Loch Ness Monster: Famous Sightings and Urquhart Castle

The earliest report of a monster near Loch Ness is in Adomnán's Life of St. Columba. Locals were burying a man who had been mauled by a "water beast" while swimming in the River Ness. Columba made the sign of the cross and said: "Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once." The creature stopped and fled. The tale is set in the river, not the loch, and skeptics say it may be independent of the modern legend. The river begins at Loch Dochfour, at the northern end of Loch Ness, and flows through Inverness.

Location precision: Adomnán does not name the exact spot on the river; the pin marks the River Ness at Inverness.

Abriachan, on the hillside above Loch Ness, appears in two sightings. In 1888 mason Alexander Macdonald of Abriachan saw "a large stubby-legged animal" and said it looked like a salamander. In January 1934 motorcyclist Arthur Grant claimed he nearly hit the creature while approaching Abriachan, and called it a cross between a seal and a plesiosaur. Zoologist Maurice Burton judged Grant's sketch consistent with an otter.

Location precision: Both accounts only name Abriachan; the pin marks the village, not the spot on the shore.

Hugh Gray's photograph, taken near Foyers on 12 November 1933, was the first photograph alleged to depict the monster. It was slightly blurred, and on close inspection the head of a dog can be seen. Gray had walked his Labrador that day. The negative was lost, but slides that came to light in 1963 revealed an "otter rolling at the surface in characteristic fashion."

Location precision: The photo is only placed near Foyers; the pin marks the village on the south-east shore.

The "surgeon's photograph" is perhaps the most famous alleged photo of the creature, and the first to portray its head and neck. The Daily Mail announced it on 21 April 1934. Spurling admitted the photograph was a hoax in January 1991: the monster was a toy submarine bought from Woolworth, with a head and neck made from wood putty. Ian Marmaduke Wetherell took the photos near the Altsaigh Tea House.

Location precision: The text only says near the Altsaigh Tea House, and no reliable pin was found, so the stop is left unpinned.

On 21 May 1977 Anthony "Doc" Shiels, camping next to Urquhart Castle, took what was alleged to be the clearest picture of the monster. Many have declared it a hoax because of its staged look. Sonar studies followed in the late 1960s, with a device fixed underwater at Temple Pier in Urquhart Bay. The ruined castle sits beside the loch, with the five-storey Grant Tower at its north end, and is one of the most-visited castles in Scotland.

Visitor guidance: The visitor centre has a cinema, a restaurant and a shop; the castle is on the A82, 2 km east of Drumnadrochit.