are multiple different stories about how the dragon was eventually defeated.

In one version the dragon was given a sticky cake that was made to be extra sticky, which glued the dragons' mouth shut. Safe from the dragon's bite and flames the locals rushed the dragon while it rested on shore and killed it.

In another version a local fisherman known as Billy Biter bated his fishing line with a sticky cake and hooked the dragon. While he had the dragon on the line all the villagers came out and stood on the dragon's head, keeping the nose underwater until it drowned.

In a third version the local bakers, Ralph and Mary Parkins fed the dragon so many sticky cakes it became round and fat. The dragon got caught on the jagged rocks of the peninsula where it either starved or the locals killed it. It was from this incident that the sticky cakes in North Yorkshire became known as parkins.

In whichever way the dragon was killed its skeleton became part of the peninsula itself, as a way of explaining the jagged and undulating nature of the rocks there. However one must question if the dragon was alone, as dragon sightings persisted after the dragon's death, even into modern times. One such notable sighting was by coastguard Herbert Wilkinson. On February 28th, 1934 he saw a 30 foot plesiosaur like reptile off Filey Brigg. The creature raised its head out of the water and Wilkinson said it's eyed were like saucers. His was not the only sighting at the time, as the newspapers at the time were filled with speculation about the monster off the coast, even asking if the Loch Ness monster had somehow made its way down to Filey.  

To this day strange things happen at Filey Brigg, sightings of ghost ships, incidents of missing time, and of course sightings of the sea monster persist.  



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