Scottish police believed in Nessie

April 28, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

EDINBURGH, Scotland

What lurks beneath the dark waters of Scotland’s Loch Ness?

Newly released documents on display Tuesday in Scotland show that during the 1930s, police in Scotland were convinced some sort of creature inhabited the Highlands lake — so sure, in fact, that they worried about how to protect it from big-game hunters.

The files from the National Archive of Scotland show that local officials asked Britain’s Parliament to investigate the issue and confirm the monster’s existence — in the interests of science.

“That there is some strange creature in Loch Ness now seems beyond doubt,” wrote William Fraser, a senior police officer, “but that the police have any power to protect it is very doubtful.”

The Nessie Files, kept secret for 70 years, were revealed as part of an exhibition on government secrecy. The exhibit examines how governments once kept almost everything secret, and how attitudes evolved to move toward more-open government in modern times.

Nessie, of course, was the epitome of mystery. The loch in which the monster is said to swim is the deepest inland expanse of water in Britain. At about 750 feet to the bottom, it’s even deeper than the North Sea.

The legend of what lies beneath the surface dates to A.D. 565, when an early Christian, St. Columba, is recorded as having driven away a water monster by the power of prayer, the National Archive said.