general
One of the world's most well-known cryptids, the Loch Ness Monster, also affectionately known as "Nessie", inhabits a lake in the north-central area of the Scottish Highlands. Most accounts of the Loch Ness Monster report the creature submerged or partially exposed in the water, but several also place the creature shuffling or wobbling across land. No popular reports exist of the Loch Ness Monster attacking people or exhibiting aggressive behavior.

Reports of the Loch Ness Monster date back hundreds of years; however, contemporary interest began in earnest when a road around the northern portion of the Loch Ness was constructed and traffic began passing in close view of the northern tip of the Loch.
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description/appearance
Accounts beginning in the twentieth century generally describe the Loch Ness Monster as a creature anywhere from six to sixty feet (1.8 -18m) with a long serpentine neck and horse-like head. In some accounts, the Loch Ness Monster also has a mane or a horn.

Of interest to historians and scientists alike is the sudden evolution of descriptions of the Loch Ness Monster. Prior to the twentieth century, the creature was more often described as a sea-serpent or a water horse. This was perhaps owing to the common lore of the day regarding sea serpents and kelpies, kelpies being malicious water spirits that would carry people to their deaths at the center of deep waters.

As awareness and knowledge of dinosaurs emerged, so too did more distinct descriptions of a plesiosaur-type creature, that is, an extinct water-dwelling reptile with a long neck, small head, four flippers, and a long tapering tail.
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range/habitat
While mysterious lake creatures are reported from many countries and regions, the Loch Ness Monster hails from the region of her namesake, the Loch Ness of northern Scotland. The Loch Ness Monster has never been reported elsewhere, creatures of similar description in other bodies of water being typically named for that body of water. "Loch" is the Scottish word for "lake" and Ness is the particular lake in which the Loch Ness Monster has been witnessed for ages.

Loch Ness is an extremely long and narrow body of water, spanning approximately 21 miles (12.6km) in length and nearly a mile (1.6km) wide. Being second in depth only to the Loch Morar, the Loch Ness boasts the greatest volume of water of any in Great Britain. At its deepest, the Loch Ness is 750 feet (228m) deep. Compared to the lakes of the world, this is not terribly deep.

The Loch Ness is situated roughly eight miles (12.9km) southwest of the port city of Inverness on the Moray Firth (an inlet of the North Sea). The Loch Ness is connected on its northern end to Moray Firth by the River Ness. The River Oich on the southern end of Loch Ness connects it to the smaller Loch Oich.

The Loch Ness is now known to team with fish life and other smaller organisms, so much so that the once ridiculed concept of the Loch Ness being home to a breeding population of larger creatures is now more palatable to researchers. Seals have also been observed in the loch though they are considered a transient species and not thought to make their permanent home there.

While sightings have occurred at many places around the loch, a common point of sightings seems to be Abriachan, a small township on the west of Loch Ness.
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history/origin
Many who have heard the story of Saint Columba and the terrifying monster of the Loch Ness, set in A.D. 565, believe this may be one of the first recorded encounters with the Loch Ness Monster; however, this tale is vague at best and gives no true description of the creature the saint frightened away. It also seems that Saint Columba had a knack for tangling with large monsters of the murky depths as he also foretold of a giant whale that, when mouth opened, 'was bristling with teeth'.

The contemporary love affair with the Loch Ness Monster began in the early 1930s when construction of a road expansion on the northern portion of the loch was completed, allowing motor traffic a fresh view of the elongated lake.
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timeline/major sightings
Tales of holy saints aside, it was the early twentieth century that brought about a worldwide familiarity of the Loch Ness Monster. Below is a very brief and incomplete look at some of the more substantial sightings of the Loch Ness Monster over the past century and a half.

October 8, 1868: The Inverness Courier reported a known hoax purported by fisherman. The fishermen had deposited the carcass of a whale on the beach of the loch to fool local shore-folk.

October, 1871 (possibly 1872): D. Mackenzie witnessed something akin to an over-turned boat thrashing in the loch.

August, 1930: The Northern Chronicle reports that a group of fishermen witnessed a large disturbance in the water of the loch caused by a huge creature.

