A Loch Ness Road-Trip
Posted by: Nick Redfern on May 10th, 2013
Glasgow Boy provides us with an insightful and entertaining report on his recent trip to Loch Ness, Scotland. It begins as follows:
“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…
“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…”
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
A campsite “never far away from the action…”?? What action is that, the movement of the waves upon the shore? Why do people still bother with the Loch Ness Monster now that the famous Surgeon’s Photo is an acknowledged hoax and sonar searches of the lake reveal nothing large living in it?
I find it less than plausible that all of the sasquatch sightings can be blamed upon confusion with a bear standing upright, given that such a bear’s profile narrows on the top half of its body (see photos in Sasquatch Legend Meets Science) and most reports of bigfoot refer to a very broad-shouldered creature. However, I think that probably all of the sightings in the past half century of Nessie can easily and accurately be explained as a) wave action; b) partially submerged logs; c) large waterfowl swimming and diving in the loch; or d) some larger non-cryptid animal such as a sturgeon or seal swimming in the loch.
A suggestion for those who are visiting the United Kingdom and are thinking of fitting in a portion of the trip to Scotland: few Americans visit Great Britain and talk about going to the western portion of the island, but there are many places in Wales that are far more beautiful, picturesque, and scenic than any place in Scotland. The Welsh castles are more impressive than the Scottish ones and there is a much more varied countryside than in Scotland. There’s no Nessie in Wales, but if you can pass on taking a few photos of Urquhart Castle, I think you’d have a more memorable visit to Wales than to Scotland.
Disclaimer: none of my ancestors are from any part of the UK, so I have no family ties to Wales. I’ve just visited both areas several times and found Wales far more memorable.
Of course, I disagree that the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster boils down to mere birds, logs and waves. Far too simplistic.
But the simple explanation is usually the correct one.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t there been at least one full length sonar sweep of the loch that showed no evidence of any large creatures in it?
Please, use your common sense. One reasonably large lake is not sufficiently sized to contain a breeding population of creatures that are at least the size of a small whale.
There’s definitely strong evidence of sasquatch that cannot all be explained by misidentification. But there is no credible evidence at all of Nessie – your best “proof,” the Surgeon’s Photo, has been conclusively shown to be a hoax.