We all know the Loch Ness Monster. Not personally, but we've definitely heard of it. Stuart McHardy knows a lot more stories about Loch Ness monsters, fairies and heroes than most folk, and he has more than a nodding acquaintance with Nessie, too. From the lassie whose forgetfulness created the loch to St Columba's encounter with a rather familiar sea-monster nearly 1,500 years ago, from saints to hags to the terrible each-uisge, the waterhorse that carries unwitting riders away to drown and be eaten beneath the waters of the loch, these tales are by turns funny, enchanting, gruesome and cautionary. Derived from both history and legends, passed by word of mouth for untold generations, they give a glimpse of the romance and glamour, the danger and the magic of the history of Scotland's Great Glen. |