Loch Ness Monster — Cryptid Encyclopedia

Nessie is the world's most famous lake monster, said to inhabit the deep, dark waters of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. The loch itself is enormous — 23 miles long, over 700 feet deep, with water so dark with peat that visibility drops to zero within a few feet. If anything large wanted to hide, this would be the place.

The earliest recorded sighting dates to 565 AD, when the Irish monk St. Columba reportedly encountered a "water beast" in the River Ness. But the modern legend exploded in 1933, when a couple named Aldie and John Mackay reported seeing an enormous creature rolling and plunging in the loch. The Inverness Courier ran the story, and the world's obsession with Nessie began.

In April 1934, the famous "Surgeon's Photograph" was published — appearing to show a long-necked creature rising from the water. It became the defining image of the Loch Ness Monster for 60 years, until it was revealed as a hoax in 1994: a toy submarine fitted with a sculpted head, orchestrated by Marmaduke Wetherell as revenge against the Daily Mail.

Despite the hoax, over 300 sightings have been documented. Sonar sweeps have detected large, unexplained moving objects in the loch. DNA sampling in 2019 found no evidence of large unknown animals but did detect significant quantities of eel DNA, leading researchers to suggest Nessie may be an extraordinarily large eel.

"I saw an object of considerable dimensions, rising two or three feet out of the water." — Hugh Gray, who took the first photograph in 1933.