Loch Ness Monster: Nessie!

Scotland is home to the famed Loch ness a place of grate beauty, and mystery. The rolling hills around the lake are peaceful and serene but some say that the loch has a darker side. Many reports have surfaced suggesting a monster dwells within the loch and this great beast has a mane Nessie is the loch ness monster. Some parts of the loch are so deep the exact depth is unable to be measured. This might make for a great hiding place for a creature like Nessie. For a short time people would not come forward with their sightings of the monsters fearing the prospect of ridicule and people thinking it was a hoax but over the past one hundred years reports of the great beast have flow into public view, and so our fascination with the Loch Ness monster has grown.

Stories of Nessie were just local legends and folk lore but the first known recorded sighting of the monster was in 1871. The legend remained only local knowledge until construction of a new rod near Loch Ness was put into progress. A few workers had spotted a creature swimming in the Loch that they could not identify but the most impressive sighting and the first official on record by a Mr. and Mrs. Spicer on July 22 1933. They had to stop their car because in front of them was a larger then life animal, an enormous beast with a long neck. They saw it move through the woods and down towards the loch.

Many people have reported seeing Nessie on the rode rather then just in the waters of the Loch including a motorcyclist who said he followed Nessie to the loch, however he was to slow. When he got to the lake side Nessie had completely vanished, all he could see was ripples in the water where something large had entered the lake, and he could only assume it was the mythical Loch Ness Monster. This to some people could prove their theory that Nessie lives in the woods around loch ness rather then the Lake. This is a popular theory but one that does not make a whole lot of sense to most patrons that visit the Loch. If it were true that Nessie lived in the woods it would stand to reason that there would be more physical evidence of her existence, a broken tree limb, downed trees, and even footprints would be left behind. There have been however many reports of footprints existing outside the loch and in the surrounding woods, most are thought to be a hoax, but then again we are dealing with a subject thought entirely to be a hoax, yet the legend is still as powerful today as it was hundreds of years ago

With the new rode built more people could travel and visit Loch Ness, because of the increased travel there have been more sightings from 1933 to date. Also the first picture of Loch Nesses famed resident was taken during this time, the picture was taken by a Mr. Hugh Gray. When the picture was released to the public there was a huge response. Offers for the animal, alive or dead came from all over, even a circus wanted the animal and offered a large sum of money for anyone who could capture the alleged animal. Many photos of Nessie have come out, and most of them just look like a log floating in the water or an overturned boat but there are those that have come under fire by criticism and survived. A small percentage of photos taken of the Loch Ness monster have been authenticated and never explained further, adding to the mystery of the monster.

Many scientific expeditions have been sent to loch ness to find the ever elusive Nessie but no one has come up with any concrete evidence. Sonar scans of Loch Ness don't prove much but still there remains nothing to prove or disprove the existents of Nessie. The most credible and obtainable proof is the shear amount of people that claim to have seen Nessie from the 1870's to 2007 and there is no sign that these sightings will ever come to an end.

Divers have bin sent down to find the loch ness monster but the water in the loch makes it almost imposable to see. Cameras have been sent on many of the expeditions, man and unmanned to snap a shot of the elusive creature. Some photos have turned up that might be a source of definitive proof of the creatures existence, but can then again easily prove the existence of large Gar rather then an unknown creature. The water around the Loch is just too murky and unclear due to the piedmont in the lakes surrounding soil. The most impressive scientific test done to date surrounding the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster had scientist and volunteers set up on opposite shores of the lake. Boats were then used to scan the loch simultaneously with sonar, but nothing conclusive was ever brought to light.

By some accounts large objects have been detected by sonar at the deepest regions of the lake, these objects were unclear on sonar, but when returning with a dive team, these large objects have moved or disappeared. Many attribute this to the loch's strong underwater currents moving debris around the lakes bottom, or shipwrecks caught in the current, however these seem far fetched at best, then again so does the prospect of Nessie herself.

Popular theory suggests that nessie is Plesiosaurs, a kind of dinosaur left over from prehistoric times. Now how did it get to the loch in the first place? Well the idea is Loch Ness used to have a more broad opening to the Ocean or possibly a deep cave leading from the ocean to Loch Ness, both viable theories and facts state that Loch Ness had an opening to the ocean at one point, but due to erosion the opening has closed over thousands of years. You may be a believer in Nessie or not, but she is not the only creature of her kind to be spotted around the world, Lake Champlain has their very own version of Nessie, and better photos. This monster is known as "Champ" and the photos and descriptions that have been recorded are identical to that of Nessie. So next time your in Scotland, and you visit the famed loch, make sure you have a camera!