Rumours and bruits started long before the present day, but things started to rattle up in the century of the world wars; the worst wars in between the zeroes and nines before the cradle of the second millennium. The Loch Ness Monster is an unidentified creature which lurks and reputedly inhibits a lake named Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands of the British Isles. For the information, ‘Loch’ is the Irish and Scottish Gaelic word for lake.
Nonetheless, major reports showed sight before the 20th century but few recounts were gazed upon. Initially, a 19th century recount of a person named Dr. Mackenzie reported an object like a log or an upturned boat, he knew what he saw. “Wriggling and churning up water”, he described, the object moving with an initial slow speed. It later disappeared into mystery.
The history doesn’t end in the modern era but slides back to the day and year of 565. An author named Adomnán, detailed his description in his book, ‘Life of St. Columba’. The protagonist, the Irish monk named St. Columba was said to have been with his companions, when he encountered a group of locals burying a man by the River Ness. The locals mentioned the man to be swimming in the river when he was attacked and consequently pulled down the surface to his demise. The locals could retrieve none but the poor man’s corpse.
The later part of the story goes a bit supernatural as St. Columba was curious of some proof. He sent one of his followers to swim across the river to lure the entity out of its obscurity. The plan did work and as the beast surfaced above the water, the holy monk made the ‘sign of the cross’ which intimidated the beast, urging it to flee in terror.
The conclusion described of praising god for the miracle, but the story grew interesting as it reached the 20th century.
The sighting of 1933 sparked an initial major interest amongst the common folks when George Spicer and his wife described their encounter while travelling by Loch Ness. They recounted an extraordinary creature measuring an estimated 1.6 meters in height and 7.6 meters in body length, with a long narrow neck.
The same year in the month of August, a motorcyclist named Arthur Grant was said have encountered the same thing by the north-eastern shore. He claimed to have seen a creature with a head attached to a small neck, which disappeared back into the water upon his sight.
A road was build along the loch in early 1933, which was often said to be the reason of the growing sightings of the mysterious entity. Various people and especially tourists were said to be attracted to the area from the rumours.
Further encounters involved the recounts of C. B. Farrell of 1943 and the sonar contact of 1954, the later which gave clues of mysterious entities under the water of the fabled lake.
The year of 1933 was marked with numerous encounters, as stated above, the encounters with the Spicers and Arthur Grant. To add more fuel to the rumours, a guy named Hugh Gray was actually able to take a photograph of the mysterious creature on 12th November.
Though it seemed like an eel-shaped creature, many discarded the encounter as a hoax, stating that the image referred to the photographer’s dog, a ‘Labrador retriever’, swimming towards the camera.
That did not stop the excitement. The following year of 1934 marked one of its most iconic sights. Robert Kenneth Wilson, a gynaecologist from London was looking at the lake when he caught sight on something mysterious. He grabbed his camera and took four instant photographs of the creature, out of which two came out clear. They were published in the ‘Daily Mail’ on 21st April, 1934. The second photograph showed a blurry image of the creature diving into the water, while the first one showed a clear image of the head and the neck above the water.
Four years later in 1938, a South African tourist named G. E. Taylor filmed something on the lake for three minutes. The results showed an eel-shaped object floating above the water. Further pictorial evidences reported that of the Dinsdale film of 1960 and the Loch Ness Muppet photograph from 1977, the latter considered being a hoax due to the lack of water ripples.
Recent encounters include the Holmes video from 2007, George Edward’s photograph of 2011 and the astonishing Apple Maps photograph from 2014.
Countless numbers of investigations, expeditions and sonar searchers were conducted after the sightings and rumours. Despite the various efforts made to learn the truth, many have declared the whole thing to be a hoax or a misidentification. The latter included the misidentification with giant eels, Greenland shark, wels catfish, seals or other aquatic animals. With reference to the Surgeon’s photograph, some even considers the object to be a swimming elephant, with its trunk viewing as the slender neck and the small head of the assumed beast.
Folklore refers the sightings to the work of ‘kelpies’ which are shape-shifting water spirits, said to inhabit the lochs of Scotland. They are assumed to take the shape of a horse, but also able to adopt human forms. Mentioned in the second and sixth book of the Harry Potter series, it would be fascinating to assume the kelpies as Loch Ness monsters in Hogwarts’ vicinity, roaring at the Alnwick Castle. As a fact, author J. K. Rowling referred the Loch Ness Monster to be a misunderstanding as the world’s largest kelpie.
As for modern believes, the reported sightings shaped the creature to a ‘plesiosaur’, a long-necked aqueous reptile that went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period some 66 million years ago.
The Loch Ness monster has appeared countless times in popular culture, ranging from Disney-Pixar’s Monsters, Inc., the Godzilla series, anime shows, Lupin the Third and Sailor Moon, uproarious show South Park, funny guys Phineas and Ferb and the hilarious mysteries Scooby-Doo series to name a few.
Despite all the popularity and the evidences, the Loch Ness monster still lies in shrouded mystery with little to no confirmation. Considered a cryptid in the field of cryptozoology, it belongs in the same category as the Yeti and Chupacabra; creatures yet to be discovered. People still looks for evidences and proofs to proof the creature’s existence. The search continues…
SANZENSKYLINE 