Loch Tarff

In my new book, I explore the various "satellite" lochs around Loch Ness which had traditions of water horses, water bulls and kelpies. I recently covered one such body of water in Loch Duntelchaig (link) but another caught my eye as I drove past it on my summer trip to Loch Ness. I did not cover this loch in the book mainly because no written tradition exists - unless you are prepared to dig a bit deeper.

I am speaking of Loch Tarff which is on the south side of Loch Ness. You encounter it as you head north to Foyers on the B862. Having ascended the steepest incline around Loch Ness, you head downhill to a dip and the loch is on the left. I took this picture at the time.

There is nothing to recommend the mysterious about it apart from that general gloominess which descends on such lonely places under cloud. It was apparently used as a skating rink by the boys of Fort Augustus Abbey's school in decades past but not much more can be said about it apart from its name. The word "tarff" is a transliteration of the gaelic word "tarbh" meaning bull. This has significance because place names often have something to say about the place itself. In this instance I suggest that this place had a tradition of a water bull inhabiting its shallow depths (as other authors have suggested for "tarf" rivers or lochs).

Indeed, its maximum depth is about 90 feet (though the mean is 24 feet) and it is about 960 feet above sea level. Its dimensions are half a mile by about one third of a mile in a roughly triangular shape. Not a lot of space to sustain a Tarbh Uisge one may say but then again it is not alone in that attribute.

So I add it to the half dozen or so satellite kelpie lochs around Loch Ness. One final note concerns a river one encounters as they drive back down the hills to Fort Augustus. It is the similarly named River Tarff that empties into Borlum Bay beside Fort Augustus Abbey. This river begins its course further south in the Glendoe region and flows through Glen Tarff towards Loch Ness. The headwaters have been dammed to now form part of the Glendoe Reservoir for the Glendoe Hydro Power scheme. However, the waters of the river and loch Tarff are not directly connected.



One would presume that a river and loch of the same name and seperated by only a couple of miles would be related in folklore and perhaps they are but as yet I have found no evidence. It seems this small south eastern corner of Loch Ness has more of the Water Bull about it than the Water Horse. One wonders, did the local residents occasionally see the water bulls of Loch Ness head out of Loch Ness along this river and hence decided upon this name? After all, the River Ness and Garry are blocked by canal locks and other Loch Ness rivers rise quite steeply.

One can only speculate!

New Book on The Loch Ness Monster

A new book has just been published on the Loch Ness Monster entitled "The Water Horses of Loch Ness" by Roland Watson. The product can be viewed here in the USA and here for the UK.

The back cover gives us an introduction to the theme of the book:

"Back in the 1930s the Loch Ness Monster exploded onto the scene and sent tourists and journalists northwards in their droves to catch a glimpse of this new sensation. But before the Loch Ness Monster there was the Loch Ness Water Horse. Before Nessie there was An Niseag - a devilish creature of notoriety feared and talked about in hushed tones by local people and whom none would dare cross paths with.

Today people deny that any such creature ever existed or was known about before the media circus of the thirties began. But the literature of the time says “No” to this and this book sets out to prove the telling of a centuries old story.

In this new book, the landscape of the ancient and supernatural Highlands is surveyed and its most feared inhabitant of all – The Water Horse – is unveiled as well as the various haunts in which it lay in wait for its victims. The investigation then begins to home in on the “Each Uisge” of Loch Ness and discovers that its reputation preceded it then as it does now in the realm of lake monsters.

New stories of the Kelpie of Loch Ness are found and analysed as well as surprising parallels to how people reacted to the Water Horse then as they do now in disbelief, imagery and both modern and ancient folklore.

Finally, the old Highlanders’ belief in the supernatural origin of this beast is explore and that thread of belief is traced right through to the modern age with those who continue to think that there is more to the Loch Ness Water Horse than just flesh and blood."

Nessie watchers will be aware that the Loch Ness Monster is a phenomenon beginning in the 20th century and is 78 years old this year. However, the first report from the Inverness Courier on the 2nd May 1933 also looked back and wondered whether the Loch Ness Kelpie of old had made a comeback. Despite that, no more was made of this semi-mythical creature as the world began to speculate on what candidate from the animal world could explain the sightings.

