Creature record / 1941
Christmas Day, 1941. Two young lads were walking a beach in Orkney's East Mainland. At the high water mark, entangled with seaweed, lay something that should not have been there. It had a small head. It had a long neck. Nobody reported it for weeks. By the New Year the remains were badly decomposed and smelling. A police inspector measured them at 24 ft 8 inches. Provost J. G. Marwick of Stromness gave the thing a name. "Scapasaurus." Orkney was soon seething with theories, from a plesiosaur to "a brother" of the Loch Ness Monster. In Edinburgh and London, the museums had their own answer.
Deepdale Farm sits in Holm, in Orkney's East Mainland, on the shore of Scapa Flow. Artist Martin Laird describes Deepdale Bay as a rocky shore where local currents make it a likely spot for bodies to wash up. Orkney already had a famous precedent. In 1808 the Stronsay Beast, 55 ft long with a 15 ft neck, came ashore on another island. It was later put down to a basking shark.