Encounter Atlas

Creature index / Lake and sea monsters

Morag

Also called Mòrag, Loch Morar monster, Morag of Loch Morar

Nessie's less famous neighbour, in Britain's deepest freshwater loch.

Morag is said to live in Loch Morar, the deepest body of fresh water in the British Isles at over 1,000 feet. After Nessie it is the most written-about Scottish loch monster. Its name is a pun on the loch, and older tradition held that it surfaced before a death in the local MacDonell clan.

Reports go back to 1887, and by 1981 researchers had logged 34, sixteen with several witnesses. The most famous came in August 1969, when Duncan McDonell and William Simpson said their boat struck a brown creature 25 to 30 feet long with three humps. McDonell fended it off with an oar, Simpson fired a rifle at it, and it sank out of sight.

What witnesses report

  • Brown, rough skin and several humps
  • A snake-like head held above the water
  • A large wake on a calm loch

Famous cases

  1. 1887Earliest recorded sighting
    Loch Morar, Scotland
  2. 1969McDonell and Simpson boat encounter
    Loch Morar, Scotland

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Related

Loch Ness Monsteraka Nessie, NiseagScotland's long-necked lake monster, the world's most famous cryptid.Storsjöodjuretaka Storsie, Storsjö monsterSweden's lake monster, with a dog- or cat-like head and a protected status.Bessieaka South Bay Bessie, Lake Erie MonsterLake Erie's serpent, reported by sailors since the 1790s.Dobhar-chúaka Dobhar chu, DobarcuIreland's giant 'king otter', remembered on an 18th-century gravestone.