April 14, 1933: A couple driving along the northwestern loch road witnessed an enormous creature rolling and plunging. This story is printed a short while later in the Inverness Courier and the mention is made of a "monster" in the Loch Ness.

April, 1934: The famous "Surgeon's photo" of the Loch Ness Monster is taken by physician Robert K. Wilson.

July, 1933: The Spicers witnessed a twenty-five to thirty foot (m) long creature akin to a snail with a long neck trundle from roadside bushes into the loch.

January, 1934: While motorcycle riding, W. Arthur Grant claimed to have nearly hit a creature he described as a large blob with a small snake or eel-like head.

October, 2005: R. Girvan photographed a silvery dark-green creature the with a four foot (m) tall neck.

July 14, 1937: Three creatures, one very large and two significantly smaller, were spotted 300 yards (m) away in the loch by eight witnesses.

April, 1932: Colonel L. McP. Fordyce followed on foot a freakish creature described as a cross between a horse and a camel with a small head on a long neck and the gait of an elephant. The creature was heading for water and, as the Colonel followed it, appeared to be shaggy with long thin legs.

November 13, 1933: Hugh Gray captures the first photograph of the Loch Ness Monster on the southeast shore of the loch. The photograph seems to depict a long eel-like creature moving enough to blur its image while the relatively calm water surrounding it is in-focus.

April 23, 1960: Tim Dinsdale, a Loch Ness Monster investigator, recorded four minutes of grainy film depicting a dark shape moving across the water's surface.

August 7, 1972: Underwater images of what may be the fin of a large creature are captured by investigators from the Academy of Applied Science and the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau.

June 20, 1975: More underwater images captured by the Academy of Applied Science show what may be the upper torso, neck, and horse-like head of a creature in the Loch.

January 3, 2000: During a picnic, Melvin Hughes and family, from the distance of one half mile (0.8km), observed a dark head and neck emerge from the Loch.

May 16, 2000: While out walking, Jonathon Whitehead witnessed the neck and head of a creature protruding from the water in Urquhart Bay.

May 5, 2001: James Grey photographed the head and neck of a creature 100 feet (30m) from his boat near Invermoriston Bay.

May 23, 2003: Coastguard Skipper George Edwards witnessed a dark grey creature, six feet (1.8m) in length, rise eighteen inches (.45m) out of the water.

September 9, 2005: Neil McKenzie and Kelly Yeats watched the creature for ten full minutes while staying at Foyer's Bay House.

October 15, 2005: Robbie Girvan captured five photographs of the neck and head of the Loch Ness Monster while walking his dog.
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suspected hoaxes
With tremendous popularity comes the propensity for fraud. Many people have perpetuated hoaxes in the name of the Loch Ness Monster, some for fame, some fortune, and others for the pure fun of it. Below is an overview of some of the more celebrated instances of hoaxing (and perhaps hoaxed hoaxes).

1934: Marmaduke Weatherill, a big game hunter, reported large footprints in the mud which were later revealed to have been made with a hippopotamus umbrella stand.

1951: Lachlan Stuart photographed three bails of hay in shallow Loch waters.

1955: Peter McNab doctored a photograph taken near Urquhart Castle.

1969-1985: Frank Searle captured and doctored several images of waves, trees, and
other items, eventually pasting images of dinosaurs directly into his photographs of the Loch.

1972: An underwater photograph taken by the Academy of Applied Science is alleged to have been heavily doctored; there is considerable dispute regarding the amount of enhancement this photograph underwent.

1994: Christian Spurling, step-son of Marmaduke Weatherall, made a deathbed confession to the hoaxing of the famous "Suregeon's Photo" taken by Colonel Robert K. Wilson in 1933. Allegedly, Weatherall's ego was bruised enough by his footprint report turned hoax that he created his own hoax. Many argue that this confession is itself a ruse.

2001: Two large deceased conger eels were placed on the shore of the loch feigning to Loch Ness Monster young, but are thought to be a deception as conger eels are saltwater creatures and could not survive in the fresh water of the Loch.

2003: Gerald McSorley stumbled across the fossil of a plesiosaur vertebrae in Loch Ness. Containing marine sediment, the fossil had been transported to the Loch as a hoax.

2004: The documentary team for a British show, Five, created a large animatronic Loch Ness Monster.

