Locating Margaret Munro's Monster

 

I blogged a piece a few years back about the area around Borlum Bay and the famous land sighting reported by Margaret Munro on June 3rd 1934. At that time a new tourist path had been opened going further into the bay which I had explored. However, I don't think my attempt back then to locate where her beast lay turning in the sun was accurate enough.

So it was time for another attempt as I came to the end of my recent trip to the loch in August. The original account states that Munro "watched the Loch Ness Monster for twenty five minutes on Sunday Morning as it enjoyed a sun bath on the shore, some yards west of Atlan Deor burn". The stream called "Atlan Deor" is a garbling of the Gaelic name as it was presumably transmitted vocally over the phone to the Inverness Courier offices. Its' actual name is "Allt an Dubhair" which I would say means "the dark stream".

So the above map marks the location of the stream whose source lies high amongst the hills south-east of Fort Augustus and it lies beyond the aforementioned tourist path, so it was time for a bit more clambering along the loch shore. While we are on the map, note the Glendoe Holiday Cottages in the bottom left of the Google Maps shot. This is the location of the original house where Margaret Munro was inside watching the beast through a pair of binoculars.

Wading through the loch water, it was not long before I came upon the Dark Stream trickling into the loch. Since the account states the creature was "some yards west" of this stream, the monster's location would be somewhere not far to the right of the picture below as "west" refers to the north-east to south-west alignment of that shoreline.

Swinging round in that direction toward Borlum Bay and another camera snap shows the location of the holiday cottages left of top centre from where Munro watched the Loch Ness Monster. Obviously, if I could see the house, then an occupant would see the beach. The distance from the house to the stream area is just over 650 metres. Since Munro was watching through 8x binoculars, this reduced the effective viewing distance to about 80 metres. So it would be reasonable to place the creature somewhere along the strip of gravel beach going off to the left in the picture.

We are told that Munro's employers, the Pimleys, walked this stretch after her account and found a stick depressed into the beach. Certainly, the granularity of this shoreline looked fine enough to accommodate such a scenario. The narrow width of the strip also backs up the statement that the creature was partially in the water - suggestive of a creature longer that the beach was wide.

I would also say that the strip of shoreline provides a convenient frame of reference to gauge the size of a large creature resting upon it. Based on my observations at this location, the proposed sceptical solution of a grey or harbor seal doesn't make sense as a typical member of either species would easily fit onto the whole shore unlike the beast said to be partially in the water.

From there, I looked back to the forest behind me, in the direction the creature was facing those 91 years before. Before me was a small half-stone and half-grass path leading into the woods. I walked along it to come into a circular area almost bereft of vegetation compared to the lush trees and undergrowth surrounding it. 

It was unusual in that I do not recall in my travels around the loch such a bare area compared to the growth around it. I jokingly thought to myself, this must be a curl up and snooze area for Nessie and she had just woken up and was heading back to the loch when Margaret Munro spotted her. The bare ground was, of course, due to the slime from her skin killing off the grass below.

Well, anyway, I mused whether this was a natural or man-made area. There was traces of human activity on the shore in the form of the usual little fires wild campers set up. I don't think this had anything to do with that. There was logging operations going on further up the hill towards the main south road and so perhaps it was connected to that. It could also be some natural form of dieback due to environmental factors such as disease, but the answer was not immediately apparent.

A visit back to this spot in 2026 to see how the area has changed may answer some of these questions. But for now Winter approaches with its cold winds, snow, hail and rain. I know some fellow Nessie hunters who aim to be back up at the loch before year end, so I hope the weather fares well for them and the beast puts in an appearance (thinking everyone has disappeared for Christmas!).

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The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com