Mermaids, jackalopes and a one-eyed pig

From The Scotsman:
IF YOU walk into most people’s living rooms you’d expect to find a sofa, a television, maybe a few magazines and cushions. When you walk into the front room of Gordon Rutter’s Edinburgh flat, the sofa’s there, but squeezed between his one-eyed pig, his feejee mermaid, his skull collection and of course – the must-have for every cryptozoologist Scot – a miniature Loch Ness Monster.


For Rutter is one of a dying breed of gentlemen-collectors – people who hunt down and collect the unusual, the different, if we’re being honest … the downright weird.
His penchant for the unusual has been with him for a very long time.
“I’ve been into this sort of thing all my life,” says Rutter. “When I was a kid I’d go to the library and devour weird stuff. And now,” he says with a wave of his hand, “I’ve got all this!”

Gordon, is, of course, no stranger to these parts – a member of the Dublin Fortean Society and Blather-co-conspirator. Our man in Edinburgh. And the fiend who introduced me to Absinthe.
Read more: The Scotsman: Mermaids, jackalopes and a one-eyed pig »
More of Gordon’s collection »

daev
Chief Bottle Washer at Blather
Writer, photographer, environmental campaigner and "known troublemaker" Dave Walsh is the founder of Blather.net, described both as "possibly the most arrogant and depraved website to be found either side of the majestic Shannon River", and "the nicest website circulating in Ireland". Half Irishman, half-bicycle. He lives in southern Irish city of Barcelona.