Loch Ness Monster: 50 fascinating facts

1. Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, captured arguably the most famous image of the Loch Ness Monster, the Surgeon’s Photograph (shown above). It was published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934, and the anniversary inspired today's Google Doodle.

2. Mr Wilson didn't want his name associated with the picture, which explains its nickname the "Surgeon's Photograph".

3. The Sunday Telegraph outed the Surgeon's Photograph as a fake on December 7, 1975.

4. Nessie – the Surgeon's Photograph Exposed, a 1999 book, explains that the hoax was accomplished using a toy submarine purchased from Woolworths and a fake head and neck. The model was sunk after being photographed, and is presumably still somewhere in the loch.

5. The earliest report of a monster in the vicinity of Loch Ness appears in the Life of St. Columba by Adomnán, an abbot of Iona, written in the 7th century.

6. Other sightings include one by Doctor D. Mackenzie of Balnain in the 1870s - he said he saw an object "wriggling and churning up the water".Monster or labrador?

7. Loch Ness is the second largest loch by surface area and the largest by volume.

8. It is around 750 feet deep and holds more water than in all of the lakes and rivers of England and Wales combined.

9. It wasn't until 1933 that the Nessie myth really took off, following the opening of a new road that ran along the side of the loch. A sighting by George Spicer was reported on July 22, and then another by Arthur Grant, a motorcyclist, the following month.

10. The first photographic "evidence" of Nessie was captured by Hugh Grey on November 12, 1933. Critics claimed the blurry image shows Grey's labrador retriever swimming towards its owner with a stick in its mouth.
    

11. There is one island on the loch - Cherry Island at Fort Augustus.

12. Part of the loch is 812ft deep. It has been named Nessie’s Lair.

13. Loch Ness lies in the Great Glen Fault Line between Fort Augustus and Inverness which is the longest glen in Scotland.

14. The Loch Ness Monster's nickname "Nessie" means "pure".

• Loch Ness Monster sightings through the years

1. Around one million people visit Loch Ness each year, generating around £25 million for the local economy.

2. There are around 200,000 searches for the Loch Ness Monster on Google each month.

3. Some believe the Loch Ness Monster is a plesiosaurus, a type of marine dinosaur which roamed the planet 205 million years ago.
   

4. Normal visibility under the water is no more than four inches. The dark colouring is caused by a high density of peat particles.

5. The Loch Ness Monster was named the most famous Scot in a 2006 survey.

• 10 of the world's most famous mythical creatures

1. There are approximately 40 small rivers, streams, burns and waterways running into the loch, including the Oich, Tarff, Enrich and Farigaig.

2. There are two layers of radioactive sediment beneath the waters of Loch Ness. The first was a result of the Chernobyl disaster.

3. There have been over 1,000 recorded sightings of the monster, or around 20 a year.
   
   Men scan the loch in the hope of spotting the monster (Photo: Getty)

4. Many people have attempted to create false images of Nessie - some have used bales of hay to recreate her humps, others have used a stuffed hippo foot to make a trail of fake prints.

5. On April 1 1972, newspapers announced that Nessie was dead. It was part of an April Fools' Day prank organised by John Shields of Flamingo Park Zoo, who planted a dead seal in the loch.

6. Among the most recent hoaxes was by George Edwards, who skippers boat tours on the loch, in 2012. He used a fibreglass hump to create this image.
   
   The Edwards hoax

7. A circus owner once offered a reward of £20,000 to anyone that could bring him the monster alive.

8. The first organised search for Nessie was in 1934. Twenty men were each paid £2 a day to be monster watchers - but nothing was spotted.

9. The Thatcher government seriously considered an official Loch Ness Monster hunt. There was even talk of using dolphins from America to help look for it.

10. The largest search to date was in 1987, costing £1 million. The researchers used advanced sonar and camera technology to look for it. The only data gathered was three sonar contacts that showed a creature “larger than a shark but smaller than a whale”.

11. During heavy rainfall the loch's waterline has been known to rise by as much as seven feet. A rise of two feet is more common.

12. The Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club is dedicated to the myth.

13. The Loch Ness Monster speculation has inspired many films, such as Loch Ness (1996) and Water Horse (2007).

14. Toyota, Abercrombie and Fitch, Orange, Vodaphone, Ballygown Spring Water and Kit Kat have all used the loch in their adverts.

15. In 2009, a man claimed to have found the Loch Ness Monster on Google Earth. Apple Maps have also captured a shadowy shape near the lake's surface.
    
    This image was taken by an Apple Maps satellite above Loch Ness

16. The BBC sponsored a search in 2003 but nothing was found.

17. The loch never freezes due to a thermocline effect, meaning as the water in the highest 100 metres cools, it will sink and be replaced by the warmer water from the depths. This can make the loch steam on very cold days.

18. 100 athletes in the Scottish Triathlon were each insured £1 million against bites from the Loch Ness Monster in 2005.

19. In 1970 the majority of the 13th series of Doctor Who was set in and around Loch Ness.

20. Dr Rines, who helped find the wreck of the Titanic, spent 37 years searching for Nessie before he died in 2009.

21. There are two Loch Ness Monster visitor centers.
    
    Urquhart Castle, on the banks of the loch (Photo: AP/Fotolia)

22. A great way to see the lake and look out for Nessie is to jump aboard a cruise or drive along the scenic A82 route.

23. In 1976, a group of people used bacon as bait in the hope of finding the Loch Ness Monster.

24. Scientist Adrian Shine has been looking for Nessie for over 25 years.

25. Locals have awarded some Nessie hunters an online diploma.

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1. Loch Ness is 22.5 miles long and between one and 1.5 miles wide.

2. The only deeper loch is Loch Morar in Lochaber, West Highlands, at just over 1,000ft (310m).

3. Explanations for Nessie sightings have included seals or possibly an overgrown eel. In 2013, Jeremy Wade, as part of the series River Monsters, suggested that the loch contains Greenland shark, which reach 20 feet in length and have no dorsal fin.

4. A Buddhist monk - Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche - moved to Scotland in 2012 to search for the monster.

5. A documentary team for Channel Five used Hollywood special effects to create an elaborate hoax in 2004. It sparked 600 sightings.

6. Recently released documents show that Denys Tucker was fired from his job at the Natural History Museum in 1960 for claiming to have seen the Loch Ness Monster.
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