Freshwater has its own monsters and one is the most well-known of all: ‘Nessie’, the Loch Ness Monster. Loch Ness holds as much freshwater as all the lakes of England and Wales combined, but the peat of the surrounding countryside makes it as notoriously murky as the legends that surround its most famous character (and most of the photographs taken of it). Modern Scottish lake monsters are often described as a dinosaur-like, but before the discovery of dinosaurs, almost every large body of water in Scotland had a kelpie which, like the Orcadian Nuckalavee, had a horse-like form. Kelpies may well have been part of a cautionary tale tradition to keep children away from rivers in case ‘the kelpie got them’.
One is the most well-known of all: ‘Nessie’, the Loch Ness Monster. (Pat Perry)