In this edition of the paranormal alphabet I reach L where I go over the history of one of the worlds most iconic cryptids, the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, a sea serpent from Scottish folklore.

1. January 15,
2020
The Paranormal Alphabet – L – The Loch Ness Monster
theweeklyrambler.com/the-paranormal-alphabet-l-the-loch-ness-monster/
One of the most iconic and well-known mysteries in the world is the legend of the Loch
Ness Monster. The creature is named after where it has been sighted on many occasions
which is Loch Ness found in the Scottish Highlands near Inverness. The word loch comes
from Irish/Scottish Gaelic and Scots languages which means a lake or sea inlet.
Featured photo: By Ad Meskens from Wikimedia. License.
Loch Ness itself is a large and deep freshwater loch that even has its own little artificial
island called Cherry Island, speculated to have been constructed during the Iron Age and
known as a Crannog, the little island used to be bigger but has become smaller from the
water levels rising in the loch caused by the construction of the Caledonian Canal in the
early 19th century for safer ship navigation, which also totally submerged a 2nd island
that used to be in the loch, called Dog Island. Cherry Island even once had a small castle
on it during the 15th century, built from stone and oak and is believed to have been
some kind of fortified refuge, with some speculation that it was a hunting lodge, with the
former Dog Island being the home of hunting dogs.
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2. Loch Ness. Photo by Ben Brooksbank. License.
Loch Ness is the 2nd largest Scottish Loch after Loch Lomond and also the 2nd deepest
loch in Scotland after Loch Morar, but Loch Ness is largest by water volume in the British
Isles. The water visibility is also very low due to high peat content in the surrounding soil,
so any attempt at looking into the water to try and find the Loch Ness Monster will prove
exceptionally futile and not knowing what’s down there you probably won’t want to fall in
or go for a swim! Plus, it would likely be pretty cold.
Pretty much all evidence of the Loch Ness Monster has stemmed from highly debatable
photographs and sonar readings and a few videos as well as numerous stories without
any solid backed up evidence. Descriptions of the beast often describe it as a very large
creature with smooth dark skin, very long neck and tail and several humps across its
back, which often stick up out of the water along with its long neck and head, the
descriptions are reminiscent of a prehistoric creature known as a Plesiosaurus, which
were large marine reptiles that lived during the early part of the Jurassic Period, fossils of
these animals have been found across parts of England, and so some believers of the
legend believe that Nessie, another name for the Loch Ness Monster, may be a
descendent of the Plesiosaurus or that not all of them died out, this same or similar
theories have also been speculated on many other sea monster mysteries across the
world.
One of the earliest claims of the monster’s mention was as far back as the 6th Century
AD in 565. Detailed in the 2nd book, of the Life of St. Columba which is about an Irish
abbot and Evangelist missionary who is credited with spreading Christianity to Scotland.
St. Columba also founded the abbey on Iona and the author of the books, Adomnan who
was the abbot of Iona abbey from 679-704, wrote the 2nd book about a century after the
events. The books have since been reproduced into one book, The Life of St. Columba.
In a part of the 2nd book, it details that St. Columba was staying in the land of the Picts,
which was a confederation of Celtic language-speaking peoples who lived in Eastern and
Northern Scotland. While here, St. Columba and his companions came across local
residents burying a man by the River Ness which connects to Loch Ness. It was explained
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3. St. Columba
that the man had been swimming in the river when he was attacked by some kind of
water beast, which mauled the man before dragging him underwater, the locals
attempted to rescue the man using a boat but to no avail, the man was killed. After this
St. Columba sent one of his followers to swim across the lake, which attracted the beast
once again, but Columba in observation
performed the ‘sign of the cross’ and said,
“Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go
back at once,” which repelled the water
beast and was dubbed as a miracle by
Columba’s men and the observing Picts.
In this account the beast was clearly
portrayed as some kind of demon as it
was repelled in such an action. It is also
unclear if it was the same monster from
Loch Ness or a different one. Sceptics also
question believers of the Loch Ness
Monster in connecting it with this
supposed event in an attempt to bolster
the validity of the Loch Ness myth. Others
have said that medieval religious
biographies very commonly used water-
beast stories and have suggested it as
nothing more than a recycled motif
connected to a local landmark.
