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Nessie's 75th Birthday

The Loch Ness Monster, aka Niseag, aka Nessie, celebrated its 75th birthday this year without a great deal of fanfare. But after the enigmatic entity first hit the headlines in 1933, are we really any wiser to what the creature actually is?

The Vita Columbae, written by Saint Adomnan of Iona, is often said to contain the earliest mention of our favourite lake monster. Adomnan documented how Saint Columba, travelling around the region in AD 565, bore witness to a 'ferocious monster' attacking a Pict (a tribesman indigenous to the region) who was trying to cross a body of water. Columba invoked the name and signs of God, terrifying the water monster which then fled the area. Several problems arise when trying to link Nessie to this account. The geography is slightly wrong, the story taking place along the River Ness and not Loch Ness, and Nessie's typically shy profile is at odds with Adomnan account. Finally, Columba is also said to have encountered and fought off many other fantastic creatures, suggesting that events attributed to him may be slightly exaggerated or complete metaphor.

The River Ness

Fourteen centuries pass, mostly without incident, until 1933. Driving along a newly finished road running by the loch, Mr and Mrs Spicer encountered a 'prehistoric' creature crossing a short distance ahead of them. Newspapers were quick to pick up the story, covering George Spicer's claim that the creature he and his wife had spotted was around eleven metres in length, with a thick body and long neck. The creature disappeared quietly into the water, the only evidence of its passing being a gap in the undergrowth. From the Spicer's dramatic story, the public consciousness was hooked, and sightings of Nessie have been reported every year since.

Making the assumption that Nessie is not an ongoing hoax by various people, nor a misidentified animal or inanimate object, what is it? While the plesiosaur has been named as the monster, there are too many problems with this theory, including the requirement of a large food supply, the likelihood that plesiosaurs were cold blooded, and skeletal analysis of fossil plesiosaurs is highly suggestive that the creature could not lift its neck out of the water like many witnesses suggest Nessie can do. Author Rupert Thomas Gould suggested that Nessie could be a long necked newt, though it would be many times larger than any known amphibian, while others have theorised a huge eel is responsible for the sightings.

Loch Ness

Many high profile photographs and video recordings have been taken of Nessie, though all have either failed to stand up to scrutiny or provide the definitive evidence of the monster's existence. But is this really a problem? If we discovered solid, tangible evidence that an unknown, physical creature existed within Loch Ness, how long before it was captured, catalogued and caged 'for its own protection'? The thrill of the chase is in the hunt, and if Nessie was ever caught, many of us would have a bitter taste in our mouths for years to come.

Dates for the Paranormal Diary
A phantom black coach is said to appear during the run up to Christmas along Bell Lane in Enfield. The vehicle flies two metres off the ground, where the road once ran, and contains several ghostly passengers.

December also brings out the ghosts in two castles. Bramber Castle, Steyning (Sussex), is home to the phantom screams and cries of Maude of Ditching - her lover was bricked up alive in the dungeon after being discovered by Maude's husband. At Ellistoun Castle, Renfrewshire, a horseman with a skull for a face drives his steed to gallop furiously along muddy paths before disappearing into a waterfall.

Darren Mann
www.paranormaldatabase.com