New Nessie Facebook Page

A new facebook page has been created as a forum for debate on the Loch Ness Monster. You can find it at this link. 

So far, we have seen various contributions from people knowledgeable in the Loch Ness phenomenon and I hope everyone keeps a civil tongue in their heads as the subject can often descend into friction. That I always found a bit strange as we are not talking about a subject that impacts on the human condition such as health care, wars, human rights or poverty. Go figure.

Anyway, check it out and join in if you have something to say.

AD 1658: The Floating Island of Loch Ness

Take a look at some ancient maps of Scotland and you may notice a strange phrase inscribed beside Loch Lomond which goes something like this: 

“Loch Lomond famous for its floating island its fish without fins and being frequently tempestuous in a calm.”

Thus did cartographer Hermann Moll annotate his 1712 map of the Scottish county of Dunbartonshire (below). Cryptozoologists have speculated on whether these phrases refer to a strange creature residing in Loch Lomond or have a more mundane explanation.

In my book, "The Water Horses of Loch Ness", I go into further detail which suggests there is a more natural explanation for the floating islands of Loch Lomond. But what of the floating island of Loch Ness which on examination looks like a stranger proposition?

RICHARD FRANCK

The source for this story was Richard Franck, a Cromwellian soldier who at some point visited or was stationed near Loch Ness during the 17th century. As a result of his military and angling pursuits in Scotland, he published in 1696 a travelogue of his experiences called "Northern Memoirs" which in the tradition of the time carried a long winded sub-title. The front page shown below is from that first edition.

Though the initial book was written in 1658 with additions into 1685, it took 38 years to be published. I suspect this was due to the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 which would have led to a suppression of any literature which smacked of the Cromwellian until the more favourable ascent to the throne of William of Orange in 1689.

The book itself is written in a conversational style between three fellows called  Arnoldus (Franck himself), Theophilus and Agrippa. But what do we know about Captain Richard Franck? According to Brown's "Early Travellers in Scotland" (1891):

Of Richard Franck we know little more than he has himself casually told us in the book from which the following extracts have been made. It has been conjectured that he was born in 1642, and that he died in the year 1708. From himself we learn that he was a native of Cambridge, that he received "a slender education" at its university, and that the impending civil wars drove him for a time to make his residence in London.

We have it also from himself that he at one time resided in Nottingham, though in what capacity, or whether before or after his visit to Scotland, he does not specify. His first acquaintance with Scotland was made as a trooper in the army of Cromwell in 1650. It was probably in 1656 or 1657, however, that he made the northern tour of which his Memoirs is the record.

FRANCK'S FLOATING ISLAND 

But let us now look at what Richard Franck said of the floating island of Loch Ness. First he speaks of Loch Lomond:

The large and spacious Loemon, so generally discours'd for the floating island; but it floats not here in these solitary Western Fields, as fictitiously supposed by the ignorant reporters. But our travel will reform that error in time, when we  come to trace the mountains beyond Badanoch.

As far as Franck is concerned, the action is to be found at Loch Ness 

The famous Lough-Ness, so much discours'd for the supposed floating island; for here it is, if any where in Scotland. Nor is it any other than a natural plantation of segs and bullrushes, matted and knit so close together by natural industry, and navigated by winds that blow every way, floats from one part of the Lough to another, upon the surface of the solid deeps of this small Mediterrane.

 The relevant page from the first edition is shown below.

To which he adds a final poetic flourish:

Where the Tritons and Sea-nymphs sport themselves on the slippery waves, sounding an invasion to her moveable inmate; supposed by some, the floating island.

You will perhaps have noted that Franck is the first recorded Nessie sceptic in the history of mankind as he immediately bats down any notion of monsters with his own explanation that the whole thing is just a mass of dead plants floating around the loch. The aim of this post is to debunk this Cromwellian debunker. 

The first thing to note is how the floating island of Loch Lomond is "generally discours'd" about meaning there is a degree of general talk concerning the subject and this is certainly borne out by the previously mentioned map references.

However, Franck says that the floating island of Loch Ness is "so much discours'd" about which suggests that at the time of writing in 1658, this phenomenon was the talk of the town, so to speak. Who it was "much discoursed" amongst is a matter of debate. Was it amongst the angling circles that Franck shared a common interest or a wider audience who were keen to follow the journal of a tourist?

Whatever the audience, it seems evident that Franck expected them to have some familiarity of this story and even notes the phenomenon is "supposed by some, the floating island" in contra-distinction to his more mundane view.

It seems a search of 17th century literature may yet produce further information about that then popular subject. News papers or letters were sporadically published back then (Cromwell banned them for years) and so good luck if you fancy embarking on such research.