The Loch Ness Monster had always
remained a sort of local legend but it wasn’t until three events that occurred in 1933/34
that made it soar into public popularity. The first incident happened on 22nd July 1933
when a man named George Spicer and his wife witnessed what they described as “a most
extraordinary form of animal” crossing the road in front of their car, lurching its way
towards Loch Ness that was twenty yards away. They said it was a large creature with a
long wavy neck slightly thicker than an elephant’s trunk and the length of the neck was
the width of the road that they were on, which was about 10-12 foot or 3-4 meters. They
did not witness the creature possessing any limbs.
People have speculated that the construction of this very road had led to an increase in
sightings of the Loch Ness Monster due to it bringing more people to a once remote and
lonely area, but this has been disputed as the presence and construction of the
Caledonian Canal has kept the area far from isolated before then and there was not an
uptick in sightings. Sceptics have also said that a major upgrade to this road in the 1930s
may have contributed to mistaken identity sightings due to the possibility of tar barrels
floating in the loch.
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4. Hugh Gray photo
The 2nd well publicized incident occurred almost three months later on 12th November
1933 when Hugh Gray took the first ever alleged photo of the Loch Ness Monster near
the village of Foyers. The picture was blurred and sceptics had said upon looking closely
at the photo you could see the head of a dog, of which Hugh Gray was walking his
Labrador during the event and many passed it off as his dog fetching a stick from the
loch, while other sceptics had guessed on it being other animals such as a swan, otter or
fish. The photo still exists but the original photo negative was lost. In 1963 British
zoologist and popular science author, Maurice Burton, a former believer in the Loch Ness
Monster who has been involved in attempting to debunk numerous alleged evidence,
claimed the possession of two lantern slides contact positives from the original negative
and upon projecting on to a screen he believed it to be an otter rolling in the water in
characteristic fashion and is in his eyes debunked. It remains debated whether the
picture is genuine or a fake. There is one photo though that is widely agreed as fake,
which will be the 4th event we reach…
But first we move on to the 3rd well
publicized incident, this one occurring
almost two months later on 5th
January 1934 in the early hours of the
morning a man called Arthur Grant
claimed to nearly hit a creature while
riding his motorcycle towards
Abriachan near the north-eastern end
of the loch. Grant said that the creature
saw him and then begun crossing the
road back towards the loch, Grant then
pulled over and dismounted from his
motorcycle to follow the creature to the
loch but by the time he reached it he
said that he could only see ripples in the water. Grant who was a veterinary student
described the creature as a cross between a seal and a plesiosaurus, he also produced a
sketch of his encounter. Skeptics have claimed that the sighting may have been an
animal such as an otter or a seal and due to poor lighting conditions, it was mis-
identified. Grant has also been accused of exaggerating his story over the years.
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5. The iconic “Surgeon’s Photo”
Arthur Grant’s sketch of his encounter.
Finally, we move on to the 4th event that produced an iconic photo that is now widely
believed to have been a hoax but the matter itself is also surrounded in trickery. The
photo was supposedly taken by a gynecologist called Robert Kenneth Wilson and was
later published in the Daily Mail on 21st April 1934 where it picked up huge attention and
was known at the time as one of the clearest pieces of evidence on the Loch Ness
Monster, it became known as the “Surgeon’s photograph” as Wilson wanted to remain
anonymous. His brief description of the encounter is that he was looking at the loch
when he saw the monster, grabbed his camera and snapped four photos, only two of
which came out clearest, the 1st showing a head and back and the 2nd shows the head
but in a diving position. The 1st photo became by far the most popular due to the
blurriness of the 2nd. For about six decades it was known as the best evidence ever
captured of the Loch Ness Monster.
And that was that… or was it? In 1984 an analysis of
the iconic photo was performed by Stewart
Campbell and published in the British Journal of
Photography saying that the analysis concluded that
the object in the photo could have only been two-
three feet long at most and speculated that it was
likely some kind of animal such as an otter or bird
and also accused Wilson of knowing this was the
case. While Campbell’s analysis was widely
accepted, his accusation was to be put in doubt
after a major revelation from hidden actors.
