Celebrating Nessie

Like other whims of the imagination, the careers of cryptozoological creatures go through three phases. Firstly, there is a period of enthusiasm: the Monster of Loch Ness attracted widespread national publicity, and ambitious expeditions were launched to search for the creature, some of them using modern technology. A period of lethargy and scepticism ensued – not that old monster again! – although the creature still received firm support from the Inverness tourism authorities. As we see here, there were two nice rare first day covers featuring the Loch Ness Monster in 1991 and 2003. Sadly, neither of them was signed. The monster could hardly be expected to provide a signature, although the mayor of Inverness would have laboured under no such impediment, but instead the Scottish actor Richard Wilson, known for One Foot in the Grave, was persuaded to add his signature to a limited edition of the first of these covers.

Today, the Loch Ness Monster has been relegated to the ‘funny pages’ of the newspapers, even in its homeland of Scotland. The Inverness tourist office still holds the creature’s banner high, albeit with less success than in the past. In August 2023, there was a [final?] ambitious search for the Loch Ness Monster, although the creature remained as elusive as ever [FT437:45]. “No S**t Sher-Loch – Global TV crews in search for Monster” wrote that irreverent newspaper, the Scottish Sun, making fun of the monster and the credulous enthusiasts attempting to find it.

Jan Bondeson Dunbar, Scotland