60 Fun Facts About Loch Ness Monster

Which village sits at the south-western end of Loch Ness?

The northern end lies about 10 km south-west of Inverness.

What is the monster's name in Scottish Gaelic, the equivalent of its English nickname?

The affectionate English nickname has been in use since the 1940s.

In which year did the Loch Ness Monster first come to worldwide attention?

A newspaper report in May and the Spicers' road sighting in July set off the frenzy.

Which Irish monk is said to have confronted a 'water beast' in the River Ness in 565?

The story appears in Adomnán's Life of St Columba, written about a century later.

How did the monk stop the beast, according to Adomnán?

The creature fled as if pulled back with ropes.

Which newspaper's 2 May 1933 article about a 'whale-like fish' kicked off modern interest?

It was written by the loch's water bailiff, who was also a part-time journalist.

Who was the water bailiff and part-time journalist credited with first applying the word 'monster'?

Some reports credit the editor Evan Barron with coining it instead.

Aldie Mackay, whose April 1933 sighting was the subject of that article, was doing what at the time?

She reportedly yelled 'Stop! The Beast!'

What did George Spicer and his wife claim to see on 22 July 1933?

He described a long wavy neck and called it the nearest approach to a dragon he had ever seen.

The first alleged photo of the monster, taken by Hugh Gray in 1933, is suspected to show what?

Lantern slides from the negative later appeared to show an otter rolling at the surface.

Arthur Grant, who nearly hit the creature on his motorcycle in January 1934, was a student of what?

He described it as a cross between a seal and a plesiosaur.

The famous 'Surgeon's Photograph' of 1934 is attributed to what kind of doctor?

Robert Kenneth Wilson was a London gynaecologist who enjoyed a good practical joke.

Which newspaper bought exclusive rights to the Surgeon's Photograph in April 1934?

The same paper had earlier ridiculed a big-game hunter it employed over some fake footprints.

What was the 'monster' in the Surgeon's Photograph really?

Christian Spurling admitted the hoax in 1991; the sub was bought at Woolworth's.

Which big-game hunter masterminded the Surgeon's Photograph hoax as revenge on his newspaper employer?

He had been publicly ridiculed after his 'Nessie footprints' turned out to be a hoax.

What animal made the 'Nessie footprints' Wetherell found in the 1930s?

A prankster had used a hippo-foot umbrella stand.

What happened to the model used in the Surgeon's Photograph?

Wetherell sank it with his foot, and it is presumably still down there.

In what year did the toy-submarine hoax become widely accepted, after a book and confession?

A 1975 Sunday Telegraph article had called it fake but was largely forgotten.

Chief Constable William Fraser wrote in 1938 that he doubted he could protect the monster from what?

The letter was released by the National Archives of Scotland in 2010.

What did aeronautical engineer Tim Dinsdale film in 1960?

Later analysis suggests he most likely filmed a boat in poor light.

What Latin name did Sir Peter Scott give the creature in 1975?

It means Ness inhabitant with diamond-shaped fin, and was meant to get it legally protected.

Nicholas Fairbairn noted the creature's 1975 Latin name is an anagram of what?

Rines replied that the letters could also be rearranged into a rebuttal.

What did the 1977 'Loch Ness Muppet' photographer, magician Doc Shiels, claim the creature was?

The picture's lack of ripples and translucent look got it declared a hoax.

Which encyclopaedia gave the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau a $20,000 grant in 1967?

The bureau's cameras covered about 80% of the loch surface from laybys.

How many boats swept the loch with echo sounders in Operation Deepscan in 1987?

Adrian Shine speculated that some contacts might be seals that had entered the loch.

How many sonar beams did the BBC's 2003 search use?

It could spot a small buoy but found no large animal, and the scientists called the monster a myth.

What kind of DNA turned up in abundance in the 2018 survey of Loch Ness?

Prof Neil Gemmell said he could not rule out eels of extreme size.

Which university led the 2018 DNA survey?

Researchers from Copenhagen, Hull and the Highlands and Islands took part too.

What was 'Lucy', which prompted about 600 reported sightings in 2004?

Lucy sank to the bottom of the loch at one point.

According to palaeontologist Leslie Noè, why could the monster not be a plesiosaur?

There is also too little plankton in the loch to feed a family of them.

