The Great Orm of Loch Ness

by Fredrick William Holiday

s/t: A practical inquiry into the nature and habits of watermonsters

Genres: Cryptozoology, Nonfiction, Monsters

223 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[Brian Switek · Rating 2 out of 5]

How could I resist a book that asserts the mythical Loch Ness Monster is a descendant of real, as-yet-unclassified "worms" found in the 300-million-year-old rock of Illinois? It's an original idea, surely, and Holiday is at his best when recounting his time around the Loch and popping off on what he believes the proper nature of zoology should be (even if he's totally muddled on the matter). The long interview transcripts, photography details, and archaeological overreach can readily be skipped, but there's still some enjoyment to be had in this peculiar argument.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best and most interesting books I have ever read in my life.

Admitedly, my all time favorite subject is cryptozoology.

The author is English and he describes his individual explorations and expeditions to Loch Ness.
He had two sightings of his own there. He then in the last third of the book hypothesizes about what type of animal the Loch Ness monster could be.

He comes up with what to a lot of people is an incredibly bizarre idea. That the Loch Ness monster is some type of supposedly extinct giant worm. Initially, he thought it might be a giant slug.

I have done a lot of research into biology and there are a lot of known unusual animals that most people are unaware of. If they were aware of some of these animals, they might not think this is such an unusual idea.

I know to a lot of people this sounds like a very bizarre idea, but people need to be aware that one of the two biggest known animals in the world is an invertebrate which is the giant squid. (There is still controversy about exactly how big the giant squid grows to be).

For anyone who is interested in cryptozoolgy, this would be a very good book to read.

IMO, it is very well written. And again, I consider it one of the most interesting books I have ever read in my life.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the most intriguing books on the Loch Ness monster that I've ever read. The author hypothesizes that the monster is a giant worm, or "orm".

[B.M.B. Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would describe this as a great adventure book, one which made me imagine myself in the early sixties and sitting along the banks of Loch Ness searching for the elusive worm.

Highly enjoyable.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusual book from the late 1960's suggesting that the Loch Ness Monster is in fact a large invertebrate such as a worm or sea-slug, which has evolved a plesiosaur-like shape out of parallel evolution. The author points to the then-new discovery of the Tullimonstrum, a fossilised extinct species fitting that description but much smaller, and speculates about the existence of animals that are to the Tullimonstrum what giant squid are to regular squid. The word "Orm", which F. W. Holiday uses to describe the monsters, comes from mediaeval stories of dragons and sea-serpents describing such creatures as either wormlike or calling them worms - notice that "orm" is the Danish and Norwegian word for worm. Holiday goes on to suggest that his theoretical giant worm explains most if not all dragon stories of antiquity.


Holiday's giant worm theory runs into the same problem as the theory that Nessie and other aquatic cryptids are an undiscovered species of long necked seal: Elaborate speculations spun from layers of evidence that are thin at best. It does not help that Holiday picks some rather questionable cases to use as evidence, most notably the Surgeon's Photograph (depicted on the cover) which in the 1990's was proven to be a hoax.


So why do I give this book four stars? The author F. W. Holiday is a talented travelogue writer, perfectly capturing the atmosphere of the foggy mysterious romance of the Highlands. Holiday's account of his own monster hunting expedition, complete with a couple actual sightings, is also rather gripping. More important is the fact that he digs up quite a bit of obscure folklore and clears up several popular misconceptions about lake monster lore. This book is responsible for popularizing the stories of the so called MacRae film, which purportedly shows clear footage of the Loch Ness monster proving its existence for all as well as a similar creature in nearby Loch Duich. There is a catch, of course: The MacRae film is hidden in a bank vault by a private trust, only to be released when the general public takes the subject of lake monsters more seriously.


I suspect that if the MacRae film turns out to exist, it'll be a disappointment on a comparable scale as the Roswell Slides did in ufology. The whole story has an unmistakable air of "too good to be true" hanging over it.


In any case I can recommend "The Great Orm" to cryptozoologists, folklorists as well as people interested in reading travelogues with an unusual twist of some type. As flimsy as Holliday's argumentation can be, the book still is an engaging and entertaining reading experience.

[Dan Zarfati · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fascinated by this book, read in 1995, it was barely a year when the author discarded his own theory, the theory being that the "monster" was a type of mollusk or gigantic slug. He was more inclined to subscribe that this was a fabrication by someone else.