Let’s rewind back to 1933 as the Nessie craze was
ramping up, the Daily Mail taking advantage of the situation had decided to hire a
famous big-game hunter called Marmaduke Wetherell to investigate the sightings and
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6. attempt to locate the Loch Ness Monster. While finding no visual evidence of the
monster itself, Wetherell did come across tracks he believed were made by the monster
in December 1933, huge footprints leading into the loch. Eventually the tracks were
analyzed by researchers from the Natural History Museum who came to the conclusion
that they were in-fact made by a dried hippo’s foot, the type usually found used as
umbrella stands.
Understandably after this revelation Wetherell felt cheated and humiliated, even causing
him to withdraw from the public eye. Fast forward to 1994, a man lying on his deathbed
was about to make a huge disclosure, this man was Christian Spurling, the stepson of
Marmaduke Wetherell. He divulged that the iconic photo was in-fact a grand hoax
perpetrated by him, his stepfather Wetherell and included Robert Kenneth Wilson who
would be the reputable source of the photo due to his respected profession. The plot
was the making of a hoax Loch Ness Monster using a toy submarine with a sea-serpent
head attached to it. It was Wetherell’s grand revenge for the trickery he himself had
suffered.
Despite the hilarity of the whole situation, the event still served to make the Loch Ness
Monster into a cultural and mythological icon worldwide within the annals in the world
of the unexplained that has inspired ongoing awe and fascination within the subject of
the unknown and the mysterious. This also wasn’t the end of the Loch Ness Monster, as
other material continued to surface over the years. And although the Surgeon’s photo is
widely accepted as a hoax now, it is still disputed if the story provided by Marmaduke’s
stepson is totally legitimate and the original publisher of the picture on to the Daily Mail
is also disputed.
Such material has included alleged video of the Loch Ness Monster and one of the first
known videos to be shot was on 29th May 1938 when a South African tourist named G. E.
Taylor filmed what was thought to be some kind of creature in the loch using 16mm
colour film. Unfortunately, the only person to gain access to the video was Maurice
Burton, the earlier mentioned zoologist who only brought light to such a video in a book
he authored in 1961 called Elusive Monster but only released one frame, the video itself
cannot be found anywhere. Burton’s analysis and conclusion is that it was a floating
object.
During 1960 another video emerged known as the Dinsdale film, filmed by Tim Dinsdale
an aeronautical engineer, which is one of the most popular pieces of alleged video
evidence of a creature in Loch Ness, showing the wake of something travelling along the
water, although the footage is unclear. But there appears to be some confusion over
whether the film has been proven fake or not, one unverified claim from a source on a
blog called loch-ness that is dedicated to the evidence and content of the Loch Ness
Monster has said the video was shown to be a mistake by accidental high contrast of a
documentary that featured the film, showing a man sitting in a light coloured boat and
that apparently this information was not released at the time due to Tim Dinsdale being
unwell.
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7. The blog also followed up saying that it was proven to be simply a boat after new analysis
by Royal Air Force’s Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre, of which had previously
given the video credence, but there was no visible source to prove this new analysis. The
blog has stated that apparently the Dinsdale family had wrote to it not allowing the
author to use images from the video in his book or website, even when he offered to
pay. Although again this is unverified.
There is continued debate to this day over the authenticity of the video between
believers and critics.
I guess it is about time that I begin drawing this to a close. I have gone through quite a bit
of the history of the loch ness monster, although I have not covered everything, there is
more recent footage and pictures including a video from as early as 2013. I also didn’t go
over the many searches that have been held to find the Loch Ness monster, or the police
constable of Inverness-shire who was doubtful of his ability to defend the Loch Ness
monster from a group of hunters determined to catch it “dead or alive”.
But alas, they can be things for future posts perhaps. I hope you have enjoyed this much
improved blogpost on a subject of the Paranormal Alphabet.
Thank you for reading and I hope you found this interesting. Next up will be N for the
Nightmarchers, a folklore of spirits in Hawaii.
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