Monks living in 565AD may have been the first to produce art depicting the Loch Ness Monster. Ancient stones found in the vicinity of Loch Ness have animal carvings on them. Historian Norman Newton says, “They are all incredibly accurately drawn. There is no doubt what they are: the horse, the stag, the salmon, the wild boar, the eagle, the snake. Then we come to something which is often described as the Pictish Beast and occasionally as the Pictish Elephant.” He thinks it’s Nessie.
Calum Macleod writes in the Inverness Courier that many different versions of this mysterious creature appear on the stones, suggesting it was a local animal. “Pictish symbol stones are all very realistic,” Newton says. “There is no mistaking what they are?but then you get these things which don’t look like a real animal and always look very stylized. It’s always been called the Pictish Elephant for fairly spurious reasons, but that’s what started me thinking about dolphins if the Picts only caught a glimpse of them from a boat or the shore. One problem with that theory is there is no chance there could be a dolphin in Loch Ness because they just wouldn’t go into a fresh water environment.”
Newton had found many early mentions of Nessie, including a 1648 mention of a “floating island” in the loch.
Dan Kincaid writes in the Arizona Republic about the Mokele-Mbembe?the Loch Ness Monster of Africa, which people have seen in the Likouala Swamp in the Republic of the Congo.
Its description resembles a sauropod, which was a long-necked dinosaur like the brontosaurus. It’s said to be more than 30 feet long. In the native language, Mokele-Mbembe means “stopper of rivers” or “eater of palm trees.”
One of the greatest human secrets lies in plain sight in Ohio. Don’t miss Whitley’s interview with Ross Hamilton, who tells all about it on this week’s Dreamland!
To see an image of the “Pictish Beast”,click here.
To learn more, click here and here.
NOTE: This news story, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.
Subscribers, to watch the subscriber version of the video, first log in then click on Dreamland Subscriber-Only Video Podcast link.