Dancing Spirits (1973, Nympsfield, Gloucestershire)

A teenager standing on this hill looked down into a clearing in the woodland to see women in period costume. They appeared to be wearing very tall cone hats and dancing. The women vanished without warning. The lack of information given on this report doesn’t necessarily that it is a fakery, but it also makes it incredibly difficult to trace back to its original source and properly research. This article is acting as a sort of placemarker, so that I can come back to it later when I (or maybe an intrepid reader of this blog) finds the source, or at the very least another reference to the story outside of paranormaldatabase.
Source: http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/recent/index.php

Merbeing (January 10th, 2008, Suurbraak, Western Cape, South Africa)

While enjoying a 'braai' (barbeque) on the banks of the local Buffelsjags River, a group of friends reported spotting a mermaid-like creature previously believed to be legendary. This entity is known as the Kaaiman in local folklore. A local resident by the name of Daniel Cupido said that he was relaxing next to the river with a group of friends when he heard something that sounded like someone 'bashing on a wall'. When he walked towards the sound, he saw a figure that he described as 'like that of a white woman with long black hair' at a nearby low water bridge. She was allegedly 'thrashing about in the water' and so Cupido thought to try and save her, walking towards her but stopping in his tracks after noticing a reddish shine in her eyes. This sight 'sent shivers down his spine', yet he was pulled forwards towards her as if hypnotised. He called out for his child, who was called Deidrian and was 13 at the time, and his nephew, Werner Plaatjies, 11. When they came to help him, they broke him out of the trance, and he then yelled for his friends to take a look at the supposed mermaid as well.
Later, Martin Olckers said that he saw a female figure swimming on one side of the low water bridge, and then on the other, before standing on the bridge and diving back into the water. He said that the figure made a sound like a woman crying, and his mother, Dina, said that the sound was so sorrowful that her 'heart could take it no more'. Dina's husband Martinus said that their parents had warned them about the Kaaiman, but they had never believed that it existed. Some people allege that the Kaaiman is responsible for recent drownings.

Source: “Sighting of legendary river mermaid in Western Cape,” Herald, West Cape News by Aldo Pekeur

Image Credit: https://targete.deviantart.com