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St. Columba and the Loch Ness Monster.
Original
painting by Mairead Ramsay
Nessie- Some family sightings Year ~ 1936
Season = Summer Time of day = 3pm Weather = sunny and calm Granny: -" I was only a child at the time, about 10
years old. I was riding my bike on a Sunday afternoon on the single track road
from Foyers to Inverfarigaig. I came round a corner above the loch I looked out
and could see a hump in the water about 100 yards out. It was a flat calm day
but it made no distrubance in the water. It was about a foot out of the water
and was black. I was quite frightened so I turned my bike round and cycled home
as quick as you like!" |
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Nessie- Some family sightings Living near Loch Ness gives
ample opportunity for Nessie watching, and I’m glad to say it’s not
been in vain. Here are a few of our encounters with the monster: Year ~1963,
Season= mid summer, Time of day = 5am (early morning), weather=clear and
sunny. Granda:" I was driving the lorry
towards Drumnadrochit and just passed Urquhart Castle when I looked down and
saw, what I at first thought, were shadows from clouds moving over the water of
the bay. But I looked up and it was a beautiful clear blue sky without a cloud
in it. The shapes in the water looked light against the water of the bay, and
were moving out into the deeper water near the castle. I could see the outlines
of three creatures as they swam just under the surface. There was one large
animal flanked by two smaller ones (babies?). The largest of them was at least
as long as the lorry I was driving; about 25ft. I watched them swim out until
first the most distant one, and then the others disappeared from view as they
swam out of the bay and into the loch itself."
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Nessie- Some family sightings Year ~ 1976
Season = Spring Time of day = 9am Weather = clear and calm
My Husband: - "I
was going to Fort Augustus Abbey in a rugby bus from Inverness. The team were
on the road between Urquhart Castle and Invermoriston . I looked out the window
and saw what looked like a brown hump in the water, fairly close to the shore.
It was about 8-10ft long by 3ft high and wide. There was no disturbance in the
water. I watched it for about half a minute, telling my friends "Look! There's
Nessie." But there had been too many jokes already that morning, and they said,
"We're fed up of everyone saying they're seeing Nessie." and didn't take a
look. Then the bus rounded the next corner, taking it out of sight. On the
return journey 3 hours later it was gone (not supprizingly). It looked like an
upturned boat, but without the keel."
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Loch Ness from
Inchnacardoch Hotel, Fort Augustus
Original painting by Mairead
Ramsay
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Year = 2001 Season = Easter
Time of day = 9am Weather = Fine and calm Mairead: -" I was driving from Foyers to Inverness
with the children in the back of the car I had passed Inverfarigaig and was
able to see Castle Urquhart across the other side of the loch. I saw a neck and
head about 500 yards out from the shore. It looked around, turning a small head
from side to side. It was only up for a moment then disappeared straight down,
it didn't dive head first. It was black and about 3ft high out of the water.
The children were too busy with their 'game boys' and saw nothing."
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Saint Columba and the
Loch Ness Monster
One of the legends
about the exploits of Saint Columba in Scotland involves Nessie the Loch Ness
Monster. This story comes from a Dark Age biography written by Abbot Adamnan of
Iona, and happened probably around 565A.D. Columba was travelled up the Great
Glen from the Scots Kingdom of Dalriada towards Inverness: the capital of the
Pictish King Brude and his Druid stepfather Broichan who was Columbas sworn
enemy. Columba knew he had to overcome opposition from this druid to get the
Kings acceptance of the, now famous, monastery at Iona, positioned between the
two kingdoms. The druid thought that the extension of Christian ministry into
this pagan area would undermine his power and there are a number of stories
relating the struggle between them.
Having travelled from
Castle Urquhart, where he had converted and baptised a dying but 'Godly
heathen', Columba then progressed along Loch Ness toward Inverness. Wanting to
cross the water where it narrows to a river at the junction of Loch Ness with
Loch Dochfour, someone needed to swim over and get a boat from the other bank.
