The Loch Ness Monster, also called Uilebheist Loch Nis in Scottish Gaelic, is a mythical creature from Scottish folklore. It is said to live in Loch Ness, which is located in the Scottish Highlands. People often describe it as large, with a long neck and one or more humps that rise above the water. Interest in the creature has changed over time since it became famous worldwide in 1933. Evidence for its existence comes from stories and disputed photographs, as well as sonar readings. Scientists believe most sightings are hoaxes, mistakes, or the result of people seeing ordinary objects. The study of hidden or unknown animals, called cryptozoology, has focused special attention on the Loch Ness Monster.
Origin of the name
In August 1933, the Courier newspaper shared a report about George Spicer's claimed sighting of a creature. People became very interested, and many letters were sent describing different sightings. The letters mentioned a "monster fish," "sea serpent," or "dragon." In the end, the creature was named the "Loch Ness monster." Since the 1940s, the creature has been given the nickname Nessie (Scottish Gaelic: Niseag).
Sightings
The earliest known report of a monster near Loch Ness comes from a book called The Life of St. Columba, written by Adomnán in the 7th century CE. Adomnán wrote about events that happened about 100 years earlier. He described how Saint Columba, an Irish monk, was in the land of the Picts with his followers when they met people burying a man by the River Ness. The people explained that the man had been swimming in the river when a "water beast" attacked him, injured him, and pulled him underwater. Despite attempts to rescue him by boat, the man was lost. Saint Columba sent one of his followers, Luigne moccu Min, to swim across the river. The creature approached him, but Saint Columba made the sign of the cross and said, "Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once." The creature stopped and fled, as if pulled back by ropes. Saint Columba’s men and the Picts believed this was a miracle and gave thanks.
Believers in the monster use this story, which takes place in the River Ness rather than Loch Ness itself, as evidence that the creature may have been known as early as the 6th century. Skeptics, however, question the story’s reliability, noting that tales about water beasts were common in religious writings from that time. They suggest Adomnán’s account might have reused a familiar story linked to a local landmark. Some experts, like Ronald Binns, believe this is the most credible early report of the monster, but others argue that sightings before 1933 are not strong proof of a long-standing tradition. Christopher Cairney studied Adomnán’s text and found that the story of Saint Columba is separate from the modern myth of the Loch Ness Monster. He also noted that earlier Celtic folklore about "water beasts" may have influenced the legend.
In October 1871 (or 1872), D. Mackenzie of Balnain reportedly saw an object that looked like a log or an overturned boat "wriggling and churning up the water." It moved slowly at first before disappearing quickly. Mackenzie did not share this story until 1934, when he wrote to Rupert Gould after public interest in the monster grew.
In 1888, Alexander Macdonald of Abriachan saw a large, stubby-legged animal surface from Loch Ness and move close to the shore. He told the water bailiff, Alex Campbell, that the creature looked like a salamander.
The first widely known article about a creature in Loch Ness appeared on 2 May 1933 in The Inverness Courier. Written by Alex Campbell, a water bailiff and part-time journalist, the article described a sighting by Aldie Mackay on 15 April 1933. She and her husband saw a large creature with a whale-like body rolling in the water. Campbell used the word "monster" for the first time in his article, though some say the term was added by an editor. The article was titled Strange Spectacle in Loch Ness.
Campbell wrote that the creature "disported itself, rolling and plunging for fully a minute," with water churning like a boiling pot. The creature then disappeared in a mass of foam. Witnesses said the event was strange because the creature was enormous and its movements were unlike those of ordinary animals.
In 2013, Aldie Mackay said she had yelled, "Stop! The Beast!" when she saw the creature. She also admitted that people had long told stories about a "beast" in Loch Ness before her sighting. Campbell’s article noted that "Loch Ness has for generations been credited with being the home of a fearsome-looking monster."
Modern interest in the monster began on 22 July 1933, when George Spicer and his wife saw a large creature cross the road near Loch Ness. They described it as having a body about 4 feet high and 25 feet long, a long, wavy neck, and no visible limbs. Spicer compared it to a prehistoric animal and said it looked like a dragon. However, research from Columbia University in 2013 suggested Spicer’s story was fictional. Experts believed his account was inspired by the 1933 movie King Kong, which featured a long-necked dinosaur emerging from a lake.
On 4 August 1933, The Inverness Courier published a report about Spicer’s sighting. This event greatly increased public interest and led to more sightings, helping to establish the name "Loch Ness Monster."
Some people claim that sightings of the monster increased after a road was built along Loch Ness in 1933, bringing more visitors to the area. However, Ronald Binns argued this was a myth, as the area was not isolated before the road was built due to the nearby Caledonian Canal. In the 1930s, the existing road near the loch was improved.
Hugh Gray’s photograph, taken near Foyers on 12 November 1933, was the first image claimed to show the monster. The photo was blurry, and some say it shows a dog. Gray had taken his Labrador for a walk that day, and it is thought the dog may have been in the picture. Others believe the image shows an otter or a swan. The original negative was lost, but in 1963, Maurice Burton found two slides made from the original negative. When projected, they showed an otter on the water.
