So Bownessie is the new Nessie - at least for the time being! What the recently taken picture shows is a matter of debate. By Loch Ness Monster standards, it is a pretty lumpy looking beast with four tightly clumped humps (unless the foremost hump is the lowered head/neck?).
This event got me looking in my archives and behold, I found this account of a "floating island" in Derwentwater just eight miles up the road. This is taken from The Scotsman of 27th September 1842 and goes thusly:
The Floating Island which according to “Otley's Descriptive Guide,” has emerged to the surface of Derwentwater twelve times in the last forty years, made its appearance on Thursday week in two places, abou forty yards apart, and appears to be daily increasing its dimensions. It has become a source of profit to the boatmen, as numbers of the lake visitors are anxious to avail themselves of the opportunity of having ocular demonstration of so wonderful an appearance.-- Carlisle Patriot.
This apparition appeared to be a massive vegetable mat going by other accounts - but what about Bownessie? Vegetable mats tend not to whizz around the place and submerge as quickly as they appeared, so the jury is out on the mat theory. For the time being, we await the next development.
PS
Vegetable mats do not occur at Loch Ness - the peaty composition of the loch does not allow it.