The aim of this book is therefore to focus on the centuries prior to 1933 when the term "Loch Ness Monster" was unknown and the world's press was oblivious to the idea of a large creature in a remote Scottish loch. In that respect, the book has two approaches. The first is to prove there was a tradition of the Water Horse in Loch Ness prior to 1933 and to put it in the context of other such traditions throughout the Highlands.

The second is to recount the development of creature sightings that were seperate to the Water Horse lore yet increasingly ran parallel to them with the implication that these sightings in fact were the seed for the legendary tales (and indeed locals continued to claim to see such water horses). The Loch Ness Water Horse was not a myth but a beast based upon a real creature inhabiting the loch.

The human reaction of the day is also examined as Victorian academics headed north to record these oral traditions for posterity but also brought their skeptical views to bear upon these "benighted" Highland folk. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Finally, being perceived as a supernatural beast by the natives, we see how that view of the creature has persisted today in contemporary Nessie thinking. There are people today who do not believe Nessie is an animal at all and this has been covered in this blog previously.

Monster Hunting in The Western Isles

I spoke in a previous post about my Highlands trip last July which took me past Loch Ness and onto the island of Lewis and Harris. I did some research first at home to see whether there was anything of a monster or kelpie nature to take in. To that end, I read Glen Vaudrey's "The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: The Western Isles" which can be obtained from here.

Now this book spoke of two lochs, Loch Suainabhal which had a tradition of a water horse therein and Loch Urabhal of which a sighting of a strange two humped beast was claimed in 1961 (but had no water horse tradition).

Doing some further grubbing about, two more lochs with some kind of monster activity turned up. The first was Loch Ulladale to the south which had a tradition of a water horse but is actually located in Harris. The final one was Loch Bhreacaich south of Stornoway near the village of Lemreway which long time Loch Ness researcher, Dick Raynor, had visited around 1971. Apparently there had been a sighting of some description which sent him westward with sonar equipment and dinghy. Nothing was found and he presumed a seal or otter had actually been involved.

The story of the water horse of Loch Suainabhal seems to come from a story that was copied amongst various publications in the later part of the 19th century but one early source was Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science for April, 1873, Vol. XI, No. 25. However, the story is given in the context of a fictional story and a conversation between individuals.

"But I have not told you yet about the Black Horse that Alister-nan-Each saw at Loch Suainabhal one night. Loch Suainabhal, that is inland and fresh water, so it was not a seal; but Alister was going along the shore, and he saw it lying up by the road, and he looked at it for a long time. It was quite black, and he thought it was a boat; but when he came near he saw it begin to move, and then it went down across the shore and splashed into the loch. And it had a head bigger than a horse, and quite black, and it made a noise as it went down the shore to the loch.

'Don't you think Alister must have been taking a little whisky, Miss Mackenzie?'



'No, not that, for he came to me just after he saw the beast.'



'And do you really believe he saw such an animal?' said Lavender with a smile.



'I do not know,' said the girl gravely.



'Perhaps it was only a fright, and he imagined he saw it; but I do not know it is

impossible there can be such an animal at Loch Suainabhal.'"

Now being a subplot in a larger story may weaken the argument that this water horse was part of a local tradition, but for now we will assume it was knowledge of the local legend that caused it to find its way into this storyline. The locations of these two water horse lochs and two monster lochs are shown on the map below.

As it turned out, visiting these lochs was more than a simple matter of driving, especially with a family of kids in tow. Focusing on the two lochs with claimed modern sightings, I passed on Loch Bhreacaich simply because there was not enough time. Loch Urabhal it turned out was a three or four mile round trip on hills by foot from the nearest road at the village of Achmore. I once again passed on the opportunity.

Having said all that, lochs with only one claimed sighting of something strange do not quite pass muster for me. For a loch or lake to be taken seriously as a "monster lake" there has to be a consistent pattern of sighting reports. How many reports there have to be to "qualify" is partly subjective but there would also be a time element to allow rogue explanations such as stray dolphins, seals, etc to move on. Seals and dolphins won't explain what goes in these land locked bodies of water, there will be other natural explanations which may or may not prove adequate over time.

Now there may be witnesses to other strange events on such lochs but we need to see the data. In that respect, I was not too enamoured by these two lochs. But water horse stories evoke a more mysterious echo from ancient and simpler times. I drove as far as I could to Loch Ulladale but even from there it was an eight mile round trip hike. Yes, I am a bit of a wimp, but it was after all first and foremost a family holiday.

