Many witnesses have seen "Nessie" or similar monsters in Loch Ness. The legend started more than 1400 years ago, and it hasn't stopped: many people have seen strange things or objects emerge to the surface, swim slowly and then disappear again in the loch. Some people even say they have seen a big and unknown animal ... walking out of the water!!. A legend? A monster? A dinosaur? A big lie? well, here you will learn just a few things: Where Loch Ness is, what it is like, and who saw the monster for the first time.

Now, where exactly is Loch Ness? Have a look at the map. I've marked it black, just south of Inverness.

Map Of Scotland

Loch Ness is a very long lake: 22.5 miles long, created by glaciers some 25,000 years ago. It is quite narrow, just 1.5 miles wide on average, and it's very, very deep!! nobody knows how deep, but in 1969 a miniature submarine recorded 321 metres, and that was not the bottom yet. Its waters are fresh, with no pollution, and very cold. You can fish salmon and trout there.

I took this picture at Urquhart Castle, very near the village of Drumnadrochit, where you can find everything you want about Loch Ness. The landscape is beautiful there,(but there's only one problem: too many tourists). As you can see, the loch is quite narrow.

By the way, a huge tourist centre is being built here nowadays. More tourists, and poor old Urquhart Castle will never be the same.
www.lochness.co.uk/castle will give you more information. It's a shame!!

I took the next picture from the top of Urquhart Castle. Don't panic, the small white spot you can see to the left is just a small boat ... perhaps full of tourists.

Now, a bit of History.

The first person to report a monster in Loch Ness was a Saint, the man who brought the Christian religion to scotland, in the 6th Century: the Irish-born Saint Columba. It was the year 565. This the story of Nessie and the Saint:

Saint Columba was on his way to visit Brude, the king of the Picts, who lived in Inverness. ( the Picts were called so because they painted their faces blue when they went to war, just like "Braveheart" ) Near the place where we can see Urquhart Castle, St.Columba found some Picts burying a dead man. He had been bitten and killed by a monster when he was swimming. When he saw this, Saint Columba wanted to take a boat to the centre of the loch, to tell the monster to go away. The boat was on the other side of the loch, and one of Columba's men swam to take it back. As this man was swimming the monster appeared again, with its mouth open and making a terrible noise. Observing the attack, Columba raised his hand, invoked the name of God and formed the sign of the Cross. Then he shouted: THOU SHALT GO NO FURTHER NOR TOUCH THE MAN; GO BACK WITH ALL SPEED !!! The monster heard this, and disappeared quickly.

Well, this is the legend of Nessie and Saint Columba, the first direct witness of the monster. As far as we know, Nessie was seen again by the Vikings who invaded Scotland in the 9th Century: they talked about "water horses" living in the lochs. Incredible? well, who knows!! We know that it was seen around 1520, and then twice between 1600 and 1700,when some of Cromwell's soldiers said that they had seen "floating islands" in Loch Ness. Then it was seen again in 1771 ... well, every now and then somebody has seen something strange there. Modern reports started in 1933, and in the last years everything seems to be OK. Nessie hasn't been seen for a long time, and modern scientific studies have been unable to prove anything ... up to now.

Is it a fake? is it a new species waiting to be discovered? Is there a family of dinosaurs that avoided extinction? Is it an elephant, as some newspaper suggested? Again... who knows? Let's keep the magic, shall we?

no, I didn't take this picture...unfortunately!!

Jock o'Hazeldean
(trad. Scottish)