Denizen of the Deep:
The Loch Ness Monster

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Julie Skurdenish

Urquhart Castle is surely one of the most picturesquely situated castles in the Scottish Highlands. Located 16 miles south-west of Inverness, the castle, one of the largest in Scotland, dominates a sandstone bluff overlooking much of the length of Loch Ness. In the past the location endowed Urquhart with strategic importance; as far back as the beginning of the Christian era, a small Iron Age fortification occupied this promontory.

Today, visitors come to stroll through the ruins of the late-13th century castle, which was blown up in 1692 to prevent the Jacobites from occupying it. More interestingly, they come because Urquhart has earned the reputation of being one of the best spots for sighting Loch Ness's most famous inhabitant.

Its formal name is Nessiterras Rhombopteryx, a name bestowed by Dr. Robert Rines, President of the Academy of Applied Science and Sir Peter Scott, Honorary Chairman of the World Wildlife Council International. But for more than 55 years she's been known by a more familiar name. To both advocates who swear to her existence, and to sceptics who see her only as a figment of creative Scottish imagination, she is simply 'Nessie'.

Nessie's home, Loch Ness, is as well known as she is. Its surface is second in size among Scottish lochs to Loch Lomond. In volume, though, it is the largest freshwater lake in Britain.

Loch Ness lies in the Great Glen, a fault believed to have been formed by a rift some 300 to 400 million (or as much as 700 million) years ago. The fault cuts across northern Scotland from the north-east (the North Sea) to the south-west (the Atlantic). As much as 25,000 years ago, glaciers created the three land-locked lakes–Ness, Oich, and Lochy–which extend across the highlands within the Great Glen.

The surroundings are spectacular. Loch Ness is a moody lake, subject to quick change. One moment it is placid, the next it is abruptly beset by wind and wave. Mountains separated by deep glens rise from the shore-lines along much of the loch. A ribbon of a road, the A82, winds its way along the north-western shore, going north, passing Urquhart Castle after detouring at Drumnadrochit.

Nessie's history goes back a long way; at least to the mid-6th century AD when St. Columba , founder of the first Christian monastery in Scotland, supposedly made the first sighting. It is said that on his way to visit the king of the northern Picts near Inverness he encountered the loch's water monster, a fact attested to by his biographer, a later abbot of Iona named Adamnan.

There were no verified reports of sightings until 1933, although in the intervening centuries sporadic stories circulated of a gigantic creature lurking in the depths of the loch. A gentlemen I met in Inverness told me the underwater creature was called a 'kelpie' (water horse) in Gaelic and that sighting it was considered a bad omen. It is little wonder that no sightings were reported. If a farmer in the Highlands chanced to see a kelpie, he was unlikely to call attention to the fact. Also, until recently, the Highlands was a remote, barely accessible area and news did not travel quickly.

All this changed in 1933 when a new road was constructed along the north-western shore of Loch Ness. Nessie-sighting developed into a favourite pastime for travellers to the Highlands, as did the perpetration of hoaxes by celebrity seekers. But in the years since Nessie leapt suddenly into prominence, many sightings have been substantiated by reputable individuals: monks, lawyers, scientists, even Dr. Richard Synge, a Nobel prize-winner.

There were few serious attempts to locate and identify Loch Ness's 'monster' in the 1930s. The photographs and films that were purportedly shot of Nessie were, at best, inconclusive. There is, however, one famous photograph, taken in 1934 by a London surgeon, Robert K. Wilson, showing a creature with a long neck and a small head placidly skimming the surface of the loch. While many scientists agree that it is an animal, at least one investigator has identified it as a bird.

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