So that left Loch Suainabhal which is near the famed spot where the Lewis Chessmen were discovered in the 19th century. A small single track road got us there and I spent a few minutes scanning the deepest loch in Lewis.


As the picture suggests, it was a lonely but serene and beautiful place. Apart from the boat moored in the distance, it looked untouched though the modern world in the form of Scottish Water had some operations attached to the loch. I scanned the area, took some camcorder footage and breathed in the Atlantic air but even with my Nessie-type enthusiasm, I was not expecting an equine like form to rise menacingly from the depths (though perhaps being there at midnight may have made that feeling more real!).

If there was an Each Uisge here, it is either slumbering at the bottom waiting for simpler times to return or it has flown to pastures new in search of fresh victims.

Either way, we left to re-enage with civilisation and the Calmac ferry.

WATER HORSES AND KELPIES

This posting is a link to the various pieces this blog will publish in regard to the folklore of aquatic beasts in Loch Ness and other Scottish lochs. That Loch Ness had a tradition of such beasts is not in doubt. In fact, quite a few had such stories ranging from mere lochans only hundreds of feet across to the mightiest bodies of water such as Loch Ness itself.

Such stories follow common themes though there would also be local variations. However, by and large, such stories were confined to the Highlands of Scotland where the preponderance of lochs would lie.

Three beasts dominate our thread of posts and that is the Water Horse, Water Bull and the Kelpie. The three are similar but sufficiently different to merit their own stories (though this did not stop writers from confusing them). But their major differences would be that the Kelpie inhabited rivers whilst the Water Horse was seen as a more aggressive beast than the Water Bull.

In the local Gaelic tongue their names would be Each Uisge (pronounced "ech ooshk") for the Water Horse and Tarbh Uisge (pronounced "tarv ooshk") for the Water Bull. No doubt there may have been dialectical variations to these pronunciations (I have seen "ooshkya" instead of "ooshk").

Unlike most cryptozoologists who regard such stories as mythical and unconnected with modern lake monster sightings, this blog takes the opposite view that there is a catalyst for this genre of story that was sightings of strange creatures. That is a theme that will hopefully be developed as time goes on but here are the relevant links below. Any strange or interesting tales from the pre-Nessie era which do not necessarily mention such beasts will also be linked here.

The Water Horses of Loch Ness - link

The Floating Island of Loch Ness - link

The World's Oldest Nessie Document - link 

The Elf-Cattle of Caithness - link

Mhorag of Loch Morar - link

The Loch Oich Monster - link (mix of folklore and modern)

The Creature of Loch Ulladale - link (mix of folklore and modern)

The Water Bull of Loch Duntelchaig - link

The Water Bull of Loch Tarff - link

Lewis and Water Horses - link and link

Carmichael Watson Project - link

Fishy Loch Ness Story from 1846 - link

The Loch Ness Kelpie Cartoon - link

The Dornoch Dragon and Nessie - link

Here be Mermaids! - link

The Folklore of An Niseag - link

Thoughts on the Loch Ness Kelpie - link

A Victorian Nessie Story - link

A sighting from 1909 - link

Monsters and Omens - link

Skye Water Horses, Sea Serpents and Dr. MacRae - link

John Keel and the 1896 Loch Ness Monster - link

The Glasgow Evening News and its 1896 Loch Ness Monster - link

The Beast of Loch Achtriochtan - link

The Bell of Saint Cummin - link

The Ancient Serpent Stone of Loch Ness - link

The Daily Express and Nessie

Back in the 1930s a new sensational story hit the British headlines, a remote Scottish loch apparently was inhabited by a dinosaurian like creature and had been seen by dozens of witnesses.

Perhaps wishing to lift the great British reading public during those years of economic depression and an increasingly bleak outlook abroad, many a Fleet Street newspaper took up the story and ran with it until war was declared six years later.

The Daily Express was one such paper which covered events at Loch Ness as I found out last week as I perused their online digital archive at ukpressonline.co.uk. I paid up for a two day subscription and then went in pursuit of Nessie stories.

The archive was easy enough to use and a reasonable price in my opinion. Articles of interest could be saved at no extra cost as PDF files and the range covered 1900 up to this decade. What one is likely to find in these archives can often be hit and miss but it also gives one a chance to see the cultural impact of the Loch Ness Monster during those heady days.

