by Erin Thompson

Created on: May 03, 2008

There is history in northern Scotland that pre-dates William Wallace by more than 600 years. It has survived brutal attacks from the English and is more timeless than any ghost story that has been told about the historic isle.

About 23 miles (37 km) southwest of Inverness, there is rumored to be a 40-50 foot-long creature with elephant-like skin, a giraffe-like neck, two short fore legs and three humps harbored in the depths of Loch Ness.

There have been hundreds of reported sightings of such a creature from as early as the 6th Century A.D., but little is known about the actual creature. Though there have been land sightings, it prefers to stay hidden-out of sight of humans-but once in awhile, it surfaces long enough for some to catch a glimpse of what is said to resemble pleiosaur-like creature.

In the spring of 1958, the proprietor of the Foyer's Hotel, which is situated in an elevated position overlooking Loch Ness, Hugh Rowand, and his wife were seated in their garden looking at the loch when a stationary fin-shaped object in the water near Sand Point caught his eye. A few seconds elapsed and the object seemed to spring to life as it shot across the loch. Rowand estimated that it was at a rate of about 30 miles per hour (20-25 knots).

This was enough to make a believer out of Rowand. Surely he had heard stories of the creature, but this wasn't enough to prove anything.

A member of the Northern Naturalists Organizations Peter O'Connor from Gateshead, Durham recalled seeing a similar creature, also from the garden of Foyer's Hotel, with a number of other people in May of 1960. At first he said he thought it was a rowboat, but with a second glance, he could see a brown colored object which was slowly sinking back into the loch.

Three days later, O'Connor went for a walk along the shore beside Foyer's Bay and the monster glided into view. He walked into the water up to his waist to get a closer view. He described the creature's features as "small and sheep-like with a very small neck." Its skin appeared to be smooth, he reported.

While there have been significantly less reports of this in recent history (the last decade), those that have been reported within the last year seem to have found that the creature sustains the same characteristics as those from centuries earlier.

In March of 2007, Sidney Wilson, an English tourist from Nottingham, took a cruise down the loch to view the sights. As he approached Urquhart Castle, two powerboats appeared to be leaving a large

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