However, at this point the Saint and his entourage encountered a gathering of
distressed people still grieving over a recent fatal attack on one of them by a
water monster, which was feared to be still lurking nearby. One of the saints
followers, a youth called Lugne Mocumin swam over to get the boat.
Unfortunately his splashing did not go undetected by the monster, which
advanced on him open mouthed. But before Nessie could hurt him, Saint Columba
raised his hand and formed the sign of the cross, and in the name of God
commanded the monster, shouting "Go no further, nor touch thou that man: go
back at once!" The monster retreated swiftly. Both locals and deciples were
seriously impressed by this miracle of the Christian God, and by Columba.
Legend does not relate whether Mocumin ever did get the boat. |
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O'er ancient Ness's argent
pool,
Columba's saintly ene did
skid
, Beneath Brude's seat of
pictish rule
In fathomless liquid
its beast well hid.
A princely outcast from his clan,
Banished from all save God alone,
From Fingal's causeway his eastward
scan,
On foamy Iona invents a
home.
The starry cloak of Columkill,
Erin's jewel thrown o'er the sea,
There to roll on heathen hill,
To light iron eons dark century.
From
Dalriada's Scottic shores,
He
rounded Alba's amber isles.
To
footsore traipse down the moors,
To
where the glen of great Ness lies.
Drooked
within its crevasse deep,
A crystal
mountain there could dip,
It's crags
and plateaus: all so steep,
Would
ne'er its sheeted surface rip.
Dredged
on Inver's mossy lips,
A victim lies
- the kelpies prey,
While Nessie in
her Loch-lair slips,
And only river
guardians play.
The
clarsach cries of kinship cut,
Tease
the druid from his dun,
Where dark
Briochan's fairy cult,
Holds sway
upon his stepson's throne.
"Our
court awaits you speeding oar."
The
bodach chides on Columkille,
"Nay
raft nor curach on you shore?
Well
send ye o'er yon swimmer chiel."
Sworn by
oath to serve as bid,
The disciple
in the peat pool melts,
There to
have his faith well rid,
On
water-horses o' the Celts.
Full the
craturs silty nest,
Some cradled
elvers there do twist,
But scent now
shifts her natal rest,
To lift and
take protective tryst.
Oh!
Leeching neck, you trailing worm,
With teeth all Neptune's trident tipped,
Craning at his naked form,
To have the vital spirit stripped.
The
servant and the serpent mixed,
Ness,
like Styx, an aqua tomb?
While
rivals on their shores transfixed,
Hear the echo of his doom.
Oceanic
angels wait,
A Godly muster of their
clan,
Swim to dam the hydra's
spate,
And on the beast enforce His
ban.
Our Lord He grants Colum's wish,
Whose sainted heart's a-flaming mad,
He faces down the demon fish,
"Beastie, dinnae touch yon lad!"
Tugged
back and back by reins divine,
And
caged within a mermaid's cell,
Held
fast with knotted cosmic twine,
Sank
to the lochy trenches hell.
You
shameful eel, now in yer hole,
Skulking for o'er a thousand year,
'Neath Castle Urquhart's ruined knowle,
You'll yet be caught foretells the seer.
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GLOSSARY
Brude King Brude
of the Picts, stepson of Briochan
Fingal's causeway Hexagonal basalt pavement
Iona Scottish Isle where Columba founded a
monastery
Columkill Gaelic name for
Columba
Starry cloak Columba's
mother dreamed of him as this before his birth,
It was interpreted as future greatness.
Erin Ireland
Dalriada Scottish kingdom
Ness Scottish river and loch
Inver Gaelic for mouth of the river
Kelpie Mythical Scottish water
spirit.
Nessie The Loch Ness
Monster
Clarsach Celtic
harp
Druid Pagan priest
Dun Fort or castle
Briochan Druid step-father of King
Brude
Bodach Gaelic for old
man
Curach From the word coracle, a
type of hide boat.
chiel Young
man
Castle Urquhart A ruined castle,
which was inhabited in Columba's time
Seer A person who can tell the future. |
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THE KELPIES
Painting by Mairead Ramsay |
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