Aleister Crowley Lecture

Anyone with an interest in the mystery of Loch Ness will have no doubt heard of Aleister Crowley. There will be a talk next week in Edinburgh on this infamous person (yes, he is even more infamous than Frank Searle). The talk will be at 7:30pm next Tuesday (14th June) at the Beehive Inn, Grassmarket. Further details can be found here.

Doubtless, some of his time spent near Nessie will be covered, though his complete separation from the inscrutable Highlanders more or less guaranteed he would be none the wiser about the Loch Ness Monster until he read it in the London newspapers years later.

Readers may recall that his house at Loch Ness, Boleskine House, suffered serious damage in a fire back in December 2015. Six months on, the fate of the house is unclear since it will require a substantial amount of money to restore it. Will someone step forward to foot the bill (insurance company or Crowley fan) or will most of the house be demolished? The images below were taken more recently and you can see more at this link.

By coincidence, I watched an old film recently, "The Devil Rides Out", which starred Christopher Lee in his favourite role as the Duc de Richleau. Apparently, the author of the book, Dennis Wheatley, based the evil character, Mocata, on Crowley. You learn something every day.

The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com

The Latest "Nessie" Video

Let me just get this one out of the way before moving onto the next thing. It was filmed on the 1st of June by tourist, Tony Bligh, and can be viewed on YouTube (as embedded here). The story can be read here. I agree with Adrian Shine that this is no more than a boat wake.

When a report mentions four or five humps in a row, that normally makes me suspicious. Unless there are reasons to think otherwise, it is probably a boat wake. In fact, this is a phenomenon that has been around since the early days of Nessie. I posted an article from 1934 recently which showed the very same thing from the 1934 Mountain Expedition and I reproduce that picture below.

That theme continued into the heady 1960s with the Jessica Tait photograph which even merited a cover on a Nessie publication of the time (below). The Loch Ness Investigation Bureau advised against this being presented as a photo of the Loch Ness Monster, knowing what it was.

Now, circumstances alter cases. When an eight hump sighting is reported, I would be intially sceptical. For example, Mr. U. W. Goodbody on the 30th December 1933, about two miles east of Fort Augustus. Rupert T. Gould interviewed him for his 1934 book and the sketches below are from that book.

We have our excessively long line of humps, but then something unusual happens, they go off on a turn. Most unlike a boat wake. Well, there is something to think about.

The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com