George Edwards, Others and Nessie

I heard it on the grapevine recently that George Edwards has been making some news again, albeit at a more local level. You may remember that George grabbed the Nessie headlines for 2012 with his photograph of a hump like object in the water. As it turned out, he was not generally believed as the headline above shows.

Returning to the present day, the Drumnadrochit Chamber of Commerce held their AGM last Monday and George sent a letter to them bemoaning the scepticism expressed by Adrian Shine and others towards the existence of the Loch Ness Monster. He felt that this would be bad for business and the businesses around the area should be making more of Nessie.

It seems that this letter was met with a robust reply from Tony Harmsworth (who is also sceptical of the traditional view of the Loch Ness Monster) along the lines of fakes doing more harm to the cause than expressing a sceptical view. Tony was also confident that business in general was up in the area.

So that was that and I don't know how that AGM went but it got me thinking about how the Loch Ness Monster is presented to the many tourists who pass by Loch Ness. I have already posted some observations on a recent visit to the Loch Ness Centre which was designed by Adrian Shine but I have not been along to the competing "Nessieland" exhibition centre for years and so cannot give an up to date opinion on that.

However, George's pessimism regarding sceptical exhibitions should not be so burdensome. The debate regarding the existence and nature of the Loch Ness Monster requires the participation of both sceptics and believers. If the debate is dominated by one side, then one tends to get a stagnant silence in terms of pushing the subject forward. Lively discussion always requires at least two sides and this subject is no different.

So the solution for George Edwards and any others who are like minded at Loch Ness is simple. The Nessieland Castle Monster Centre just down the road from the Loch Ness Centre claims to be pro-Nessie. That place is run by a Donald Skinner and George's boat trips are based there.

If they are indeed pro-Nessie and a bunch of 100% resolute believers in a monster then their exhibition should be geared towards promoting that cause. In that way, tourists will have a perfect balance at Loch Ness between the sceptical view and the traditional view.

Does the Nessieland Castle Monster Centre live by that creed? I will tell you next time I visit it but if they are wanting someone to offer them advice on how to present the traditional monster view and critique the sceptical view, I am at their service. Just email me at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com

POSTSCRIPT: Loch Ness researcher, Dick Raynor, has posted further details of the aforementioned letters at his website - link (scroll to bottom of page).

The Bank of Nessie

What does it say about a nation that chooses the Loch Ness Monster as their second choice of subject for Scottish banknotes if independence was achieved?

A recent survey of 2000 Scots saw the national poet, Robert Burns, get a quarter of the vote and Nessie getting a tenth. So much for John Logie Baird, David Livingstone, Alexander Graham Bell and James Watt. Original story here.

On the other hand, Nessie is a natural treasure and if she ever was conclusively proven, even Robert Burns would be overtaken in the popularity stakes.

Nessie has appeared on money before. The best example is a one dollar coin minted by the Cook Islands government in 2009. 

Quite an interesting depiction which does not quite bear a true resemblance to what people see. I like the term "mystical" as opposed to "mythical", neither of which applies to the Loch Ness Monster apart form the older Kelpie stories. I have not found another legal tender coin depicting Scotland's second choice of banknote subject but some stamps do carry images. Some say that stamps are legal tender and can be used as a form of payment. Though I doubt they are legal tender, they can be accepted as a form of payment. This 1992 stamp from the Maldives Islands shows Nessie in her more plesiosaurian mode.

This 1991 example from the United Kingdom is actually aimed at dinosaurs but Nessie gets on to the actual first day cover. So no actual Nessie on the stamps themselves. If you know of any others, let me know.

The G.E. Taylor Film of 1938

On Steve Feltham's Facebook page, there seems to be some confusion about what is in this film. Unfortunately, the film is long lost but there is a surviving still which first featured in Maurice Burton's book "The Elusive Monster". That still is reproduced below for the clearing up of any doubts.

