Nessie - Conspiracy or Not

[sadie1263]

I just can't post stories about chupacabras and Big Foot without adding in Nessie.......


It is 80 years since hotel manageress Mrs Aldie Mackay first reported seeing a "whale-like fish" in the waters of Loch Ness.

Now an academic at St Andrew's University is trawling through 1,000 eye-witness accounts since to see what they can tell us.

He wryly notes more than a few hotel proprietors among typical spotters. So is "Nessie" just a conspiracy to boost tourism?

It was 14 April 1933 and Mrs Mackay, manageress of the Drumnadrochit Hotel, was driving with her husband along the road to Inverness.

As they drove, she glanced out across the still calm waters of Loch Ness towards Aldourie Castle. There, in the water, she saw something.


Mrs Aldie Mackay, manageress of the Drumnadrochit Hotel, said she saw a "beast" in the loch on 14 April, 1933
In a rare interview years later, she described the moment to marine biologist and founder of The Loch Ness Project, Adrian Shine.

"She said it was black, wet, with the water rolling off it," he says.

"It went in a circle, round and down. She yelled at her husband "Stop! The beast!"

It is an interesting remark, Mr Shine says.

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“
Start Quote

I suppose it is possible that people have an agenda. But I stress that I believe the vast majority of people are reporting the truth”

Dr Charles Paxton
University of St Andrew's
Mrs Mackay's sighting was reported in the Inverness Courier on 2 May 1933 by Alex Campbell, the water bailiff for Loch Ness and a part-time journalist.

It is widely regarded as the first "modern sighting" of a monster in the loch.

"But the fact that she said "the beast"... It's as though she knew there was something strange in the loch," Mr Shine says.

Local legend

There was already one account of a monster in the area dating back to the Middle Ages.

According to Adamnan's account of the life of Saint Columba, believed to have been written in the 7th century, the Irish monk saw a "water beast" in the River Ness.

But Mrs Mackay's sighting opened the floodgates.

Police inspectors, bank managers, students, town clerks, lorry drivers, clergymen, forestry workers, office workers, water bailiffs and fishermen were all among the people who claimed to have seen the monster.


Marine biologist Adrian Shine says he has made a living out of being a sceptical Loch Ness investigator
Tourists and 'Nessie hunters' flocked to the area. There were traffic jams around the loch.

There were even a few celebrity spotters such as authors Gavin Maxwell and Sir Compton Mackenzie.

Dr Charles Paxton, a research fellow and statistical ecologist at St Andrew's University, has so far sifted through 800 of the 1,000 recorded sightings.

And, he adds, a sizeable number came from cafe and hotel proprietors, including Mrs Mackay herself.

Certainly there was much to be gained from the legend.

According to Visit Scotland, Nessie tourism brings in more than £1m to the area per year.

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Loch Ness facts and figures

Loch Ness holds by far the greatest volume of water of any loch in Scotland - measured at 263,162 million cubic feet
The maximum depth recorded is around 230m - twice the height of St Paul's Cathedral
Loch Ness is the second longest loch in Scotland at 24.24 miles
Bathymetrical Survey of the Fresh-Water Lochs of Scotland, 1897-1909
So was Mrs Mackay motivated by cynical thoughts of her bank balance?

Mr Shine believes not.

"She was far from a self-publicist. It was her husband who told the water bailiff, and she stayed anonymous in the newspaper report.

"She didn't say anything for two reasons. Firstly, because she thought she would be seen as self-advertising.

"But also because they used to say for people who had seen something in the loch "take more water with it"… suggesting they were drunks."

But there are plenty of people who have made a living from Nessie, including Mr Shine himself, who now runs the Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition out of Mrs Mackay's old hotel.


for more:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22125981

[♫anna♫]

Could it be that Nessie has been active elsewhere??

[sadie1263]

It would explain a lot....

[Hunny]

Apr 29, 2013 11:44:54 GMT ♫anna♫ said:

Could it be that Nessie has been active elsewhere??

lol, the mystery is solved at last!

[sadie1263]

It would wrap up a bunch of mysteries...........how Jack was able to disappear......because seriously....who was going to look in the water? Also...why Nessie stays hidden.....fear of arrest!!