The first thing I noticed as I keyed in suitable search terms was how the Express put the emphasis more on the human side of the story. Actual eyewitness reports were thin on the ground as were speculations about what these sightings could be. From that point of view, I suspect the newspaper's editor or owner took a sceptical line but nevertheless felt obliged to report on that aspect of the subject which interests people the most - other people.

The picture below from the 23rd December 1933 I found quite amusing as one of their reporters headed to Loch Ness to quiz locals and visitors about their opinions. Zoom in to read their opinions and see where you lie on this mini-spectrum of views.




Perhaps some things do not change. It seems the men were more skeptical than the women. The human side of things was very much reported at that time as any things unusual to do with Loch Ness made it into print. To that end, I note the ongoing trial of Aleister Crowley gained some traction when it transpired he had a house at Loch Ness. Also the discovery of a dead man in a cave by Loch Ness also excited some interest (though no one suggested the unfortunate person had been a victim of Nessie).

And, of course, advertisers could not resist the lure of Nessie as this advert from the 25th January, 1934 shows. The small print says:

"Even the mysterious monster might well be lured from his hiding place by a packet of Post Toasties!"

How Nessie could be seen to boost the sale of corned flakes slightly escapes me! Mind you, I am sure Post Toasties would be just as successful as fish and aphrodisiacs in trying to bait Nessie.

More items from the Daily Express in the days ahead.

ABOUT THIS BLOG

The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.

Proverbs 18:17

If I had to compose a mission statement for this blog it would probably go along the lines of "To reclaim the Loch Ness Monster". Because when it all boils down, there are essentially two competing theories to explain what people claim to see in Loch Ness. The first is that there is a large, unidentified creature (or creatures) in Loch Ness and the second is that all witnesses have either misidentified natural phenomema or have hoaxed their story. It's as simple as that and you take your position accordingly.

Since the 1980s and the publication of "The Loch Ness Mystery Solved" by Ronald Binns in 1984 and "The Loch Ness Monster: The Evidence" by Steuart Campbell in 1986, things began to turn more towards the "natural" theory as opposed to the "monster" theory. The excitement of the 1970s with the various pictures and expeditions was over and the vacuum was filled by a more skeptical line of enquiry.

This began to gain some extra impetus with the arrival of the likes of Richard Dawkins last decade and his polemic style against the general belief that he may call the "incredulous" or "unscientific". Though targetted at supernatural beliefs, Nessie also became fair game for the "logicians".

This is reflected in the stance of those who are willingly or unwillingly defined as experts on the subject by the media whenever a photograph, film or sighting is reported. They explain it away as something perfectly natural and that is the end of the subject.

So this website comes in to that general environment with several aims.

1. Demonstrate the inadequacies of the "natural" theory when examined against various cases.

2. Promote and discuss the "monster" theory where possible in its various aspects.

3. Keep up to date on the latest sightings and ideas.

4. Provide information on the historical aspects of the Loch Ness Monster going back to the genre of folklore.

5. Examine the cultural aspects of the whole phenomemon.

Now this does not mean that the aim of this website is to try and prove that every photograph, film and witness report is of a large unknown creature. Clearly, misidentification and hoax has played its part in the Loch Ness Monster story and it would be fanatical to pretend otherwise. It goes without saying that "evidence" such as the photographs of Frank Searle are hoaxes. I also accept that the 1975 Rines photographs are misidentification. I accept (with some reservation) that the Surgeon's Photograph is a hoax. That list is not exhaustive and regular readers of this blog will know that evidence that has been classed as hoax or misidentification has been challenged already here.

So, the evidence is there. It is a matter of challenging the assumptions and explanations proffered by skeptics and prove that there is more to this subject than mere waves, logs and otters.

The head shot of Nessie in the Gray photograph symbolises the clash of theories for me. It's a dead swan's arse, it's a trick of the light, it's a wave. Look more closely though and you will see a fish like head looking at you with its beady eye, mouth open in a laughing manner almost saying "Catch me if you can!" to all of us whichever side of the debate we are on.

Those who wish to contact me on this subject can do so by email at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com

LEGAL STUFF

Various third party images and quotes are used under fair use legal guidelines. In other words, in such instances the permission of the copyright owner is not required. However, out of courtesy, the blog endeavours to attribute the image or quote the author with an appropriate reference. Any such lapses, please email me to sort out the attribution.