On 5 January 1934, Arthur Grant, a motorcyclist, claimed to have seen a creature near Abriachan. He described it as having a small head and a long neck. The creature looked at him and returned to the loch. Grant, a veterinary student, said it resembled a cross between a…
Searches
After reading Rupert Gould’s The Loch Ness Monster and Others, Edward Mountain paid for a search. Twenty men with binoculars and cameras stood around the loch from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for five weeks, starting on July 13, 1934. Although 21 photographs were taken, none were clear enough to prove anything. James Fraser, the supervisor, stayed at the loch to film on September 15, 1934. The film is now lost. Zoologists and professors of natural history later said the film showed a seal, possibly a grey seal.
The Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau (LNPIB) was a group formed in 1962 in the United Kingdom by Norman Collins, R. S. R. Fitter, politician David James, Peter Scott, and Constance Whyte. Its goal was to study Loch Ness to find the creature known as the Loch Ness Monster or explain why people reported seeing it. In 1967, the group received $20,000 from World Book Encyclopedia to fund a two-year project of watching the loch during the day from May to October. The main tools were 35 mm movie cameras on mobile units with 20-inch lenses, and one with a 36-inch lens at Achnahannet, near the middle of the loch. The mobile units covered about 80% of the loch’s surface. The group later changed its name to the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau (LNIB) and ended its work in 1972. The LNIB charged members a yearly fee to cover costs. Its main activity was encouraging groups of volunteers to watch the loch from high points using film cameras with telescopic lenses. From 1965 to 1972, the group had a caravan camp and viewing platform at Achnahannet and sent observers to other spots along the loch. According to the bureau’s 1969 report, it had 1,030 members, 588 of whom lived in the United Kingdom.
D. Gordon Tucker, who was a professor of electronic and electrical engineering at the University of Birmingham, volunteered to help develop sonar equipment at Loch Ness in 1968. His work was part of a larger effort led by the LNPIB from 1967 to 1968. This effort brought together volunteers and experts from different fields. Tucker chose Loch Ness as a test site for a new sonar device that could reach up to 800 meters (2,600 feet). The device was placed underwater at Temple Pier in Urquhart Bay and aimed at the opposite shore, creating an acoustic "net" that could detect any moving object. During a two-week test in August, the sonar found several targets. One was likely a group of fish, but others moved in ways not typical of fish, at speeds up to 10 knots.
In 1972, a group of researchers from the Academy of Applied Science, led by Robert H. Rines, searched for the monster by using sonar to study the loch’s depths for unusual activity. Rines took steps to avoid murky water caused by floating wood and peat. A submersible camera with a floodlight was used to record images below the surface. If Rines detected something on the sonar, he turned on the light and took pictures.
On August 8, Rines’ Raytheon DE-725C sonar unit, working at a frequency of 200 kHz and placed at a depth of 11 meters (36 feet), found a moving target (or targets) estimated to be 6 to 9 meters (20 to 30 feet) long. Experts from Raytheon, Simrad (now Kongsberg Maritime), Hydroacoustics, Marty Klein of MIT, Klein Associates, and Ira Dyer of MIT’s Ocean Engineering Department reviewed the data. A Raytheon specialist, P. Skitzki, suggested the data showed a 3-meter (10-foot) object sticking out from one of the echoes. According to author Roy Mackal, the shape could be a "highly flexible, laterally flattened tail" or the result of two animals swimming together.
At the same time, the floodlit camera took two underwater photographs. Both showed what looked like a rhomboid flipper, but skeptics said the images might show the loch’s bottom, air bubbles, a rock, or a fish fin. The flipper appeared in different positions, suggesting movement. The first photo is more famous than the second, and both were edited and retouched from the original negatives. Charles Wyckoff, a team member, said the photos were retouched to add the flipper. The original images showed a less-clear object. No one knows how the originals were changed. During a meeting with Tony Harmsworth and Adrian Shine at the Loch Ness Centre & Exhibition, Rines admitted the flipper photo might have been retouched by a magazine editor.
In 1975, British naturalist Sir Peter Scott announced the scientific name Nessiteras rhombopteryx (Greek for "Ness inhabitant with a diamond-shaped fin") based on the photographs. Scott wanted the name to help add the creature to the British list of protected wildlife. Scottish politician Nicholas Fairbairn said the name was an anagram for "monster hoax by Sir Peter S." Rines argued the letters could also spell "Yes, both pix are monsters – R."
Another sonar contact found two objects estimated to be about 9 meters (30 feet) long. A strobe camera photographed two large objects surrounded by bubbles. Some thought the objects were plesiosaur-like animals, suggesting several large animals live in Loch Ness. This photo has rarely been published.
In 1975, Rines conducted another search. Some of the photos, though blurry and without matching sonar readings, seemed to show unknown animals in different positions and lighting. One photo appeared to show the head, neck, and upper body of a plesiosaur-like animal, but skeptics said it might be a log because of the lump on its "chest," the sediment in the full photo, and the log-like texture. Another photo showed a horned "gargoyle head," similar to some monster sightings, but skeptics pointed out that a tree stump filmed during Operation Deepscan in 1987 looked very similar.
