Loch Ness has been positioned for centuries as one of the most mysterious places in the world, mainly because of the supposed monster that lives there, whose legend has caused more mysteries to join it. From the ‘most perverse man in the world’, to tourists in search of the very principle of cryptozoology, they haunt Loch Ness.
Located in the Scottish Highlands 37 kilometers southwest of Inverness, Loch Ness is part of a large network of interconnected bodies of water that also includes the River Oich, the Caledonian Canal and Loch Dochfour. The main characteristic of these aqueous bodies is that their waters are especially dark due to the large amount of peat that resides in the nearby sediments.
It is for this reason that Loch Ness has left much to the imagination about the creatures that inhabit it. For centuries there has been a legend that says that a sea monster of colossal size lives there, which they have called Nessi, and this is the reason why the lake has gained great popularity among locals and tourists from all over the world.
What does the legend of Loch Ness say?
The first indications of the legend of Loch Ness appear in an ancient writing from the 7th century called ‘Life of Saint Columba’ (Vita Columbae). There it is said that in the year 565 Saint Columba, who was a prominent figure among the Gaelic missionary monks, saved a person who was supposedly being attacked by an unknown animal in the lake.
This is the first historical record of the presence of a strange animal that lives in the waters of the Scottish lake. However, no further details of Saint Columba’s victorious encounter are given and, on the contrary, many scholars question the credibility of the story, because there are other narratives about him that border on the fantastic. In them Saint Columba is described as having superhuman powers, there is even a story where it is said that the monk would have killed a wild man with the simple power of his voice.
Other stories have also been associated with the lake since ancient times and one of them is the one that tells of the creatures known as kelpies. The first inhabitants of the region believed that in the loch and other ponds in Scotland, there existed a spirit capable of changing shape. But the description of kelpies is not entirely consistent with Nessie, as they are often detailed as horses and even as humans.
The most famous photograph of Nessie
The legend of the lake remained suspended in history, coexisting with the belief in other fantastic creatures of the region, but there was no other formal record. That changed in 1868 when the legend resurfaced thanks to rumors that a large fish or other large creature lived in the lake.
It was not until 1933, when the modern legend was established again. This year, an article appeared in the local newspaper Inverness Courier, which referred to a creature similar to a whale but of enormous size, which caused the Ness to become agitated. Supposedly the editor at the time, Evan Barron, suggested that the narrative include the term ‘monster’ to refer to the sighting and this is how the modern legend of Loch Ness was born.
Later, in April 1934, a photograph supposedly taken by surgeon RK Wilson appeared showing the enormous creature with an elongated neck protruding from the waters of the lake. The photograph went around the world, reaffirming the legend of the monster they called Nessie. However, decades later in 1994, Marmaduke Wetherell’s son-in-law, silent film actor and director, claimed that it was the latter who took the photograph, falsifying the scene for the Daily Mail and that Wilson’s name was used solely to give credibility to the matter.
Cryptozoology and occultism
Although it has been clarified that the most famous photo of the lake showing the monster is fake, many have shown their obsession with the mystery around Ness. In fact, the lake has been crowned as the site par excellence to search for the cornerstone of cryptozoology. This is a pseudoscience that seeks to prove the existence of mythological and fantastic creatures such as Nessie or the Jeti, as well as verify that some animals proclaimed extinct continue to inhabit the planet, as would be the case of megalodons.
But despite the efforts of searchers, so far no evidence has been found that even opens up the mere possibility that any of these creatures exist, including the Loch Ness monster. In addition to this, cryptozoology is not the only one that has set its eyes on this region of Scotland, occultism and everything related to mystery has done so in the same way.
The famous occultist Aleister Crowley, known as the ‘most evil man in the world’ was also fascinated by the legend of Ness and took over a large mansion (Boleskine House) next to the lake where he practiced his Thelemite magic.
What has been found so far in Loch Ness?
As expected, there are many rumors about sightings in the large murky freshwater lake, however, until now there is no conclusive evidence to demonstrate the presence of any type of unusual creature.
Research has been done where the presence of different DNA has been analyzed and so far only genes from sheep, cows, deer, rabbits, birds and of course, humans have been found. But the DNA that has most attracted scientists is from a species that could well be confused with a monster, that of eels.
The eels live in Scottish rivers which they reach from the Sargasso Sea region in the Bahamas where they nest. They then travel about 5 thousand kilometers to the United Kingdom and enter the rivers and lakes of Scotland. Therefore, if a conclusion is to be made based on real events, it could be assumed that the sightings were actually eels.