IF WE VISIT LOCH NIS IN INBHIR NIS, WE'LL MEET NESSIE

Today, The Morgans and The Grandma are travelling to Inbhir Nis, to visit Loch Nis, home of an old and legendary friend: Nessie.

Loch Ness, in Scottish Gaelic Loch Nis, is a large deep lake in the Scottish Highlands extending for approximately 37 kilometres southwest of Inverness. Its surface is 16 metres above sea level. It is connected at the southern end by the River Oich and a section of the Caledonian Canal to Loch Oich. At the northern end there is the Bona Narrows which opens out into Loch Dochfour, which feeds the River Ness and a further section of canal to Inverness, ultimately leading to the North Sea via the Moray Firth. It is one of a series of interconnected, murky bodies of water in Scotland; its water visibility is exceptionally low due to a high peat content in the surrounding soil.

At Drumnadrochit is the Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition which examines the natural history and legend of Loch Ness.

Urquhart Castle is located on the western shore, 2 km east of Drumnadrochit and lighthouses are located at Lochend (Bona Lighthouse) and Fort Augustus.

Loch Ness is known as the home of the Loch Ness Monster, also known as Nessie, a cryptid, reputedly a large unknown animal. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, though its description varies from one account to the next. Popular interest and belief in the animal's existence has varied since it was first brought to the world's attention in 1933.

In Scottish folklore, the Loch Ness Monster or Nessie, is an aquatic being which reputedly inhabits Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, and is often described as being large in size, with a long neck and one or more humps protruding from the water. Popular interest and belief in the creature has varied since it was brought to worldwide attention in 1933. Evidence of its existence is anecdotal, with a few disputed photographs and sonar readings.

The creature commonly appears in Western media where it manifests in a variety of ways. The scientific community regards the Loch Ness Monster as a phenomenon without biological basis, explaining sightings as hoaxes, wishful thinking, and the misidentification of mundane objects.

The creature has been affectionately called Nessie, in Scottish Gaelic: Niseag, since the 1940s.

The word monster was reportedly applied for the first time to the creature on 2 May 1933 by Alex Campbell, water bailiff for Loch Ness and a part-time journalist, in an Inverness Courier report.

On 4 August 1933 the Courier published a report by Londoner George Spicer that several weeks earlier, while they were driving around the loch, he and his wife saw the nearest approach to a dragon or pre-historic animal that I have ever seen in my life trundling across the road toward the loch with an animal in its mouth. Letters began appearing in the Courier, often anonymously, claiming land or water sightings by the writer, their family or acquaintances or remembered stories. The accounts reached the media, which described a monster fish, sea serpent, or dragon and eventually settled on Loch Ness monster.

On 6 December 1933 the first purported photograph of the monster, taken by Hugh Gray, was published in the Daily Express; the Secretary of State for Scotland soon ordered police to prevent any attacks on it. 

In 1934, interest was further piqued by the surgeon's photograph. 

That year, R. T. Gould published an account of the author's investigation and a record of reports predating 1933. Other authors have claimed sightings of the monster dating to the sixth century AD.

The earliest report of a monster in the vicinity of Loch Ness appears in the Life of St. Columba by Adomnán, written in the sixth century AD. 

According to Adomnán, writing about a century after the events described, Irish monk Saint Columba was staying in the land of the Picts with his companions when he encountered local residents burying a man by the River Ness. They explained that the man was swimming in the river when he was attacked by a water beast which mauled him and dragged him underwater. 

Although they tried to rescue him in a boat, he was dead. Columba sent a follower, Luigne moccu Min, to swim across the river. The beast approached him, but Columba made the sign of the cross and said: Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once. The creature stopped as if it had been "pulled back with ropes" and fled, and Columba's men and the Picts gave thanks for what they perceived as a miracle.

Believers in the monster point to this story, set in the River Ness rather than the loch itself, as evidence for the creature's existence as early as the sixth century. 

Sceptics question the narrative's reliability, noting that water-beast stories were extremely common in medieval hagiographies and Adomnán's tale probably recycles a common motif attached to a local landmark. According to sceptics, Adomnán's story may be independent of the modern Loch Ness Monster legend and became attached to it by believers seeking to bolster their claims.  

More information: Historic UK

Moonlight falls upon the dormant land
Where peaceful calm reclines
Upon the shimmering lake
Ripples form and then reveal
A dark silhouette rising out of water.

 

Sheri Fresonke Harper