Now, I may not know much about messing about in boats, but sea monsters are definitely within my bailiwick. So it is that the Summer 2012 issue of the esteemed mariners’ journal Marine Quarterly contains a piece written by yours truly, entitled “Skye Sea-Serpents and Other Strange Scottish Aquatic Beasties”. The article revisits a group of well-reported sightings of some kind of unknown large animal in the waters off Skye and Lochalsh in the 1870s. Several well-heeled witnesses described the creature as nothing less than a huge, fast-moving sea serpent.

The article also rounds up Hebridean accounts of what may be encounters with relatively exotic animals such as narwhals, walruses, Beluga whales and Loggerhead or Leathery turtles, as well as the possibly-mythical maned monster of Loch na Bèiste (‘Loch of the Monster’). It also tells you where to find the skeleton of a real, honest-to-goodness, totally authentic water-horse, the human-eating aquatic demon of Scottish folklore. The article draws on the research I did for The Guide to Mysterious Skye and Lochlash.

Info on Marine Quarterly subscriptions and back issues can be found here.