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Nestled in the Highlands of North Scotland is a large loch that hides a mystery beneath its murky waters. A mystery that dates back to before the times of Viking raids and is affectionately called “Nessie,” the Loch Ness Monster.
Loch Ness is a large loch of over twenty-one square miles and an unfathomable 800 feet deep. It is one of several lochs that became interlinked when the Caledonian Canal was completed during the 19th century opening out into the North Sea. These lochs run along the “Great Glen” which is a large geological fault zone that in itself runs across the country.
The water of Loch Ness is very murky because of the high concentration of peat and the loch’s great depth. Many believe its bottom is interspersed with large caves in which Nessie rests in. While many scientific studies have been undertaken to hunt for Nessie and to make topographical images of the bottom of Loch Ness by use of sonar surveys, these studies have been unable to prove or disprove the existence of the so called monster. They have shown an exceptionally high number of fish in the loch that could, if necessary, support a beast of such large proportions.
Although Celtic and Norse folklore are full of stories of the “water horse” in Loch Ness, the first written account is dated at 565 A.D. Its author, Adamnan tells of St. Columba’s confrontation with the beast. In it, St. Columba is said to have heard of the loch’s monster having attacked and killed a man. The story also tells of St. Columba taking a boat and rowing out to the middle of Loch Ness and confronting the beast, ordering it to desist in any future attacks of man. Oddly enough, there has never been another report of the Loch Ness monster attacking a human being.
The most common description of Nessie is that of a large dinosaur-like monster who holds a great resemblance to a plesiosaur. It is usually said to be about 40 to 45 feet in length with long, slender neck, a “head like a horse,” a long tail, humped back and flippers in place of legs and feet. The back varies according to the sighting. Some reports say it has a single hump while others say it has two.
Often seen on the western edge of Loch Ness in the vicinity of the ancient Urquhart Castle, sightseers have in this century supposedly taken many photographs of Nessie. The majority of these are blurry or indistinct. A London surgeon, Robert Kenneth in 1934, took the most famous of Nessie photos. In 1972 and 1975 Dr. Robert Rines of the Academy of Applied Sciences in Boston used side scan sonar to take full body shot photos of a large object with what could be flippers. When Dr. Rines returned to Loch Ness in 1990 he was unable to find the object or creature again.
In all, there have been at least three thousand reported sightings of Nessie since 1933 although there are several recorded sightings from the 1800s. Contrary to popular belief, the sightings aren’t just by “eccentrics” but often by scientists, well-respected residents, police and of course, tourists. In fact Nessie and the chance of spotting her has turned Loch Ness into the largest tourist attraction in Scotland. A group called Historic Scotland has sought to cash in on Nessie’s popularity and purchased the property around the 13th century castle of Urquhart. They have put up restaurants and a mall, much to the dismay of those who appreciated the pristine beauty of one of Scotland’s most famous landmarks. In addition to the building, web cams have been set up to allow people around the world an opportunity to look out upon Loch Ness at anytime in hopes of catching a glimpse of the monster.
While the public has become accustomed to reports of the Loch Ness Monster, it wasn’t always so. Many people never told of their sightings because they were afraid of being thought to be “touched in the head.” The earliest police reports of sightings begin in October 1871 in which D. Mackenzie told how the creature moved slow, looked like a log at first but then the back came into view which resembled “an upturned boat.” This description has been used repeatedly to describe the back of Nessie.
The next recorded sighting was by Roderick Matherson in 1885 in which he said the creature “was the biggest thing I ever saw in my life.” In 1888 Alexander Macdonald saw the creature as well. In 1889 a “great horrible beastie” was reported to be in the loch by several people the same day.
There were sporadic reports of Nessie for several years but April 1933 saw the beginning of an all-new era. Between April 1933 and August 1934, over 50 sightings were reported with the majority of these being by more than one person at a time. Then Nessie seemed to take a break and the next recorded sighting wasn’t until 1936. With few sightings during the 1940s the Loch Ness monster began being seen again on a regular basis during the 1950s and has continued to this day.
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