🦕 The Loch Ness Monster
A long-necked something said to live in the deep, dark water of Loch Ness
Also known as Nessie, Loch Ness Monster, Loch Ness, Ness
📺 "Tonight's guest has been photographed hundreds of times and never once in focus. She's Scottish, she's shy, and she's quite possibly an eel."
💀 Facts
- The earliest tale of a Ness water beast is in Adomnán's Life of St Columba, written around the year 700
- The modern legend began in 1933, when a new road opened up the view of the loch
- The Surgeon's Photograph appeared in the Daily Mail on 21 April 1934
- In 1994 it emerged that the photograph showed a model head on a toy submarine
- Operation Deepscan swept the loch with a line of sonar boats in 1987
- A 2018 environmental DNA survey found no reptile DNA but a great deal of eel
- Loch Ness holds more water than all the lakes of England and Wales combined
📜 Legend
Loch Ness is 23 miles long and more than 200 metres deep, and its peat-dark water hides whatever is in it. The oldest tale is in Adomnán's Life of St Columba, written around the year 700, in which the saint orders a 'water beast' back into the River Ness in 565. The modern monster was born in 1933, after a new road along the north shore opened up the view: on 2 May the Inverness Courier reported that Aldie Mackay had seen something large rolling and plunging in the loch, and that summer George Spicer described a creature crossing the road in front of his car. The Daily Mail hired big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell, whose 'footprints' turned out to have been made with a dried hippopotamus foot. On 21 April 1934 the paper printed the famous 'Surgeon's Photograph', credited to London doctor Robert Kenneth Wilson; in 1994 it was revealed that Wetherell's stepson Christian Spurling had built the head and neck onto a toy submarine. Sonar sweeps such as Operation Deepscan (1987) and a 2018 environmental DNA survey found no reptile, but a great deal of eel. Folklorists note that Highland lochs had water-horses, or kelpies, long before anyone had a camera.
🎭 Myth vs Movie
True or false? Make your guess, then click a card (or press r) for the verdict.
The Surgeon's Photograph is genuine.
✘ FALSE
In 1994 it emerged that Christian Spurling had modelled the head and neck on a toy submarine for his stepfather, Marmaduke Wetherell, who wanted revenge on the Daily Mail.
The first written account of a Ness monster is from the 6th century.
✔ TRUE
Adomnán's Life of St Columba, written around 700, describes the saint banishing a water beast in the River Ness in 565, though in the river rather than the loch.
Nessie is a surviving plesiosaur.
✘ FALSE
Plesiosaurs died out 66 million years ago, and Loch Ness was solid ice until about 10,000 years ago. A cold freshwater loch could not feed a breeding population either.
A DNA survey of the loch found a great deal of eel.
✔ TRUE
The 2018 environmental DNA study found no reptile DNA at all, but eels everywhere. A very large eel remains the scientists' favourite candidate.
Loch Ness holds more water than every lake in England and Wales put together.
✔ TRUE
It is so long and deep that it contains more fresh water than all the lakes of England and Wales combined.
🕯️ Quotes
“Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; go back with all speed.”
Lines come only from public-domain texts.
🃏 Stat Card
⚡ Powers
- Hiding in 200 metres of peat-dark water
- Appearing only when the camera is out of focus
- A neck that rises and dips without warning
- Turning a quiet Highland loch into a tourist magnet
🧄 Weaknesses
- Sonar
- Environmental DNA
- Stepsons with a conscience
- Clear water
- Hippopotamus feet
Stats power the Monster Mash: terminal-of-terror mash loch-ness-monster
🎞️ Legacy
- The Secret of the Loch (1934), the first Nessie film
- The Loch Ness Investigation Bureau, which watched the water from 1962 to 1972
- Loch Ness (1996), with Ted Danson
- The Water Horse (2007)
- The Loch Ness Centre at Drumnadrochit
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