Seal Pup Swims 300 Miles From Home in Scotland to English Pub

The Old Lock and Weir

By Inside Edition Staff

First Published: 11:25 AM PST, January 5, 2022

Patrons came for a pint but also found a pup.

A seal pup made its way from its home in Scotland to a pub in England in a journey that spanned 300 miles, the BBC reported.

The pup turned up in Bristol, England, the alleged home of enigmatic street artist Banksy, over the weekend and surprised the staff at the The Old Lock and Weir.

The pub owners posted the images of the seal on their Facebook page with the caption, “We had an unusual yet very special visitor at the weekend!! A big thank you to the RSPCA & THE BRITISH DIVERS MARINE LIFE RESCUE CENTRE who later identified this little pup known to them as Neoprene, he was tagged in Scotland in June 21 and managed to travel all the way to pubs front door.”

The pub was told by the nearby RSPCA that the pup was severely underweight and will be released back to the sea after being cared for.

"He was like a mini-celebrity. He was quite friendly and cute,” landlord Daniel Rawlins told the BBC. "It was amazing. Totally out of the blue. You could see he had been tagged and was used to being around humans."

Before animal rescue personnel arrived, the kitchen staff cared for the pup and helped keeping him fed and wet. They estimated that the pup is just about a year old.

"It's not every day you expect to find a baby seal outside the pub," kitchen worker John Jefferies told the BBC. "It is a hell of a trip, though; we thought it must be a local seal but it made the trip all the way down from Scotland."