Regard this short blog as a "trailer" for the main "feature" as I will publish a fuller article on this film later this year. So, in the meantime, may I appeal to anyone who may have known G. E. Taylor from Durban, South Africa whether they have extra information on the man, his film or anything else related. It would be great if the film would enter the public domain and allow us all to finally see this piece of Loch Ness Monster lore.

I can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com

george gavin gregory graham gerald gordon glenn gareth guy gunther gary
edward eamonn earl edgar edmond edmund elias eliott eric ethan

natal durban newcastle shepstone margate richards pietermaritzburg ladysmith kokstad

Fort Augustus Abbey School

This blog is not only interested in the Loch Ness Monster but the general history and folklore of the people and places around the loch. Unfortunately, that can also involve the darker side of human nature. I hope that whatever happens here, the truth will be found out and the necessary actions taken.

Police investigate allegations of sex abuse at Catholic boarding school

Former pupil claims monks at closed boys' school Fort Augustus Abbey committed 'systematic, brutal, awful torture'

Link to original story here.

What is in this postcard?

Here's an interesting postcard from 1916 which I noticed on eBay a while back. It was posted 17 years before the Nessie era began in 1933. The familiar backdrop of Urquhart Castle is there but what is that blob like thing in the water in front of the castle?

Is it our famous resident of Loch Ness on a jaunt or something more familiar? The castle is about 50 feet high which allows us to calculate the height of the object as about two feet out of the water and six feet wide.

Is it a rowing boat? Perhaps, but any presumed occupant of the boat is rather hard to see as are the expected oars. 

Opinions, please!

New Picture of Nessie?

A YouTube clip is now doing the rounds which shows something strange in Loch Ness. The photographer is Dan Sohan and you can view the clip below. Dan says he took the image on the 9th May or 13 days ago.

I have contacted him for further details and hope to say more but expect explanations such as it is a picture of a bird in flight in the tradition of the Jennifer Bruce picture taken in 1982. For now, I would prefer to get more info such as whether this is a still from a video clip. 

POSTSCRIPT:

Loch Ness researcher, Dick Raynor, got in touch with me and says the image was actually recorded somewhere between Onich and North Ballahulish which is over thirty miles south of Loch Ness. This is based on a comparison between the hills in the picture's background and what can be seen using Google StreetView.

Dan has also got back to me and says that the image was a single shot and he thinks he was actually driving along Loch Lochy at the time.

The Elf-Cattle of Caithness

I was going through some of my old emails when I came across this old newspaper clipping. I had found it as part of my earlier research into my book "The Water Horses of Loch Ness" but had not used it. So now is a good time a time as any to look at it. It is taken from the John O' Groats Journal dated the 31st December 1852.

Our story concerns a type of loch beast called the Water Bull of which Loch Ness itself was reputed to host one. However, this story is set in Caithness, the northernmost part of mainland Scotland (the green tip on our map below).

The lochs in question are not named, though my own research unearthed only one monster loch in Caithness and that is Loch Na Cloiche. Whether this was in mind or not, the elf-cattle pretty much follow the Water Bull type in inter breeding with land cattle but keep their abode in the waters of the loch. Other sources tell us that the hybrid product of land cows and water bulls were called "corcach" in the Gaelic whilst the aquatic beasts themselves were more docile than their more fearsome counterparts, the Water Horse and Kelpie.

The other interesting term is "elf-cattle" and one wonders if the locals were attempting to envisage a parallel world of creatures to those in the natural world. Just as there was the Cu-Sith or fairy-dog and the feline Cat Sith, was there also equivalent livestock in Scottish lochs?

Finally, you may wonder what the author means by the "much maligned development hypothesis"? It is in fact a precursor to Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and pre-dates it by over ten years. You can read more about it here. As it turns out, the author of the article was arguing that the mythical beast may actually have some basis in the idea that a creature had developed in the Highland lochs from a more humble fish form.