Methods in Madness with Adrian Shine: Mistaken Monsters Part 4

Final instalment

Our journey with Adrian Shine has come to an end – this is the final instalment in his Mistaken Monsters series, where we’ve uncovered just how easily Loch Ness can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Over the past three blogs, Adrian has revealed how boats, birds, deer, and other everyday phenomena have all been mistaken for Nessie. In this final instalment, Adrian unravels even more curious cases—ranging from floating logs to jet skis, and even bubbles beneath the loch’s surface.

If you missed the earlier parts, you can catch up here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

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Methods in Madness with Adrian Shine: Mistaken Monsters Part 4

Sometimes, tree trunks and branches can look like animals, especially when animated by waves. Even grounded bits of tree have been reported as moving monsters when seen from passing vehicles. The same might apply to rocks close to shore.

In most Loch Ness Monster ‘sightings’ the witnesses’ attention is usually drawn to something which, they do not recognise but reminds them of an animal of some kind. Further observation may then show them what it really is. There is at least one case where the opposite applies. The witness sees an object which is first identified as a tree branch or log. However, it is then seen to move very slowly against the wind and waves. Surely, it must be ‘swimming’ and therefore alive!

Odd it may seem, but it is the water which is moving against the wind. What happens is that in the summer the loch divides into two lakes of water, one above the other. The warm top layer floats on the denser colder water underneath. The division between the two becomes sharper as the season progresses and is called the ‘thermocline’. The mountains on either side of the glen funnel the wind along the length of the loch, pushing the warm water to one end. This tilts the thermocline down in that direction, but it also tilts to the right because of the Coriolis force. This can sometimes be so pronounced that the cold water can break surface to the left and displac

ed to flow upwind bearing floating objects, such as those logs, in that direction. Something else happens when the wind drops beyond a certain point. All the warm water flows back to regain equilibrium forming a great invisible underwater wave, but rebounds from the other end of the loch and ‘slops’ back and forth for some weeks. This is known as an internal seiche. That’s when things get complicated but from time to time, the water is going to be flowing slowly against the wind. And that’s all it takes for us to rationalise our experience into a Loch Ness Monster.

And now we come to the crux of the issue and it’s all about that calm flat water. That’s when it isn’t just about perceiving shapes; it’s about judging size. The point is, that if we want to know the size of something we don’t recognise, our perception seeks clues as to the distance it is away from us. There might be some familiar objects in our view or it might be some recognisable texture in the scene. At Loch Ness, this texture can be waves and their diminishing size allows us to subconsciously judge the size of the unknown object. However, when the water calms, particularly if our viewing angle is low, these clues to distance are removed and it is easy to overestimate the size of the object we are looking at. There are many reports of monsters looking like enormous swans. This is also when merganser ducks and cormorants can seem much larger than they are and become long necked plesiosaurs.

Every now and again, something new and unfamiliar crops up to raise our expectations of monsters. From the late 1970s a new form of craft began to appear on Loch Ness. These were jet skis. They and their riders were fairly obvious close up but, given the size of the loch, were often seen a long way away. The craft itself might be invisible, but the great plume of spray and wash can be seen from a mile away.

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A final thought. Sometimes you may not see a monster until you get home and look at your photographs. The most common one is a snaky head and neck apparently rising from the water. What has happened is that the camera has caught an event that you did not see or paid no attention to at the time. Jumping fish are one example. But that seagull flying by has much to answer for as the camera freezes its upraised wing!

Until next time (or perhaps, until the next mystery…!)

This concludes Adrian Shine’s four-part series on Mistaken Monsters. From waves and wakes to wildlife and watercraft, these blogs remind us that Loch Ness has always inspired imagination as much as investigation.

Want to learn more? Visit The Loch Ness Centre to step into 500 million years of legend, discovery, and science. See the myths, the hoaxes, and the evidence that keeps the mystery alive.

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Have you ever spotted something strange on Loch Ness? Share your stories with us here – who knows, you might have your own ‘mistaken monster’ moment!