BULLRUSHES 

But going back to Franck's sceptical stance on this phenomenon. The first thing we deduce is that he is formulating an explanation based on guesswork. How do we know this? The fact that he suggests our Floating Island is an entanglement "of segs and bullrushes" proves it. No serious or even diehard sceptic of the Loch Ness Monster would suggest such an explanation today. This can be demonstrated from the list of explanations that the Loch Ness Project suggests for monster sightings.  

Twenty different objects and effects are given but not one could be interpreted as the explanation offered by Franck. Debris such as logs are mentioned but these are a far cry from the vegetable mats that were once promoted by the leading sceptic of the 1960s, Maurice Burton.

In 1960, he published "The Elusive Monster" which placed a lot of weight on this explanation. The problem was that no one was seeing these elusive vegetable mats and this theory soon lost favour when the various expeditions to the loch took a closer look at the loch and its environs.

Furthermore, Franck suggests bullrushes as the main component of his floating island. As it turns out, not only are vegetable mats exceedingly rare on Loch Ness, but ones made of segs and bullrushes can be dismissed out of hand. I consulted a local commercial gardener at Loch Ness who told me bullrushes do not occur naturally at Loch Ness and any clumps found around the loch have probably "escaped" from nearby gardens.

It is further deduced that Franck had not even seen this floating island else I am quite sure he would have regaled us with further tales of what he personally saw. So, anyone thinking that Franck had rowed up to this phenomenon and examined it will be sadly mistaken. I would note that other travellers to the Highlands do not mention these vegetable floating islands at Loch Ness so I deduce they were unknown as a natural phenomenon - as they practically are today.

LOCH NESS WINDS

Richard Franck further assures us that the Floating Island is

"navigated by winds that blow every way floats from one part of the Lough to another ..."

However, this appears to be guesswork again as the main prevailing wind at Loch Ness is from the South West. This is due to the warm Atlantic air being channelled up the Great Glen which acts like a wind tunnel and can increase the general wind speed. Notice also how Franck implies that our Floating Island seems to have a habit of appearing all over the loch. In reality, any debris mats will tend to be blown up the loch to be caught on the shore again or simply sink.

Two further speculations on this point may be in order.

Firstly, it is likely Franck's main source of information were the Cromwellian soldiers stationed near Loch Ness. It is known they had a garrison at Inverness and also had a large ship on the loch. Apparently this ship was moved to the loch via the strenuous task of rolling it along on logs across land. It seems the Caledonian Canal was over a hundred years too late!

Further research suggests that it was unlikely the locals were the source of information since their superstitious dread of the Loch Ness Kelpie dissuaded them from talking about it since they regarded its appearance as a bad omen. So their silence was a given, especially to invading "sassenachs". Cromwell's soldiers would have held no such inhibitions and would have readily talked about their experiences to a fellow Cromwellian such as Franck.

In fact, I may be so bold as to state that without these "Roundheads" we may have never heard of Richard Franck's Floating Island. I say that because of the stony silence foreign travellers tended to be greeted with by fearful natives in these supernatural matters.

Secondly, I would suggest the term "Floating Island" was a phrase applied by Franck rather than the garrisoned soldiers. Did the witnesses to this strange phenomenon on Loch Ness call it a floating island themselves or was Franck keen to link it with Loch Lomond for conversational effect?

I have no particular objection to that literary approach except that readers may automatically infer that the two floating island phenomena are related not only in name but also in solution. I don't think Franck's use of the terms necessarily implies that.

OTHER ISLANDS

So what could the Floating Island of Loch Ness have been? 

Another suggestion is that it could have been Eilean Muireach or "Cherry Island" which is an artificial island built on a crannog but now deserted and overgrown. The problem, of course, is that this island does not float and is very much rooted to the spot. As an aside, I read that Cherry Island was once much bigger due to the lower loch levels before the Caledonian Canal was built and indeed there was a smaller, now submerged island called Eilean Nan Con or the "Dog Island" but the same argument applies.

May I suggest another explanation which is consistent with what people have claimed to have seen and written about at Loch Ness for centuries? You guessed it, a large animal exposing its large back to an audience which described it with a useful metaphor - an island which floats.

This is the most common aspect of the Loch Ness Monster - the single hump and is exemplified in a few drawings here from Gould's 1934 book, "The Loch Ness Monster and others". From top to bottom, Alex Shaw on the 11th May 1933, Mrs. Garden Scott on the 16th August 1933 and Mr. W.D.H. Moir on the 26th august 1933.

CONCLUSIONS

Three hundred and fifty years ago, Richard Franck had returned from Loch Ness with strange tales of an object he likened to a floating island. He though it was a mass of vegetation being blown around the loch. The Puritans of his day were very much rationalists who spent much of their time debunking the supposed miracles of their nemesis, the Roman Catholic Church. It is no surprise therefore that this scepticism overflowed into explaining away strange sights at Loch Ness.

