The Loch Ness Monster

Said to occupy Scotland’s deepest and longest loch, the Loch Ness Monster is a legend as intriguing as it is improbable. According to many supposed sightings of the beast, ‘Nessie’, as she is affectionately known, is a long-necked creature best described as a plesiosaur – a dinosaur that went extinct 66 million years ago. Amazingly, anecdotal evidence of the monster is recorded as early as the 7th century, in an account of the life of an Irish monk already a century old when it was being written about. According to this, the monk had witnessed a local burial ceremony taking place on the river Ness, of a man who had been swimming when a “water beast” came up and dragged the man under, killing him. However, this story may have nothing to do with the Loch Ness Monster tradition, as it was only in 1933 that it really came to the fore. In July of that year, a man named George Spicer described having seen the creature crossing the road in front of him, and the following month it was seen again by a passing motorcyclist. Both described a humped creature with a long neck, small head and large body, and the motorcyclist – a vet – described it as a cross between a seal and a plesiosaur. Since then, there have been many alleged sightings of a monster in the loch, and it brings hordes of tourists to the shores of the loch each year.

Could it really be true that a dinosaur species escaped extinction and is alive and well and living in Scotland? It seems highly unlikely, and numerous extensive searches of the loch have proved fruitless. Some of the more compelling sightings have been shown to be hoaxes, and many other explanations for sightings have been put forward, such as wave formations and floating logs being mistakenly identified, and similarly mundane ideas. Nevertheless, we all love the idea that there might be a dinosaur living in Loch Ness, so the lack of scientific evidence certainly isn’t going to get in the way of a good legend. Indeed, Nessie supporters point to the existence of a channel linking Loch Ness with the sea, which they reckon the monster could be escaping the loch through – thus explaining why she hasn’t yet been found.