Old UFO Sighting

In 1211AD Gervase of Tilbury recorded a strange event in the borough of Clorea in Ireland. During a Sunday Mass at the church of St Kinarus in the borough of Cloera, an anchor was seen to descend from the sky and hook on to the church door. The parishioners watched as a man seemed to swim down to the anchor from a 'sky ship' to try and release it. The local Bishop stopped the people from capturing him and he 'swam' back up to the ship, cut the rope and the ship sailed away. The anchor is said to have been kept within the church.

The exact same story has been attributed to a number of other places including Gravesend in Kent, and Bristol in Somerset in the same year. It seems unlikely that the same event would occur (you would think that the crew would have got wise to dropping anchor near churches). Other sources suggest that the Cloera tale dates from 965AD and appeared in the 'Speculum Regale' which is a Norse-Irish collection of Icelandic saga.

My question is, does anyone know anything about these reports and most importantly, where is Clorea exactly? (ie where in Ireland).

Nice story but I can't imagine what real event would have produced it. Maybe it started life as a dream or someone's hallucination.

Classic case related in many books. I personally believe in a hoax to "promote turism" (back then it must have been "increasing offerings to the church"), the modern world hasn't invented a thing.

Well I think several abbeys probably invented things to get pilgrims through the doorway, such as Glastonbury and Arthurs grave so quite agree it could be a hoax by the church. Wasn't it usually relics though that attracted these tourists, not a type of flying boat that dropped anchor.

Definitely a monster from a Doctor Who story.

It would be interesting to know what sort of anchor and where on the church door, i.e. the handle, into the wood of the door, etc. Perhaps if into the wood it would have left some sort of mark which could then be displayed as proof of the incredible occurrance, etc.

Ian wrote:

The anchor is said to have been kept within the church.

Does this church even exist? Did it ever? And, if so, is the anchor still there?

And now you know why I want to find Cloera . It would make a great gazetteer piece and I would like to know if this anchor is still there...though I doubt it is. You never know, it may be a legend attached to an ancient stone of some sort to try and explain how it got there. I found a village called Clogher on google maps but no Cloera. I suppose the name could have changed or something is lost in the gaelic translation or something.

Ian wrote:

I found a village called Clogher on google maps but no Cloera. I suppose the name could have changed or something is lost in the gaelic translation or something.

Or it never existed! The only reference I can find to it on Google is this legend!

Whilst trying to find Cloera i stumbled onto this website.
http://www.bibleufo.com/zufos1.htm

Seems lots of things have been seen in the sky since the dawn of man

Thanks for that link Lee .

Ian wrote:

And now you know why I want to find Cloera .

There's a Clora in County Wicklow on google maps, Ian. If you bring up the satellite image there seems to be bugger all there by way of buildings though.

I've always taken Gervase of Tilbury's stories with a pinch of salt anyway - you know what he's like after he's had a couple of jars...

Hi Hazel, your right, there is nothing in Clora. Doesn't mean there didn't used to be though I suppose.

What was a Bishop doing at a small church anyway?

Ian wrote:

What was a Bishop doing at a small church anyway?

Amphetamines, judging by this story

More like mushrooms but, look on the map again but pan down to a place called Nuns Cross, there is a church there. This may be the place we are looking for.

Found this http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/523759

Its an old wall near to Nuns Cross and leads to Devils glen.

Bad news is that a church from 13th century, in Ireland is most likely to have been constructed from timber. In any case, it's very unlikely that a door would have survived from back then. Although there's every chance that a stone church may have been built on the original site subsequently.

I think the best thing to do is track down the earliest version of the source text if possible. Quite often these things 'appear' in people much later (particularly the Victorians) recanting stories in their own books.

More bad news?

Jacues Vallee wrote 1988 about this story.

He reflexes on "Drake and Wilkins" without further details to the source.
He mentions
...the year 1211.
...a location "Cloera" that can no be identified
...a church "St.Kinarus". This saint isn't mentioned in any catholik list of saints
...a bishop without name. There was no resident bishop in Irland in this time at all.

A similar story goes about Gravesend/Kent without further details


Resume: nice story, but imho not historical

Sorry

While I do not believe in small fairy men going around in airships here are a few things.

St Kinarus is a corrupted form of either St Cidran or St Ciaran (or Kieran): they are not the same person
Cloera is probably the monastery now known as Clonmacnoise (and St Ciaran, the monastery founder, was buried there and much beloved by the local population)
Both errors probably originated with an Anglo-Saxon speaker unfamiliar with Gaelic languages and perhaps Latin
Clonmacnoise had a bishopry since at least the late IX century (though he ranked below the local Abbot) and in 1211 he would have been an obscure figure known only by his Gaelic name, Muiredach Ua Muirecen.
BUT there's a problem: the monastery's records from 1182 to 1299 were lost during the Danish invasions so there's no way to cross-check the story.

My opinion is either a high tale concocted to promote visits to the church (though St Ciaran's tomb was a powerful enough attraction) or, much more likely, an example of bad translation getting progressively wilder. I would be very curious to see the original Latin story and translate it for myself. I did it once with St Adamnan's Life of Columba and though time-consuming was quite rewarding.