Scottish Myths and Legends by Rodger Moffet, Amanda Moffet, Donald Cuthill, Tom Moss
Tags: Tales & Fables
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long neck and large body similar to a plesiosaur but with the ability to raise its head out of the water. Another sighting in 1968 by John MacVarish, barman at the Morar Hotel confirms this:
"I saw this thing coming. I thought it was a man standing in a boat but as it got nearer I saw it was something coming out of the water. I tried to get up close to it with the outboard out of the water and what I saw was a long neck five or six feet out of the water with a small head on it, dark in colour, coming quite slowly down the loch. When I got to about 300 yards of it, it turned off into the deep and just settled down slowly into the loch out of sight. The neck was about one and a half feet in diameter and tapered up to between ten inches and a foot. I never saw any features, no eyes or anything like that. It was a snake like head, very small compared to the size of the neck-flattish, a flat type of head. It seemed to have very smooth skin but at 300 yards it's difficult to tell. It was very dark, nearly black. It was 10am, dead calm, no wind, brilliant sunshine. I saw it for about ten minuets travelling very slowly: it didn't alter its angle to the water. It looked as if it was paddling itself along. There was very little movement from the water, just a small streak from the neck. I couldn't really see what was propelling it but I think it was something at the sides rather than behind it."
The number of encounters was such that the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau expanded its search to include Loch Morar in February of 1970. Several studies have been undertaken, however she is a far more elusive creature than her sister and very little evidence has been recorded by the teams, nevertheless the eyewitness accounts exist; from small boys on holiday from Yorkshire up to Sir John Hope (Lord Glendevon) a privy councillor and undersecretary of state for Scotland.
So how did Morag come to find her way into the loch? Well as many theories exist as there are sightings. If her ancestors came into the loch from the sea this would have been possible as sea levels were high enough at times for the loch to have been easily reached from the sea, there is also a theory that some mysterious underground tunnel exists between Loch Ness and Loch Morar both of which lie on the same geological fault line known as the Great Glen. It could be that Morag and Nessie are one and the same or at least they pop up and down to visit for tea and a chat now and again. Maybe swapping stories about how many fishermen they've had 'keech their breeks' that week!
Other Scottish Lochs are also said to harbour strange creatures: Among these are Loch Lochy, Loch Arkaig, Loch Oich, Loch Linnhe, Loch Quoich, and Loch Shiel. Although Nessie is by far and away our most famous 'beastie' Morag deserves recognition too. Just remember the next time you are planning a wee paddle while on holiday in the highlands in the crystal clear Loch you have just discovered, that might not just be a few wee fishes nibbling your toes!
The Fear Liath
By Rodger Moffet
The year was 1890 and John Norman Collie, a respected scientist and explorer was walking in the Cairngorms. This area now popular with tourists, mountaineers and skiers was an even more desolate and unexplored spot back then. As he approached the summit of Ben MacDhui, The highest peak in this range and the second highest in Scotland (1309 meters or 4296 feet) he was enveloped by a thick mist that reduced his visibility. While in this eerie mist he had an experience that so terrified him that he did not speak a word of it until 35 years later!
At the 1925 Annual General Meeting of the Cairngorm Club he finally broke his silence:
"I was returning from the cairn on the summit in a mist when I began to think I heard something else than merely the noise of my own footsteps. For every few steps I heard a crunch, and then another crunch as if someone was walking after me but taking
"I saw this thing coming. I thought it was a man standing in a boat but as it got nearer I saw it was something coming out of the water. I tried to get up close to it with the outboard out of the water and what I saw was a long neck five or six feet out of the water with a small head on it, dark in colour, coming quite slowly down the loch. When I got to about 300 yards of it, it turned off into the deep and just settled down slowly into the loch out of sight. The neck was about one and a half feet in diameter and tapered up to between ten inches and a foot. I never saw any features, no eyes or anything like that. It was a snake like head, very small compared to the size of the neck-flattish, a flat type of head. It seemed to have very smooth skin but at 300 yards it's difficult to tell. It was very dark, nearly black. It was 10am, dead calm, no wind, brilliant sunshine. I saw it for about ten minuets travelling very slowly: it didn't alter its angle to the water. It looked as if it was paddling itself along. There was very little movement from the water, just a small streak from the neck. I couldn't really see what was propelling it but I think it was something at the sides rather than behind it."
The number of encounters was such that the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau expanded its search to include Loch Morar in February of 1970. Several studies have been undertaken, however she is a far more elusive creature than her sister and very little evidence has been recorded by the teams, nevertheless the eyewitness accounts exist; from small boys on holiday from Yorkshire up to Sir John Hope (Lord Glendevon) a privy councillor and undersecretary of state for Scotland.
So how did Morag come to find her way into the loch? Well as many theories exist as there are sightings. If her ancestors came into the loch from the sea this would have been possible as sea levels were high enough at times for the loch to have been easily reached from the sea, there is also a theory that some mysterious underground tunnel exists between Loch Ness and Loch Morar both of which lie on the same geological fault line known as the Great Glen. It could be that Morag and Nessie are one and the same or at least they pop up and down to visit for tea and a chat now and again. Maybe swapping stories about how many fishermen they've had 'keech their breeks' that week!
Other Scottish Lochs are also said to harbour strange creatures: Among these are Loch Lochy, Loch Arkaig, Loch Oich, Loch Linnhe, Loch Quoich, and Loch Shiel. Although Nessie is by far and away our most famous 'beastie' Morag deserves recognition too. Just remember the next time you are planning a wee paddle while on holiday in the highlands in the crystal clear Loch you have just discovered, that might not just be a few wee fishes nibbling your toes!
The Fear Liath
By Rodger Moffet
The year was 1890 and John Norman Collie, a respected scientist and explorer was walking in the Cairngorms. This area now popular with tourists, mountaineers and skiers was an even more desolate and unexplored spot back then. As he approached the summit of Ben MacDhui, The highest peak in this range and the second highest in Scotland (1309 meters or 4296 feet) he was enveloped by a thick mist that reduced his visibility. While in this eerie mist he had an experience that so terrified him that he did not speak a word of it until 35 years later!
At the 1925 Annual General Meeting of the Cairngorm Club he finally broke his silence:
"I was returning from the cairn on the summit in a mist when I began to think I heard something else than merely the noise of my own footsteps. For every few steps I heard a crunch, and then another crunch as if someone was walking after me but taking
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