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Scottish Loch Monsters

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gerardwilkie

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Everyone knows about the monsters in Loch Ness and Loch Morar , but here in Scotland many more lochs have a reputation for having unknown creatures dwelling in their depths . Recently there have been sightings around Duck Bay on Loch Lomond of a 'crocodile' type creature . Other lochs such as Loch Awe , Loch Linnhe and Loch Fyne have a lot of stories about these creatures . There area few that fascinate me , which I feel need further research i.e 1-The creatures seen at the bottom of Loch Treig by a government diver (who never dived again after that) , 2-the creature washed up on the Clyde near Greenock during WWII (it decomposed and was buried under a football field before a zoologist could examine it and 3-the creature shot by sailors in Loch Fyne , near Inveraray towards the end of the nineteenth century .Any information on these events and other similiar tales will be most interesting.
 
What about Loch Insh? Does anyone know if there are supposed to be any monsters in this location/
 
I've been to and stayed at Loch Insch several times and nobody's ever mentioned it.
 
Ireland has it's fair share of lough monster reports.
 
JerryB said:
Ireland has it's fair share of lough monster reports.
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A good book, with an interesting theory, about Irish dragons, water horses, or whatever you want to call them, is Ted Holiday's The Dragon and the Disc. The first couple of chapters are devoted to his hunt for the creatures in the various Irish swamps. A really entertaining 'travel diary', with some excellent background history of these Irish monsters, if you're looking for more source material on the subject. Highly recommended.

Polterdog.
 
Hey RuffReady, thats a great site, thanks! Plenty of interesting stuff there!

I might have to take a closer look at Loch Shiel next time I go up that way....Certainly never heard of a moster tradition with it before.
 
Interesting that(nearly) all lake monster reports are from the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (except that lake in Turkey,who's name escapes me at the moment !).Could there be a reason for this?.
 
Bullseye said:
Interesting that(nearly) all lake monster reports are from the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (except that lake in Turkey,who's name escapes me at the moment !).Could there be a reason for this?.
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I do remember reading years ago that virtually all Lake monster sightings in the northern hemishpere are between two degrees of latitide in particular - I can't remember which though...or where I read it.. :cry:
 
Perhaps there are more deep lakes the further north you go (due to withdrawing glaciers)...
 
Wish I could remember the stuff I saw on the formation of the Great Glen, and Loch Ness, but I suspect the lattitude does have an impact on the type of lake where monsters are found. As Taras says, this is at least partly due to glacial activity, as they help form the long, narrow, deep lakes usually associated with monster activity. (IIRC, that is. Or I may have missed more recent research on the subject.)

Another factor, I think, is tectonic activity, with plates pushing up against eachother and pulling away from one another.

Given these factors, though, one might expect the right type of lakes to form in New Zealand, or maybe Argentina and other high lattitude areas in the Southern Hemisphere. Anyone know anything about Kiwi Lake Monsters?
 
David Plankton said:
This is a good one for Irish lough monsters,

http://www.mysteryanimalsofireland.com/Homepage.htm

I wonder, are there any such traditions from the English Lake District?
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I've just had a quick look through my copy of "The Folklore of the Lake District" all that's in there is a tale about two immortal fish in Bowscale Tarn. Though I can remember being told that there was a tale about a giant pike in Windermere (I think there was a film made in the late '70s early '80s) it's all rather hazy I'm afraid.
 
Bullseye wrote about a lake in Turkey which has a monster. I used to live in Turkey and i think he is talking about Lake Van , in eastern Turkey . There were reports of a lake monster and a short film was shown on the main Turkish news programme showing a mystery creature swimming in the lake . This was debunked shortly afterwards when photographic analysis proved the creature to be a deer .

