It has lain largely forgotten and gathering dust for decades.
asserted
It → lie → decades
The daily journal lovingly collated by Major Bill Davidson in the 1950s mainly recounts his successes or otherwise fishing the deep, dark waters of Loch Ness near his family home.
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journal → collate → home
Until you get to the entry dated July 1954, where, in just seven sentences, he records, with almost breathtaking casualness, what is believed to be the clearest and lengthiest sighting of the Loch Ness Monster.
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what → get → Monster
The Army officer wrote: ‘Saw the Loch Ness Monster for 20 minutes.
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officer → write → minutes
The entry, contained in Major Davidson’s ‘game journal’, has – until now – been kept solely within the family.
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entry → contain → family
But as they prepare to sell a stretch of Loch Ness shoreline they have owned for decades, the major’s son Bob Davidson has decided to share the remarkable sighting – and those by other family members – with the rest of the world.
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son → prepare → world
Major Bill Davidson - pictured with his son Bob - wrote the astonishing journal entry
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Davidson → picture → entry
The description is somewhat reminiscent of this famous photo taken in 1934 by a vacationing London surgeon, Robert K. Wilson, in Loch Ness
Discussing his father’s journal entry, Mr Davidson said: ‘My father recalled the same account to me on a number of occasions – describing a large hump, head and neck.
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father → take → hump
‘I was interested in the fact that the animal had lifted its neck and head out of the water on a couple of occasions.
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animal → lift → occasions
His own amazement was with the sheer size, which he estimated to be close to the length of a cricket wicket.
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he → estimate → wicket
The lengthy account in 1954 took place during a period of leave Major Davidson had from his service in the King’s Own Scottish Borderers.
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Davidson → take → Borderers
He had travelled home to spend time with his mother, Winifred Cary, and his sister, Daphne, at the family’s cottage in the Inverness-shire hamlet of Strone.
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He → travel → Strone
As mother and son stood watching the loch near Urquhart Castle from the elevated garden at the croft, they spotted a change in the previously calm waters.
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they → stand → waters
Recounting the tale years later, Mrs Cary said she believed the creature was at least 50 or 60ft long and had protruded at least four or five feet out of the water.
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creature → recount → water
Unlike her son, she said she did not see any head, but rather described the creature she saw as having a ‘great hump’ and that it caused ‘a terrific commotion in the water’ as it came up.
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it → say → water
Unbeknown to the pair at the time, Mrs Cary’s daughter Daphne had also been watching from her bedroom window.
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daughter → watch → window
Years later, Mr Davidson asked his aunt to write down her own account of what she saw.
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she → ask → what
In it, she states she watched a large ‘hump’ for around 20 minutes as it moved from Urquhart Castle across the bay with ‘the speed of a motor boat with a wide wake behind it’.
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it → state → it
As it turns out, it was yet another story to add to the family’s long association with the legend.
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it → turn → legend
The entry from 1954 details how he saw a creature with a "huge snake's head"
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he → detail → head
Bob Davidson, above, has shared his father's monster account for the first time
Mrs Cary’s home in Strone boasted what many consider to be the best panoramic view over Loch Ness.
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many → share → Ness
Having bought it in 1951 with her second husband Basil Cary – it became a sought-after location for Nessie hunters, who would flock there to monitor the loch.
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who → buy → loch
Mrs Cary – known as Freddie – welcomed these visitors for decades and would regale them with her own eyewitness accounts, which stretched back to her first sighting as a child in 1918.
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which → know → 1918
Her childhood sighting occurred as she and her brother rowed across the loch fishing for salmon while her family, who lived in Edinburgh at that time, were holidaying in the Highlands.
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who → occur → Highlands
Behind her brother’s back, she said she saw ‘a great black creature’ that surfaced before disappearing under the waves.
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that → say → waves
The sighting in 1954 was one of two she had that year with more following in the 1960s and 1970s.
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she → have → 1960s
Mr Davidson’s aunt Daphne also wrote down an account that a friend had relayed to her of a sighting they had in the 1970s.
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they → write → 1970s
On that occasion, a group of people on a ‘cruiser’ on the loch saw a creature as they were approaching the village of Dores.
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they → see → Dores
Her friend told her that they had come within 15 yards of the beast – close enough to make out a ‘head and neck and large hump and lower hump’ as well as seeing the texture of its skin, which they described as being green in colour.
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they → tell → colour
The family made another connection with the legend of the monster in the 1980s when Major Davidson bought a mile-long stretch of the shoreline on the northwestern side of Loch Ness.
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Davidson → make → Ness
The land itself, which came to be known as Major’s Mile, is in an area called Abriachan.
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which → come → area
While its purchase allowed Major Davidson to engage in his love of fishing, it also secured him a piece of history.
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it → allow → history
The land, which has just gone on sale for offers over £95,000, is within the Abriachan area of the Highlands where a famous sighting in 1933 led to a report in the Inverness Courier describing the creature as a ‘monster’ for the first time.
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sighting → go → time
According to the story, a couple were driving along the north shore of the loch not far from Abriachan Pier when they were startled to see ‘a tremendous upheaval on the loch, which, previously, had been as calm as the proverbial mill-pond’.
uncertain
which → accord → pond
The Davidsons said they spotted the creature in the water near Urquhart Castle, above
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they → say → Castle
The report in the Inverness Courier continued: ‘There, the creature disported itself, rolling and plunging for fully a minute, its body resembling that of a whale, and the water cascading and churning like a simmering cauldron.’
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water → continue → cauldron
St Columba is also thought to have stayed in Abriachan during his travels in the Highlands in 565 AD.
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Columba → think → AD
It was during his time there that the Irish missionary is said to have driven off a fierce water beast that had been attacking villagers on the shores of Loch Ness.
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that → say → Ness
Mr Davidson, 67, who now owns the land up for sale, said: ‘There have been quite a few sightings from Abriachan and from my stretch of Loch Ness.’
A trained biologist who later worked in medical research, he grew up hearing family stories of encounters with the mythical beast.
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he → own → beast
He said: ‘There’s a huge amount more to the sightings than meets the eye.
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He → say → eye
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
