07/09/2026
🌊👻 THE STRANGE STORIES OF CREEVY PIER 👻🌊
I’ve been digging into the old folklore records around Creevy, Kildoney and the surrounding coast, looking for stories of ghosts, strange creatures and things people claimed to have seen.
And I found something that I honestly didn't expect…
These aren't modern Facebook ghost stories.
They were recorded in the 1930s, as part of the National Folklore Collection at UCD, from people living in the Creevy area.
And one story is particularly strange…
🧜♀️ THE MERMAID OF CREEVY
One evening, several men named McCafferties were out fishing at Bunansruican.
While they were out on the water, they saw something in the sea.
A mermaid… with a child.
The old account describes her as having a human head, body, arms and hands — but with the tail of a fish.
The men believed her appearance was a warning that a great storm was coming.
So they brought their boat towards the shore.
They had barely reached the pier when the sea came over the banks.
The strange woman remained visible for around ten minutes.
And the child with her was crying.
Then they disappeared.
🌊
Was it a strange creature?
A trick of the light?
A story that grew with every telling?
Or did those fishermen genuinely believe they had seen something in the water?
Whatever the explanation, the story was preserved as local folklore in the Creevy Schools' Collection, recorded by Mary Regan.
But that's not the only strange story from around Creevy…
🎶 THE MUSIC IN THE DARK
At Kildoney, near the shore, there was said to be a large bank where people could see fairies at night.
And hear them playing music.
One night, men working down on the rocks heard music coming from the bank.
One of them shouted:
“Play the Harvest Home!”
And the music immediately changed to that tune.
The old account says that people continued to claim they could hear the music even when the story was being recorded.
Another man travelling home from haymaking reportedly saw a little man like a fairy.
The figure threw a rope into the air…
…and began climbing it.
When the man reached the place where he'd seen him —
there was nobody there.
But when he moved on, the strange performance began again.
✨ THE LIGHTS ON THE HILL
And then there's a story from nearby Creevy about a large fairy fort on top of a high hill.
People reportedly saw lights around it.
They said they saw fairies dancing.
They heard churning, music and singing.
And perhaps most unsettling of all, the story says that people could be led astray and kept wandering around the fields all night.
When they finally made it home…
someone behind them would laugh. 😳
💨 AND THE TREASURE THAT FOUGHT BACK
There's even a Creevy story about hidden gold on Finner Hill.
A group of men supposedly knew of treasure buried beneath a large rock.
They brought crowbars and tried to move it.
They succeeded…
but just as they were about to get the gold, a blast of wind threw them away from the rock.
They tried again.
The same thing happened.
Eventually they gave up and swore they would never return.
So when you stand around Creevy Pier and the surrounding coastline, you're standing in an area where people were telling stories about:
🧜♀️ Mermaids
🌊 Warnings of storms
🎶 Unexplained music
✨ Lights around fairy forts
👤 Strange little figures
🌙 People being led astray at night
💨 Invisible forces guarding buried treasure
And these stories were being written down nearly 100 years ago.
I haven't found a documented account of a traditional human ghost actually walking Creevy Pier.
But there's something almost creepier about the stories that are there…
The old people weren't just talking about haunted houses.
They were talking about things appearing on the sea, on the shore and on the roads at night.
Things that warned fishermen.
Things that watched from the hills.
Things that made music when nobody could be seen.
And things that made people run home.
👀
So I'm asking the people of Creevy, Ballyshannon and Kildoney…
Has anyone ever heard an old family story about Creevy Pier after dark?
Have you ever seen a strange light out over the water?
Heard music when there was nobody around?
Seen something on the shore that you couldn't explain?
Or heard the story of the McCafferties and the mermaid from an older relative?
I'd love to hear the stories that never made it into the folklore books.
🌊👻 Because I have a feeling there's a lot more to the old Creevy coast than we've been told…
