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Loch Ness
Monsters, magick, and strange goings-on in the Scottish highlands
When I was a child, in the 1970s, my family used to go and stay in a cottage every October, near Drumnadrochit, in the Scottish Highlands, a few miles from Loch Ness.
We went to the cottage for several years running. My sister and I had a grand time mucking about in the barn in our wellies and playing with two neighborhood girls we met. We’d all go scrambling down the hill to Loch Meiklie and collect masses of shiny conkers (horse chestnuts).
Loch Ness is one of a chain of four lochs on the Great Glen and part of the Great Glen Fault which was carved by glaciers during the last Ice Age. It is the largest body of water in the UK and is 230m (755ft) deep. It is also famous for its so-called monster, Nessie.
To say I was obsessed with the Loch Ness Monster as a child is a vast understatement. I devoured all the books I could find, and every year, armed with a trusty pair of ancient binoculars from the cottage, I hoped to get a glimpse of Nessie whenever we visited Loch Ness. I knew all about the various sightings of the cryptid, starting with Saint Columba in 565. You can read about those online, and I’m not going to detail them here.
