The Owlman is a large, owl-like humanoid said to have been seen around the church of St Mawnan and St Stephen at Mawnan Smith, near Falmouth in Cornwall, England, beginning in April 1976. Witnesses described a man-sized figure with feathers, pointed ears, glowing eyes and black, pincer-like feet. The Owlman appeared in the same place, at the same time and through the same person as Cornwall’s sea serpent Morgawr: almost every early account reached the public through the magician and self-styled “wizard” Tony “Doc” Shiels. That connection is the main reason many researchers regard the Owlman as a hoax or a piece of performance art, while others have suggested an escaped eagle-owl.[1][2]
| Location | Mawnan Smith, near Falmouth, Cornwall; especially the churchyard and woods of St Mawnan and St Stephen |
|---|---|
| First report | 17 April 1976, by two young sisters on holiday |
| Reported description | Man-sized, feathered, grey, with pointed ears, red or glowing eyes and black, clawed feet |
| Main source | Tony “Doc” Shiels, magician, artist and showman |
| Later reports | July 1976, 1978, 1979, 1989, 1995 |
| Leading explanations | A hoax linked to Shiels; or a large owl, such as an escaped Eurasian eagle-owl |
| Related legend | Morgawr, Cornwall’s sea serpent (1975–76) |
Mawnan church
The church of St Mawnan and St Stephen is an old stone church standing in a wooded churchyard on a headland above the mouth of the Helford River, with views across Falmouth Bay. The setting is atmospheric: ancient yews, a tall tower, dense woodland running down to the water and a coastline full of local lore. It is the same stretch of coast where the sea serpent Morgawr was being reported at the same time.[3]
17 April 1976
According to the original story, on 17 April 1976 two young sisters on holiday in Cornwall, usually named as June and Vicky Melling, saw a large winged creature, “half-man, half-owl,” hovering above the tower of Mawnan church. Their father, Don Melling, was so alarmed that he cut the family’s holiday short.[1][2]
The first person Melling is said to have told was Tony Shiels, who was then running his “monster raising” activities in the area and investigating Morgawr. Shiels reported that one of the girls drew a picture of the creature, which he redrew, and he gave it the name “Owlman.” Most of what is known about the first sighting comes through Shiels, and the Mellings themselves have never given a detailed independent account.[1][2][3]
Later sightings
A 1976 pamphlet about Cornwall’s monsters, Morgawr: The Monster of Falmouth Bay, reported a second encounter on 3 July 1976. Two 14-year-old girls, Sally Chapman and Barbara Perry, said that while camping in the woods near the church they saw a “big owl with pointed ears, as big as a man,” with red eyes and black, pincer-like claws, which rose up into the trees. Further sightings near the church were recorded in 1978, 1979, 1989 and 1995. The Fortean researcher Jonathan Downes, of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, gathered these and other accounts in his 1997 book The Owlman and Others.[1][3]
What the witnesses described
Taken together, the reports from 1976 and later describe a fairly consistent figure, which is itself worth noticing, since later witnesses had often read or heard the earlier accounts first.[1][3]
- Size: roughly as tall as an adult, and described as “as big as a man.”
- Head: owl-like, with pointed “ears” and large, glowing or red eyes.
- Body: covered in grey or silvery feathers, with wings large enough to lift it into the trees.
- Feet: black and clawed, often called “pincer-like.”
- Behavior: seen perched or hovering near the church tower, or rising suddenly out of the woods, and never seen to attack anyone.
Every one of those features, apart from human height, belongs to an ordinary large owl. Ear tufts, big forward-facing eyes, feathered bodies, black talons and silent flight from a high perch are all exactly what an eagle-owl looks like at dusk. The single feature that turns a bird into a monster is size, and size is the thing people judge worst in poor light, with nothing nearby to compare it to.
Owlman and Mothman compared
| Owlman vs Mothman | |
| Place and date | Mawnan, Cornwall, 1976 / Point Pleasant, West Virginia, 1966–67 |
| Description | Owl-faced, feathered, pointed ears / Grey, man-sized, glowing red eyes, large wings |
| Key promoter | Tony “Doc” Shiels / John Keel, author of The Mothman Prophecies |
| Best natural candidate | Eurasian eagle-owl / Sandhill crane or a large owl |
| Status today | Local legend and cult curiosity / Annual festival and statue |
The resemblance has encouraged speculation that the two creatures are somehow linked, but the simpler explanation is cultural: both stories involve frightened witnesses, large night birds, and a writer or showman who shaped the story for the public.[1]
Doc Shiels again
Anthony “Doc” Shiels was an artist, stage magician and writer who described his work as surrealism and enjoyed blurring the line between performance and reality. In 1976 he staged “monster-raising” events with a group of naked “witches” on the shores of the Helford River, attempting to summon Morgawr. In 1977 he produced photographs said to show the Loch Ness Monster, which a hoax-debunking museum later nicknamed the “Loch Ness Muppet.” The writer Gareth Medway has pointed out that many Owlman witnesses were connected with Shiels or reported their sightings only to him, and suggested that the whole story was a hoax.[1][4][5]
Shiels himself seems to have enjoyed the ambiguity. He claimed the Owlman later revealed itself to him, and his credentials were themselves part of the act; the magazine Magonia reported that his “doctorate” had been bought in the United States for five dollars.[3]
Could it have been a real owl?
Not everyone thinks the sightings were invented. A real, very large owl could explain a frightening encounter in a dark churchyard.[1][3]
- Eurasian eagle-owl. One of the largest owls in the world, with a wingspan that can approach two meters, prominent “ear” tufts and huge orange eyes, the eagle-owl is not native to Britain but is commonly kept in captivity, and escaped birds turn up regularly. A large eagle-owl perched on a church tower or flying low through woods at dusk would look astonishingly big and man-like, and its ear tufts match the “pointed ears” in the reports.[3][6]
- Barn owls. The investigator Joe Nickell has suggested barn owls, which often nest in church towers, are pale and ghostly, and screech eerily. Others note that barn owls are much smaller than the figure described.[1][3]
- Suggestion. Once a “winged monster” had been reported in the local press, children camping in the same woods, already primed with the story, would be quick to interpret owls, shadows and sounds as the Owlman.
The Owlman in culture
The Owlman has had a lively afterlife in popular culture, appearing in the TV series Lost Tapes and The Secret Saturdays, the 2012 play Horse Piss for Blood and the 2013 horror film Lord of Tears. It is often compared to West Virginia’s Mothman, which had been reported a decade earlier.[1]
Our assessment
The Owlman’s story is inseparable from Doc Shiels, whose involvement in the simultaneous Morgawr affair, and his love of mischief, makes a hoax or performance piece the most likely explanation for the legend. If any sightings were genuine, an escaped eagle-owl is the best candidate. Either way, the Owlman is a fascinating example of how a modern legend can be created, and how it can outlive its creator.
References
- “Owlman,” Wikipedia, citing G. Medway, J. Nickell, J. Downes, The Owlman and Others (1997), and others.
- “The Owlman of Mawnan,” Museum of Hoaxes (24 February 2012).
- Kate Cherrell, “Invoking the Owlman,” Burials & Beyond (7 February 2018).
- “Tony Shiels,” Wikipedia.
- “The Loch Ness Muppet,” Museum of Hoaxes.
- “Eurasian eagle-owl,” Wikipedia.
Correction note (October 2026): This entry was rewritten from documented sources, replacing an earlier general description. The illustration above is an artistic impression.