Richard Franck is the earliest example of a thread of scepticism towards the Loch Ness Monster that continues to this day. The other thread is the continuing belief in a strange creature in Loch Ness. That line can be traced back to Saint Columba but existed before it.

Will the two threads continue to draw out another 350 years from now? That wouldn't surprise me at all.







 

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.

Porpoises in Loch Ness?

It was assumed for a long time that seals never visited Loch Ness. However, it is now established that they do follow the salmon into the loch on rare occasions.

But what about the dolphins and porpoises that are a tourist attraction along the Moray Firth? Is it possible that they could get into Loch Ness? Until now, it was assumed this was a task too great and there was no record of such an event. Indeed, the only possibility was the famous attempt by the Robert Rines team to deploy a couple of equipped dolphins into the loch. This project never saw the light of day when one of the dolphins died.

However, some months back, Fortean Investigator, Paul Cropper sent me a clipping which suggested otherwise (Paul is a fan of the Australian Bigfoot called the Yowie). This small paragraph is from the London Daily Mail of the 16th September 1914 (click on all subsequent clippings for sharper images).

 

So we have the incredible sight of not one porpoise but a whole school of them swimming in Loch Ness! I forwarded Paul's find to Adrian Shine at the Loch Ness Centre in Drumnadrochit and he managed to find further details from the local archives. The first clipping from the Highland News of the 5th September tells us more about what was witnessed.

So we have eight or nine porpoises in Loch Ness. Now when I pondered on all this and the improbability of it, I wondered if the correspondent had actually seen the Loch Ness Monster in its multi-hump aspect? I mused that if there was a large beast in Loch Ness, it was more probable to see that than a school of porpoises! However, a second clipping from the 19th found by Adrian puts us back in the porpoise camp. This appears to be the original correspondent replying to someone who was incredulous of the whole event. Here we read how the familiar "blowing" activity of porpoises was observed (a habit never reported in monster reports).

The article continues to quote an as yet untraced article which speaks of a journalist going out to investigate the matter. Indeed, it seems our witness was as much believed as a modern day Nessie witness as the journalist concluded it was merely a shoal of fish skimming along the surface of the water.

So what do we make of this possibly unique event? The first is that so far we only seem to have one person claiming to have seen these animals. Considering the active surface life of porpoises, one would presume others must have seen them. This muddies the waters somewhat and (according to Adrian Shine) the Inverness Courier does not seem to have run the story.

Secondly, could it have been dolphins rather than porpoises? Now, how you can tell the difference between the two from distance is not clear to me but the porpoise has in its favour that they can be half the size of a Bottlenose dolphin and hence could negotiate a river spate into Loch Ness more easily. But whatever the species, it no lessens this remarkable event.

Thirdly, it may be asked whether there were any claimed stories about the Loch Ness Monster at that time (as told retrospectively by people after 1933)? There were actually two stories of something seen in 1914, but there were in July and I suspect may have been the same sighting.

All in all, it is a strange tale in its own right. Almost 100 years on, the implication is that there is a mass of porpoise skeletons lying at the bottom of Loch Ness somewhere, doubtless covered in silt by now.

How did they meet their end? Did they encounter the loch's most famous denizen and will such an event ever be witnessed again? It all adds to the lore and fascination of Scotland's most mysterious loch.

POSTSCRIPT

Adrian Shine sent me another clipping from the Northern Chronicle for the 16th September 1914 which adds one or two more details to this uniquely recorded event.

Loch Ness Trip Report April 2013

It was off to Loch Ness once more on the 12th April on what is becoming a regular Easter trip to the abode of the Loch Ness Monster. I was there for five days and have already covered some of the activities which were part of the "Nessie at 80" festivities. This article covers what I got up to at other times in the great pursuit of the monster (of which you see a representation below).

The three to four hour drive up to the loch from Edinburgh was pleasant enough and we even managed to avoid getting stuck behind tractors on the mainly single carriageway road. Arriving at Fort Augustus in the late afternoon, we turned into the camping site that is just beyond the old Monastery (which has been residential flats for some years now).

The campsite is cheap enough, but being a 100% born and bred Scotsman, one is always looking out for a better deal to save a pound or two. As it turns out, "wild camping" is allowed along many parts of the loch's shores. Apart from the obvious advantage of paying nothing, you are right up besides the loch and never far away from the action (whereas the campsite is a 5-10 minute walk from the loch shoreline).

In fact, whilst engaged in Nessie activities, I stumbled upon such a tent near Invermoriston on the shore beyond the roadside bushes and well out of sight. However, the disadvantage of such a camping tactic became clear as the beach was only really big enough to accommodate a one man tent. I had a bigger tent which would have no chance of being pitched in such a place.

