There have been reports over the years of a large creature or ’sea serpent’ being spotted in the waters of Ardnamurchan.
In 1895, the Dundee Times reported that Duncan Macpherson, a ‘thoroughly credible and trustworthy’ source saw a sea creature while tending to his boat at Kilmory. He thought it looked like a derelict boat before seeing it thrash the water into a foam before diving. A local fishermen also saw it further out to sea.
Much more recently, in 1965 Lillian Lowe of Harborne, Birmingham wrote to Tim Dinsdale, author of The Leviathans, of a sea monster she, her husband, and her cousin had sighted off the west coast of Scotland that summer. They were standing on the end of Mingary Pier, near Kilchoan, looking out over the sea, which was glassy and calm. Her husband was looking through binoculars at the ruins of Mingary Castle:
"I saw what I thought to be a seal appear above the water, about 100 yards offshore. Then, another hump appeared directly behind it and a few feet away. As it moved I came to the conclusion that the two humps belonged to one object. I said, ‘What’s that?’ My husband immediately sighted the creature but was silent. He said afterwards he was too amazed to speak."
He could see a huge shape about forty feet long in the water and at first thought it was a submarine. Then he noticed what seemed to be legs or flippers paddling at the side of the body and creating turbulence under the water. Mrs Lowe and her cousin could only see the two humps moving steadily along. They appeared to be solid, dark, and shiny, the texture of the skin like hide. She was anxious to see through the binoculars, but just as she got it into view the creature was submerged. Her husband, who had excellent eyesight and had seen basking sharks off Cornwall, said he had never seen anything like it in his life.
As told by the Ardnamurchan History and Heritage Association
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