What lurks in the dark waters of Loch Ness? When did people begin to believe there was a monster in this Scottish loch, and why? In this episode of Analytical Eye, we look at the history of the Loch Ness Monster.

This episode is dedicated to listener Leanne H, with thanks for her constant support. 

Voices were provided thanks to Al B, Amanda F and readaloud.net.

Sources

Like Bigfoot, there were so many interesting books about the Loch Ness Monster that I kept reading perhaps past when I should have moved on: and yet I still didn’t cover the full gamut, though I do believe I hit many of the key documents. Sources for this episode include: 

Believers

Rupert Gould, The Loch Ness Monster and Others, 1934

Constance Whyte, More than a Legend, 1957

Peter Costello, In Search of Lake Monsters, 1964 

Tim Dinsdale, Loch Ness Monster, 1968 

Tim Dinsdale, The Story of the Loch Ness Monster, 1973  

F. W. Holiday The Great Orm of Loch Ness: A Practical Inquiry into the Nature and Habits of Water-Monsters (1968), Serpents of the Sky, Dragons of the Earth (1973) and The Goblin Universe (1986: posthumous)

Nicholas Witchell, The Loch Ness Story, 1974 

Roy Mackal, The Monsters of Loch Ness, 1976 

Loch Ness Mystery Blogspot – a blog by a true believer who has carefully catalogued a huge amount of information about the Loch Ness Monster, current and full of an excellent amount of detail

Skeptics

Ronald Binns, The Loch Ness Mystery Solved, 1983

Steuart Campbell The Loch Ness Monster: The Evidence, 1986

Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero, Abominable Science! Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and other famous cryptids

Benjamin Radford and Joe Nickell, Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World’s Most Elusive Creatures, 2006 

Gareth Williams, A Monstrous Commotion: The Mysteries of Loch Ness, 2015

Dr Darren Naish, tetzoo.com, current. A fascinating blog by a biologist with an interest in examining cryptozoology. Not only was it an excellent lead for Nessie sources, I found it so intriguing that I ended up dipping into random entries on other topics entirely. I recommend it.

In-betweeners 

Gerald Snyder, Is there a Loch Ness Monster? The Search for the Evidence, 1977

Jonathan Betts – Time Restored: the Harrison timekeepers and R.T. Gould, the man who knew (almost) everything, 2006 

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