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The loch is a tectonic lake resulting from a movement in the earths crust. Around 500 million years ago earthquakes opened up the crack that is now Loch Ness as the land to the north moved around 65 miles south westerly.
During the last ice age, which ended about 10 to 12 thousand years ago, the whole area was covered in 4 thousand feet of ice. In fact the only land mark would have been Ben Nevis to the south. It was this ice which gauged out the trough, that loch ness lies in. Earthquakes can still be felt around the loch, the last one in December 1997. The hills surrounding the loch are still rising by 1mm per year.
· Loch Ness is part of the Great Glen or Glen Mor in Gaelic, a scar like fault line which runs over 60 miles from Inverness in the north to Fort William in the south.
· It is made up of 3 lochs, Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and Loch Ness, with Loch Ness being by far the largest
· There are 7 major rivers the Oich, Tarff, Enrich, Coiltie, Moriston, Foyers and Farigaig
· Loch Ness is the largest body of fresh water in Britain.
· There is more water in Loch Ness than all the other lakes in England, Scotland and Wales put together.
Nessie - The Beginning
Most people think that the Loch Ness monster first appeared in the 1930s and it is certainly from this time that Nessie became famous but sightings of something unusual in the loch date back much further than this.
It is said that the inhabitant around the loch used to tell their children stories to keep them away from the dark dangerous waters of the loch. The story was of a awful beast who lived in the loch. When the monster became hungry it would leave its watery home and transform itself into a beautiful horse which would wait for some unlucky tourists to climb on its back. Then it would gallop straight into the loch and eat the victim
With this story adults would discourage children from playing near the loch.
The first recordings of the creature dates back to 565 by Saint Columba. The Saint was an Irish priest who was touring the Highlands teaching Christianity.
One day while travelling along the side of the loch he came upon a group of locals burying one of their friends who had swum out into the loch to bring a boat that had come loose from its dock back to the coast, but the man was attacked by an beast.
Columba asked one of the men to swim out and bring the boat back. One of it did and the beast rose from the loch with a powerful roar and went to attack the man. At this point St Columba held up his cross and shouted \"Stop go thou no further nor touch the man \". Upon hearing this the beast returned to the depths of the loch never to roar again.
Other reports of strange things seen in the loch can be found from the 18th and 19th centuries when the mystery of the Loch Ness monster starts. In April 1933 Mr&Mrs Mackay were driving down the lochside from Inverness to their home in Drumnadrochit when Mrs Mackay saw a large beast in the middle of the loch. The sighting was reported to Alex Campbell a reporter for the Inverness Courier. The story was published in the paper on 2nd of May 1933 and the Loch Ness monster as we know it today was born.
In the last time there were lots of sights, but people also fake photos and video films and so it is a question if the stories from the sights are true.
Theories
The most exciting theory about the Loch Ness monster is that Nessie is a plesiosaur. Very little is known about their life style or breeding habits but still the theory goes on.
It is thought the plesiosaurs were always marine animals they can also survive in fresh and salt water. The plesiosaurs may have found their way up the River Ness into the loch and still be there today. There is enough food in the loch, because the animals live on eels and salmons.
The photo from R.K. Wilson who showed a big animal who looks like a plesiosaur with a long neck rising from the water, but this photo is maybe a counterfeit
A other theory is that the Loch Ness monster is a very big eel . In a big lake as large as Loch Ness it could be possible for them to grow very large. People said they have seen eels as large as 15 to 20 feed in the loch. Parts of the large body from the eel maybe was looking out of the water and this would be explain that people said that Nessie have humps.
Proof
The greatest piece of proof for the Loch Ness monster was taken in 1960 by Tim Dinsdale.
After reading Constance Whytes book he became interested in the monster and he decided to make a one man expedition to the loch with a pair of binoculars and a camera.
And really Tim Dinsdale noticed a dark object about half way across the loch and as he studied it through his binoculars it started to move away from him across the loch. He started to film it with the camera and when he developed the film he got the proof that some large unknown animal lives in the depths of the loch and with the help of the film more and more people believe Nessie.
Robert Rines photograph 1970 a fin from Nessie. 5 years later the monster became the name "Nessiteras rhombopteryx" and Nessie put up in the "British register of officially protected wildlife".
Professional animal catcher often tried to catch Nessie, but a catch is illegal because Nessie is since 1943 protected, but 2003 was a BBC - Team looking for the monster but they found nothing.
And so we can only make theories about Nessie, but this are only theories and so nobody can say that there is really a monster in Loch Ness and nobody can say the opposite.
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