Where it is felt that permission of the copyright owner is required, we do so. However, note three circumstances where this is impractical:

1. The provenance of the work is not known.

2. The presumed author is known but there is no practical way to contact them.

3. The author has been contacted but has not replied in a reasonable time.

In those three circumstances, the blog uses the work anyway. If an owner of a copyrighted work feels fair use is not applicable then please contact me. Note I may ask you to prove you are the copyright owner!

Finally, the blog's policy on moderating comments can be found here.

Strange Blue Object Falls into Loch Ness?

The BBC are reporting a strange event at Loch Ness as a blue object falls near or into the Loch. Perhaps Nessie is an extraterrestrial? That would explain a few things or perhaps it has a perfectly natural explanation - unlike the many Nessie reports over the decades. I would not have thought weather balloons were blue - more likely highly reflective silver material.

Did the object sink into the loch? If that is the case, we can forget about any further headway in ascertaining what happened (unless someone is reported missing). For now, we watch this space for further details. Perhaps Steve Feltham who lives at the Dores beach at Loch Ness saw something?

On the subject of UFOs, they are not an unknown subject at Loch Ness. Frank Searle claimed to have photographed one over Loch Ness. I am surprised he didn't manage to catch Nessie in the same shot!

Another dubious event was Jan Sundberg's close encounter of the third kind at Foyers in the early 1970s.

Nessie hunter F. W. Holiday claimed to have seen a Man In Black near Urquhart Castle (see link) and finally I recall reading a UFO book in which a "contactee" claimed to have met an alien Nessie at Loch Ness and held a conversation with it!

And just to add a folklorish flavour, Kelpies were often associated with strange lights.

It all happens at Loch Ness!

BBC LINK

Loch Ness search for mysterious balloon-like object

The emergency services undertook a night-time search of Loch Ness after reports a balloon-like object had fallen from the sky.

The police, coastguard, lifeboat and an RAF search and rescue helicopter scoured the area but found nothing.

The alarm was raised at 20:00 on Saturday after members of the public said they saw a blue object fall on the south of the Loch, near Dores.

Police thought it might have been a hang glider or microlight.

However, following a three-hour search the emergency services could find "nothing untoward".

Loch Ness RNLI crew member, Vivian Bailey, said: "Speed of arrival on scene was essential and we were able to link our search efforts with those of the Coastguard and RAF, something we practise regularly.

"We believe the reports were based on sightings causing genuine concern and we commend the actions of the members of the public that contacted the emergency services."

STV News adds some more information (LINK):

A mysterious flying object above Loch Ness sparked a large-scale search by emergency services.

Police, coastguard officers, a lifeboat crew and an RAF search and rescue helicopter scoured the around Dores, on the southern shore of the loch, following reports of an object falling from the sky at about 8pm on Saturday.

Northern Constabulary said the object was described as being "round, balloon-like in shape and blue in colour".

The search was carried out amid fears that a parachutist or hang-glider could have crash-landed in the remote area, but after three hours no trace of an aircraft or parachute could be found and the search was stood down.

One local resident, Denise Rooney, told STV's Facebook page she had noticed an object in the sky while having a barbecue in the hills above Dores.

She said: "I pointed out a white globe that I thought was a star initially but it moved across the sky. It was very far away. Could have been anything and it was on a steady path.

"I just remembered thinking I could see it but not hear it and it was an unusual flight path from that direction."

Rescue workers said the alarm was raised in good faith and commended members of the public who called out the emergency services.

Loch Ness RNLI crew member Martin Douglas said: "A member of the public reported seeing a hang glider or microlight descending into the loch.

"The RNLI lifeboat crew spoke to people on the shoreline who stated that they had seen a balloon-like object just above the tree line near Dores."

His colleague Vivian Bailey added: "Speed of arrival on scene was essential and we were able to link our search efforts with those of the Coastguard and RAF, something we practice regularly.

"We believe the reports were based on sightings causing genuine concern and we commend the actions of the members of the public that contacted the emergency services."

A police spokeswoman said: "Northern Constabulary and HM Coastguard responded to a report of an object falling from the sky on the south side of Loch Ness approximately two to five kilometres south-west of the village of Dores.

"The object was described as being round, balloon-like in shape and blue in colour.

"An extensive search was carried out by police, coastguard, Loch Ness lifeboat and RAF search and rescue helicopter 137, with nothing untoward being found."

Anyone with information relevant to the sighting is asked to contact Northern Constabulary on 01463 715555.