So is it a messy end for Nessie?
(...or an explanation that’s not so rotten)
AT first glance, it looks like a dismal end for a great creature of the deep – but what kind of beast exactly?
Well, the fact that it was discovered by a dog walker on the shores of Loch Ness may provide a clue.
But the rotting carcass on the beach at Dores is perhaps not all it appears – and few locals believe for a minute that it solves the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster.
The most likely explanation for the corpse is that it is a crude prop for an ITV drama called Loch Ness which is being filmed in the area.
Images of the creature’s ‘remains’ were posted on Facebook this week with the question: ‘Has Nessie been found? Or someone playing a fascinating prank?’
Looking at the bundle of bones and organs, which was surrounded by police tape, most immediately plumped for the latter option.
On social media, one person said it looked like ‘a bunch of ribs and white puddings’.
Tweeter Stephen Welford said: ‘That is a giraffe body’.
The grisly deposit on the beach at the north-east end of the loch is almost certainly explained by the fact that locals were informed that filming for a six-part crime thriller would take place at Dores on Mon- day and Tuesday. The ITV drama, due to be broadcast early in the New Year, is set in the fictional town of Lochnafoy on the shores of Loch Ness and tells the story of a serial killer preying on the rural community.
In a letter to all households in the area, residents were told: ‘To facilitate filming and create a safe working environment, we have sought and been granted permission from the necessary parties to access and film on the beach.
‘We are aware that filming can impact the daily routine of small communities quite significantly – we will make every effort to keep disruption and inconvenience to an absolute minimum.’
It is the second time in recent months that the film and television world has wrongfooted Nessie hunters. In April, it emerged that a robot scanning the water for the monster had discovered a model of it at the bottom of the loch.
The 30ft replica is thought to have been cast into the waters after the film The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes, directed by Billy Wilder, was finished.
When the film completed shooting, the team took various parts off the model, including its humps, and ditched it in the loch to dispose of it.
A spokesman for Visit Scotland said: ‘Although it is the shape of Nessie, it is not the remains of the monster that has mystified the world for 80 years, but a star of the silver screen.’
Loch Ness has always been notoriously difficult to survey due to its depth and steeply sloping sides.
Despite the lack of evidence pointing to any unique life form in the loch, the interest surrounding Nessie is worth an estimated £60million a year to the Scottish economy, with hundreds of thousands of visitors travelling to Loch Ness every year in the hope of catching a glimpse of it.
‘The corpse is a crude prop’