Which fish did long-time watcher Steve Feltham suggest in 2015 might explain the monster?

His decades-long vigil at the loch was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records.

Swedish naturalist Bengt Sjögren linked lake-monster beliefs to which Scottish water spirit?

He argued the horse-like legends kept children away from lochs and later morphed into plesiosaurs.

What did Gerald McSorely find in 2003 after tripping and falling into the loch?

Examination showed the 'Nessie fossil' had been placed there deliberately.

Skipper George Edwards admitted in 2013 that his 2011 photo showed what?

He insisted his earlier 1986 photograph was genuine.

Which mapping service showed a 30-metre 'creature' near the loch's north end in 2014?

Explanations included a boat wake with the boat lost in image stitching.

What was the underwater microphone recording during the 2023 90th-anniversary search probably picking up?

Sonar, thermal drones and hydrophones were deployed, but no conclusive sightings resulted.

What is the deepest point of Loch Ness?

That makes it the second-deepest loch in Scotland after Loch Morar.

Loch Ness contains more water than what?

Its depth makes it the largest loch by volume in the British Isles.

Which body of water beats Loch Ness for surface area, the only one in Scotland to do so?

Loch Ness covers 56 square kilometres.

Loch Ness lies along which geological line of weakness?

Glacial erosion carved the Great Glen and the basins of Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and Loch Ness.

Why is visibility in Loch Ness exceptionally low?

The murk has frustrated underwater cameras for decades.

Loch Ness forms part of which waterway linking Inverness with the coast near Fort William?

Only a third of its 60 miles is man-made; the rest is lochs.

Approximately how long is Loch Ness?

It runs from Fort Augustus in the south-west towards Inverness in the north-east.

A 2016 survey claimed to find a 271-metre crevice in the loch. What was it really?

The loch's true maximum depth remains 230 metres.

Which village on Loch Ness's western shore is home to the Loch Ness Centre?

The A82 between Inverness and Fort William passes through it.

What does the name of the River Ness, from which the loch takes its name, probably mean?

A legend instead has villagers crying 'There's a loch now!' after an enchanted well overflowed.

What kind of feature is Cherry Island, the only one of its kind in Loch Ness?

A second, natural island, Dog Island, was submerged when the water level rose.

Which engineer built the early 19th-century canal of which Loch Ness forms a part?

Only a third of the 60-mile route is man-made; the rest is lochs.

By roughly how much was Loch Ness's surface raised when the canal was built?

Its surface now sits 16 metres above sea level.

Which is the only Scottish body of fresh water deeper than Ness?

Loch Ness is second-deepest but holds the greatest volume of any loch in Britain.

Urquhart Castle on the loch's western shore was partially destroyed in 1692 to stop whom using it?

It had been granted to Clan Grant in 1509 and is now among Scotland's most visited castles.

What ditched in Loch Ness on New Year's Eve 1939 and was raised again in 1985?

Monster-hunters using sonar rediscovered it in 1976; it is now at Brooklands Museum.

Who died on Loch Ness in 1952 attempting the water speed record in his boat Crusader?

BBC reporters on site recorded the accident; a memorial stands nearby.

Which swimmer abandoned a record non-stop swim in Loch Ness in 2022 after 52 hours?

Cellulitis and hypothermia forced him out; Brenda Sherratt first swam the length in 1966.

Loch Ness is the lower reservoir of which 300 MW pumped-storage hydro scheme opened in 1975?

Several new pumped-storage schemes using the loch have been proposed since 2021.

What did a 2007 sonar survey find at 98 m down, nicknamed after the loch?

Researchers dubbed it the 'Loch Ness Toad'.

What distinction does the loch's northern-shore lifeboat crew hold?

It is staffed by volunteers with an inshore lifeboat.

Which science writer obtained G. E. Taylor's 1938 colour film and never showed it to other researchers?

Burton also identified Hugh Gray's 1933 photo as an otter rolling at the surface.

Robert Rines, whose 1972 underwater photos seemed to show a rhomboid flipper, led a team from which organisation?

Team member Charles Wyckoff later said the flipper photos had been retouched.

Where did the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau keep a caravan camp and viewing platform from 1965 to 1972?

The bureau, founded in 1962, disbanded in 1972.