Chapter
Nuckelavee
The tracks on the shore were neither horse, nor cow, nor sheep, yet the beast that made them was clearly a quadruped. For a full yard to either side of the creature’s path, the grass and heather were blackened and blighted. Its path made straight for the seaweed-burners’ camp, with but one deviation: instead of crossing the small stream that ran down from the loch, the tracks made a long circuit inland and around the spring-head. It was that which had saved the lives of those who saw the nuckelavee – though some would argue that their reason was not spared by the hideous sight.
— William Stukeley, May 1726
The nuckelavee of the Orkney islands is shaped like a combination of horse and human, with arms long enough to reach the ground. Its head has a single, burning eye, and noxious gas billows from its mouth. The creature’s legs have fins as well as hooves. Even more horrifying is the fact that it has no skin: its sinews, muscles, and organs heave and pulsate as black blood flows between them through yellow veins.