There may be other wider spots but the other disadvantage is what happens if Nessie takes to land near your tent? Now I know the chances of this happening are very rare (one land sighting reported every four years) but you never know. One apocryphal tale from the 1970s tells of some teenagers camped out somewhere near Fort Augustus who heard loud animal noises outside their tent at night.

Not daring to poke their heads out to investigate (in case there was no heads to pull back in), the morning came and they discovered that the shrubbery around them was crushed. I mused to myself what I would have done in that situation.

The weather throughout the time was best described as mixed. Fortunately, the worst of the rain tended to confine itself to night time with occasional outbreaks during the days. The downside of that is the constant pitter patter of rain on the tent fabric which does not help a light sleeper such as myself! However, apart from some nice sunny spells, it was mainly a cloudy trip.

The first thing to do on the next full day was to install my trusty trap camera which stayed strapped to a tree for the duration of the trip. This time round, not too many pictures were triggered due to the relatively settled waters. The two pictures below show the different moods of the loch. Nessie being a water breather was not too inclined to make a surface appearance for the camera.

In regard to the elusiveness of a creature that does not primarily breath air and tends to haunt the sides and bottom of the loch, one calculation was on my mind. As I watched out over the vast expanse of the loch (below), I wondered what the odds were of being present at one of the sightings of the monster? Assuming a historical average of ten sightings per year, the odds came out at about 18,000 to 1 against if you were there for just one day looking at the loch for one hour.

Of course, there is a degree of simplification in all that but it reminded me that Monster Hunting was essentially a game with loaded dice. Even searching underwater in that inky darkness is no idle pursuit. Adding up the surface areas of the silted bottom and the rocky sides gives an area of over 5 million square meters. That is more than twice the size of my own city of Edinburgh. Imagine trying to find a randomly parked bus in Edinburgh at night in fog during a power cut and you get the general idea.

Apart from gazing at the loch, I like to do some investigation of old sightings. One place I returned to was Borlum Bay where Margaret Munro had her famous land sighting in 1934. I had noticed during Adrian Shine's presentation at the April Symposium that he thought she had only seen a seal.

With that in mind, I went back to the scene, did some measurements, took some photographs and came away thinking that explanation was not likely. I will present my thoughts on that at a later date. I also tracked down the place where this interesting photograph from 1992 was taken. Based on an investigation of the scene, I do not think it was a bird but then again monsters are not necessarily the explanation either. I have still to digest the pictures I took for another future article.

One final case to look into was the classic picture taken by F.C. Adams in 1934 (below). Not a lot is known about this picture and it tends to be dismissed as the dorsal fin of a dolphin. One thing I am sure of is that this is no dolphin and it was off to Urquhart Castle where the picture was allegedly taken according to a contemporary report of the time. This photo still has further light to be shed on it, but again, this awaits a future article.

I had not been to the castle for some years and certainly not since they redeveloped the area. However, in the interests of research I paid up and took the tour. Admittedly, they have done a good job on the site with the actual castle grounds being largely untouched. The film they showed was informative as were the various displays.

As I explored the various stony caverns that once functioned as rooms in a busy castle and I wondered what stories those past residents had to tell of strange sights on Loch Ness. I had a close look at the stones on display that were remnants of the final destruction of the place. I even imagined one showed a long necked creature rising from the centre right of the picture towards the centre (see picture below). Oh well, nice to imagine, but one wonders how such medieval inhabitants recorded such things since pen and paper were not exactly available or useable.

One highlight was a trip on Marcus Atkinson's high speed boat which forms part of the Cruise Loch Ness trips. Marcus is known for the strange sonar contact he got whilst one of their boats were idling in Urquhart Bay. These sleek boats can get up to 30 knots per hour and with some of the Symposium attendees, it was off on a fast hike to the Horseshoe Scree where we had a look at the sonar readings and hunted for goats on the hillside (we managed to spot one).

A mention must also be made of the exhibition at the Loch Ness Centre at Drumnadrochit. I had not been to this for a long time but I was there for a look around and it had been upgraded. Adrian's stamp is very much on the exhibition with a mix of science, history and monsters and a look at his favourite sturgeon. However, an annexe had been added which covered various events such as the retrieval of the Wellington bomber and a very nice exhibit which had audio-visual presentations of witnesses to famous Nessie sightings giving their own personal accounts such as Alastair Boyd, Ian Cameron, Father Brussey and Winifred Carey and so on. There is nothing like hearing the original witness give their own account of what they saw.

However, when all was said and done, it was nice to get a picture of at least one long necked creature swimming on the loch. I look forward to my next trip later in the Summer!