2005: Two American students performed a publicity stunt for the novel The Loch, attempting to pass off a muntjac antler hey found in the carcass of a deer as a tooth from the Loch Ness Monster.
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proposed explanations
Outside of the possibility that the Loch Ness Monster is a hitherto unknown species of water-dwelling dragon, there are many possible explanations for the Loch Ness Monster. Some theories as to the Loch Ness Monster's true nature register as relic animals, while others involve the misidentification of known animals, and still others exclude animals completely.

Within the past hundred years, the knowledge of extinct dinosaur species has garnered the notion that the Loch Ness Monster may be a relic dinosaur, namely the aquatic reptilian plesiosaur. While many accounts of the Loch Ness Monster fit this description very well and the Loch could easily support a breeding population of surviving plesiosaurs, the plesiosaur was an air-breathing creature and would need to surface at least once an hour to breathe. Though not completely impossible, this would mean that a creature, or creatures, poking a head above water every hour would result in even more sightings than do currently occur.

Other reports of the Loch Ness Monster describe aquatic behavior of known creatures, behavior such as splashing, thrashing, and wakes. It is possible that visiting seals or large otters are the source of many sightings.

Theories also include derivations of known animals, such as giant eels. Large eel species do exist, some even in the North Sea, and can grow in excess of ten feet (3m); however, they are a marine fish and cannot survive in a fresh water environment such as the Loch Ness. Giant otters or seals with longer than normal necks have also been suggested, but both of these animals would likely be witnessed on shore as well.

Surprisingly, elephants have also been proposed as an explanation for Loch Ness Monster sightings. It seems that in the early 30s, a traveling circus was touring the area around the Loch Ness and the animal handler allowed the pachyderms some play time in the water. A swimming elephant does make for an excellent lake monster with its extended trunk, partially exposed head, and hump of a back, but this explanation does little to explain the continuous sightings for the past eighty years.

Inanimate objects grown animate are also in a skeptic's repertoire. When lakeside trees fall dead into the Loch, a pitchy residue forms, trapping gasses from decomposition inside. When these gasses eventually erupt, it can propel a buoyant log through the Loch at impressive speeds. The Loch has also been the receiver of its share of rubbish over the decades, and some items floating near the surface or even on the bottom may have been misidentified by photographers.

The possibility that the Loch Ness Monster is something completely unknown to man should not be ruled out. Many witness accounts, particularly those taking place on land refer to the Loch Ness Monster as being a bizarre composite of known animals, or best described by those terms. The ancient Scots also believed in a malevolent spirit known as a Kelpie, or water horse. This spirit-creature could take the form of a large and powerful horse awaiting a rider by the shores of a loch, only to ride them to their watery death if mounted. It may be pure coincidence that reports both ancient and contemporary describe the Loch Ness Monster to have a horse-like face.
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influence on culture
Enjoying notoriety around the globe, the Loch Ness Monster has caused a tremendous effect on culture. Since the 1930's, the Loch Ness Monster has been popular fare, permeating all forms of contemporary media and culture including newspaper and magazine articles, books, movies, music, websites, and festivals. There even exists a website focusing on Scotland's culture of which the Loch Ness Monster features notably (see bibliography).

A quick tour of ebay reveals a horde of products and toys dedicated to the Loch Ness Monster, from beanie Babies to a submergible remote control monster.

The Loch Ness Monster still continues to make headlines, even in unexpected places as New York in the form of trash bag art (http://olbermann.org/ko/video_detail.cfm?id=7619)

The Loch Ness Monster has become such a common term that the Loch itself has lost its identity to a great degree from that of the cryptid. Mentioning Loch Ness in conversation will generally conjure the image of the Loch Ness Monster before images of the loch itself. The people of Loch Ness have dealt with this fused identification well, bolstering tourist revenue through sightseeing tours and Loch Ness Monster festivals.

Several books, both contemporary and historical, have been written either about the Loch Ness Monster directly, or in which the Loch Ness Monster is featured. The Loch Ness Monster has even made a prominent appearance, alongside a fanciful explanation, in popular author J. K. Rowling's work, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The Loch Ness Monster may also have been depicted in several sculpted stones called Pictish stones after the people that carved them in medieval times.
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