Thursday 2 June 2016

The other "Serpent Stone" of Loch Ness

I omitted this little episode from the "From the Shoreline" series of last week as it merited a post of its own. I was made aware of this stone a while back by Nessie enthusiast, Doug. He had been over at Loch Ness some time ago and came upon this piece of rock quite by accident by the shores of Loch Ness. Last week, I finally got round to tracking down this stone and taking a look for myself. I took the picture shown below.




The slab of rock you see is over two feet long in length and would be a major effort for one person to lift. On first inspection, it just looked to me as if somebody has scratched a childish, serpentine figure onto the rock, perhaps with another smaller but sharper rock. That was my initial impression when I first saw Doug's own picture and put it down to somebody indulging in a form of Nessie graffiti.

However, on closer inspection, it was not clear to me that this image had been laid down in such a simple manner. I considered how an artist may have abrasively added the image; or maybe it was a fossil? In fact, it looked as if it was part of the rock itself and more crystalline in form than the surrounding rock. A close up of the rock shows that this may be more of a question for those trained in the discipline of geology than art.




It seemed improbable that nature could have laid down a regular form such as this. Indeed, if it had, it most likely was embedded in the rock as the whole rock gave the impression of being split open. So, opinions are invited as to how this serpentine image at Loch Ness came about and whether one can assign any meaning or motivation to it.

As for this being called the "other serpent stone", I will get round to what that means in a future article!


The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com


6 comments:

  1. Interesting. Are you keeping the location a secret? How about at least "is it near/can you see the Loch" from where the stone is?

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    1. I guess so. Not that I expect anyone to lift it and take it away...

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  2. I came upon it by accident yesterday. I've visited that location several times, starting around 1970,and didn't notice it until now. Odd. Am I unobservant (quite likely!) or has it not been there that long?

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    1. Yes, I have scouted the area many a time, but who would bother looking at a rock? Nessie ain't hiding underneath it!

      Doug's heads up has taught me to be a bit more observant of what is around me.

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    2. As for how long it has been there, I would say decades!

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  3. That is strange. Well i have not come across anything strange yet at the Loch, Im heading up to Inverness for a couple of days later, I was going to stop a couple of times along the North road and try to bump into a couple of the famous sceptics for a chat, but after looking at the facebook page the other day they dont come across as very nice people. Its a pity I did not get the chance to meet you Roland the other week.
    The hunt goes on .

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