The legend of the Loch Ness Monster is known across the world and many have traveled from far and wide to try and catch a glimpse of the famous creature or study the enormous mass of murky water which is Loch Ness. The monster has even been given a nickname by locals and monster hunters alike, "Nessie".

The home of Nessie, Loch Ness is part of the area of Scotland known as Great Glen. The body of water runs for over 60 miles, from Inverness to Fort William, and is made up of three Lochs, or lakes; Lochy, Oich and Ness.  With a depth of 754 feet, Loch Ness holds more water than all the lakes in England, Scotland and Wales added together, so is certainly big enough to hold a variety of creatures.  It is even said that the loch hides a secret underground waterway which leads to the ocean, or Canada, explaining why scientists have never confirmed the creature's existence.

The 20th century saw the most well known sightings of Nessie, but we have to go as far back to 565AD for the first recorded sighting. An Irish priest, Saint Columba, was travelling around the Highlands teaching Christianity to the locals, claimed to have saved one of his followers from a beast which rose out of the water.Columba is recorded to have held up his cross and shouted "Stop! Go thou no further nor touch the man", upon which the beast disappeared back into the loch.

During the 18th and 19th century reports continued of strange sightings on the loch, but it was not until 1933 when the reports describing the Loch Ness Monster, as we know it today began. In April 1933 Mr and Mrs Mackay were driving home along the loch when Mrs Mackay noticed a disturbance in the water, caused by a large beast rolling over in the middle of the loch. Then on 12th November 1933 Hugh Gray was walking along the side of the loch, near where the loch meets the River Foyers. Gray said he saw an object rise out of the water, to a height of about three feet. He took five pictures, but only one came out. The photograph has since been studied by four photographic experts, who have all confirmed that it has not been tampered with, although they have been unable to identify the creature or object seen in it.

The next major sighting, which has given the world probably the most famous photograph of the monster, was by Robert Kenneth Wilson.  On 19th April 1934, Wilson saw a movement in the loch and took a photograph which has been named the Surgeons photograph. The creature in this photograph looks very much like aPlesiosaurs and mirrors the many pictures that have been drawn by people who have claimed to have seen the Loch Ness Monster.  

Many scientists have studied the loch with sonar equipment both from the shore and from the loch, and although they have reported positive sonar 'incidents', they have not been able to conclusively confirm the present of the monster. Dr RobertRines who has lead three studies of the loch, even expressed his fears in 2008, that any monster living in the loch may now be extinct due to the lack of recent sonar readings and eyewitness reports. So we may never know exactly what the LochNess Monster is or was.