20th June: Loch Ness Day

Today is Loch Ness Day - so 10 facts about the Loch and its monster.

1. The vital statistics of Loch Ness: 36.2 km (22.5 mi) at its longest point; 2.7 km (1.7 mi) at its widest point; Surface area: 56 km2 (21.8 sq mi); 226.96 m (744.6 ft) deep at its deepest point; contains 7.5 km3 (1.8 cu mi) of water.
2. By surface area it is the second largest loch in Scotland (Loch Lomond being the first) and the second deepest (after Loch Morar). In terms of volume, though, it beats them all hands down: in fact, it contains more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales put together.
3. It has an island - Cherry Island, at the south western end. It is a man made island, or crannog, possibly constructed in the Iron Age. There used to be a second island, Dog Island, but when the Caledonian Canal was built, the water level of the loch was raised and the island submerged.
4. The earliest report of a sighting of the monster was in the 7th century, in an account of the life of St Columba. The Saint was visiting the area when he came across a funeral service near the River Ness. The people told him that the dead man had been killed by a "water beast" while swimming in the river. Columba then did something which surprised them. He told one of his followers, Luigne moccu Min, to swim across the river. When the monster came after him, Columba made the sign of the Cross and commanded: "Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once." The monster stopped in its tracks, as if it had been "pulled back with ropes" and fled in terror. Presumably this miracle resulted in a few conversions among the pagan Picts.
5. Nessie's most active year seems to have been 1933, when there was a rush of sightings, beginning on 2 May when Loch Ness's water bailiff Alex Campbell first used the term "monster" to describe it. On 22 July, a London tourist, George Spicer, and his wife saw a large, narrow-necked creature cross the road in front of their car, carrying "an animal" in its mouth. In August, a student vet called Arthur Grant, who was riding his motorcycle near the loch, almost hit a creature with a long neck, which, on seeing Grant, turned tail and disappeared into the loch. In November, Hugh Gray was walking home from church when he saw a large creature rise up out of the loch. He took photographs, but only one showed any evidence of the monster. The most famous picture of Nessie, was taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynaecologist, in April 1934.
6. You can see Nessie on Apple Maps, according to Andrew Dixon who saw something that could be the monster while browsing.
7. Naturalist Sir Peter Scott may have been a believer. After seeing a bunch of photographs taken by Robert H. Rines in the 70s, Scott announced that the scientific name of the monster would be Nessiteras rhombopteryx (Greek for "The Ness monster with diamond-shaped fin"), so that Nessie could be added to the British register of officially protected wildlife. But then again, it was soon pointed out by Nicholas Fairbairn that the name was an anagram for "Monster hoax by Sir Peter S".
8. Some legends associate the Loch Ness Monster with the mythical creatures, kelpies. These creatures lived in the loch, but could come out onto dry land and turn themselves into horses. Unwary travellers who fancied a ride into town would get on the "horse" which would then gallop into the loch, taking the hapless rider with them. Dumb tourists, apparently, were rather yummy. This is how come the monster is sometimes referred to as a "water horse".
9. People who believe in the monster reckon it is a plesiosaur, which managed to survive in the loch despite going extinct everywhere else. Non-believers have claimed it is an Otter, a Seal, a diving bird, a toy submarine, a boat, a floating log, or even an Elephant raising its trunk out of the water.
10. Brenda Sherratt was the first person to swim along the length of Loch Ness in Scotland. It took her 31 hours and 27 minutes in July 1966, and the monster presumably wasn't very hungry that day.