As for the question of latitude , it might be a valid point , but we have to bear in mind that these creatures are still virtually unknown to us , and we have reports coming from all over the world , for example , Australia has the bunyip , whose sightings are quite similiar to those of Nessie , Morag and the like . Also , we must remember creatures such as mokele mbembe .
 
on the subject of Morag (to use colloquoial name for whatever may inhabit L Morar) does anyone else remember an edition of Blue Peter from the early 80s where a film was shown of "something" swimming in that loch? Not sure whether any conclusions were ever drawn from this and don;t think whatever it was looked like the typical sea serpent, many humped sighting..

As I recall, the water in L Morar (unlike at L Ness) is comparatively clear because of the lack of peat particles so the shape of the thing was quite distinct
 
Nice view of Loch Awe here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/10/pictures-day-10-march-2017/


The Loch Awe Monster is a lake monster believed to live in Loch Awe. Loch Awe is the third largest loch in Scotland, with a surface area of 38.5 square kilometres (14.9 sq mi). It is the longest freshwater loch in Scotland, measuring 41 kilometres (25 mi). It is renowned for its trout fishing.

Description
This monster is described to be a gigantic eel reaching 11 feet or more in length. This monster is so strong that during winter it can break ice in the surface.

Sightings
One of the few written accounts of this serpent-like creature was documented by a man named Timothy Pont, who chronicled these gigantic eels, as he called them. They allegedly frightened the majority of fishermen away from the loch. Pont described these eels as being the girth of a horse and reaching incredible lengths.

http://cryptidz.wikia.com/wiki/Loch_Awe_Monster
 
Just been reading about the Greenock monster. The absence of bones apart from the skull and jaws suggests it was a huge shark. The soft tissue would be long gone by now, but would be interesting if they could unearth those jaws.
 
rynner2 said:
Nice view of Loch Awe here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/10/pictures-day-10-march-2017/


The Loch Awe Monster is a lake monster believed to live in Loch Awe. Loch Awe is the third largest loch in Scotland, with a surface area of 38.5 square kilometres (14.9 sq mi). It is the longest freshwater loch in Scotland, measuring 41 kilometres (25 mi). It is renowned for its trout fishing.

Description
This monster is described to be a gigantic eel reaching 11 feet or more in length. This monster is so strong that during winter it can break ice in the surface.

Sightings
One of the few written accounts of this serpent-like creature was documented by a man named Timothy Pont, who chronicled these gigantic eels, as he called them. They allegedly frightened the majority of fishermen away from the loch. Pont described these eels as being the girth of a horse and reaching incredible lengths.

http://cryptidz.wikia.com/wiki/Loch_Awe_Monster
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I'm kind of hopeful that some kind of eunuch eel or a species of large eel might be out there. Loch Awe is comparatively shallow and seems to me like a better habitat for a very large eel. If I lived there, I'd fish for it...
 
what would you use for bait Coal? she said, backing away nervously. :omg:
 
Coal said:
Something else indigenous to the lake and VERY strong tackle. Plus video on all the time....:ness:
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...seriously though, if I was looking for it, I'd treat it as an eel fishing expedition. There a number of serious eel-fishing books and I'd read those (again). Also, a predator that size, even if a loner, would need a lot of food. A useful piece of circumstantial evidence might the water-bird population density in comparison with similar lakes. One large catfish will eradicate a lot of the typical fauna, a huge eel thing might also.

I'd also be fishing with large baits, say 3-4lb pike or trout as a dead-bait. It's an assumption, but an eel can home in on a bait from ridiculous ranges. A dead smelly stationary bait in a likely hunting ground would be almost inevitably taken I'd have thought if you fished steadily over a year (if the pike don't get the bait first). Certainly an animal that size with its energy needs wouldn't often pass up on a free 4lb protein pack.

In fact, a carefully planned and researched campaign (including a lot of fishing over a period of months) would contact the eel almost certainly I'd have thought. If it was there.

Then you've got to land one of the harder fighting and strongest fish around, plus one that has a reputation for severing wire traces even in the 4-6lb range...

Piece of cake. :ness::truce:
 
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