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Explanations
Ronald Binns, a former member of the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau, believes there is no single explanation for the sightings of the creature. He wrote two books, The Loch Ness Mystery Solved (1983) and The Loch Ness Mystery Reloaded (2017), in which he argues that human psychology plays a role in how people perceive what they see. He suggests that sightings may be misidentifications of known animals, objects, or natural effects, reinterpretations of Scottish folklore, hoaxes, or sightings of large exotic animals. A reviewer called Binns’ work "the definitive, skeptical book on the subject." Binns does not call the sightings a hoax but describes them as a "myth" and a "sociological phenomenon." He notes that even after 1983, some people continue to believe the sightings are real because they trust eyewitness accounts more than other evidence.
An early idea was that a large European eel might explain the sightings. Eels live in Loch Ness, and a very large one could account for some reports. However, some researchers, like Dinsdale, doubted this because eels move side to side like snakes, which differs from descriptions of the creature. In 1856, a "sea-serpent" seen in a freshwater lake near Leurbost in the Outer Hebrides was also thought to be an oversized eel.
From 2018 to 2019, scientists from New Zealand studied DNA samples in Loch Ness to identify all living organisms. Their findings confirmed that European eels still live there but found no DNA evidence for large animals like catfish, Greenland sharks, or plesiosaurs. Many scientists now believe that giant eels may explain many sightings.
In 1979, biologist Dennis Power and geographer Donald Johnson suggested that the famous "surgeon’s photograph" might show the head, trunk, and nostrils of an elephant seen elsewhere, not in Loch Ness. In 2006, Neil Clark, a paleontologist and artist, proposed that traveling circuses might have allowed elephants to swim in the loch, with their trunks mistaken for the creature’s head and neck. He provided an example painting to support this idea.
Zoologist Jeremy Wade, who appeared on the TV show River Monsters in 2013, concluded that the creature might be a Greenland shark. These sharks can grow up to 20 feet long and live in the North Atlantic, including near Scotland. Biologist Bruce Wright noted that Greenland sharks could survive in freshwater, and Loch Ness has plenty of fish for them to eat.
In 2015, Steve Feltham, after a vigil at Loch Ness recognized by the Guinness Book of Records, suggested the monster might be a large Wels catfish. He believed this fish may have been released in the late 19th century.
It is hard to judge the size of an object in water using a telescope or binoculars without a reference point. Loch Ness has resident otters, and photos of them and deer swimming in the loch, cited by Binns, might have been misinterpreted. Binns also noted that birds could be mistaken for a "head and neck" sighting.
Wakes have been reported in calm conditions with no boats nearby. Bartender David Munro described a wake he believed was caused by a creature zigzagging and diving, with 26 other witnesses. Some sightings describe a V-shaped wake like a boat’s, while others do not match a boat’s shape.
In 1933, the Daily Mirror published a photo of a tree trunk washed ashore at Foyers on Loch Ness, suggesting it might have been mistaken for the monster.
In 1982, Maurice Burton proposed that sightings of the monster could be fermenting Scots pine logs rising to the surface of the loch. Gas pressure from decaying logs could push them through the water, and their shape might resemble the monster.
Loch Ness’s long, straight shape can create unusual ripples called seiches. A seiche is a large wave caused by water moving back to its natural level after being pushed to one side of the lake. The seiche period in Loch Ness is 31.5 minutes. Earthquakes in Scotland are too weak to cause seiches, but large earthquakes far away, like the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, could create waves. However, no monster sightings were reported in 1755.
Wind can make the water look choppy and dark from the shore. In 1979, W. H. Lehn showed that atmospheric refraction could distort the shape and size of objects, such as a mirage of a rock on Lake Winnipeg that looked like a head and neck.
Italian geologist Luigi Piccardi suggested that ancient legends about creatures in Loch Ness might describe earthquakes. The Great Glen Fault near Loch Ness could explain the "loud roaring" mentioned in the earliest recorded sighting. Some reports of disturbances on the water might be gas released through the fault, mistaken for something swimming.
In 1980, Swedish naturalist Bengt Sjögren noted that modern beliefs about lake monsters, like the Loch Ness Monster, are linked to kelpie legends. Originally, kelpies were described as horse-like creatures meant to scare children away from the loch. Over time, these legends evolved to include descriptions of creatures similar to plesiosaurs.
The kelpie was mentioned in an 1879 Scottish newspaper and inspired Tim Dinsdale’s Project Water Horse. Studies of Highland folklore before 1933 showed that Loch Ness was the most frequently cited location for kelpie, water horse, or water bull sightings.
Several hoaxes have been attempted. In 1933, Italian journalist Francesco Gasparini wrote the first news article about the Loch Ness Monster. In 1959, he fabricated eyewitness accounts of a "strange fish" and later claimed it was a "monster" to make his story more interesting. Other hoaxes were exposed quickly or discovered through research.