It is true to say Scotland has wonderful beaches with miles of golden sand; often you will have the beach all to yourself, but before you think this is a travel book I should add that sometimes you’re sharing the beach not with a bus load of sunbathers but with a stranded sea serpent. Now you might think the chances of that happening are next to impossible, but as this book aims to prove it’s not as rare as you might think.

Of course it’s best to come clean at the beginning; not all of these supposed sea serpents are such. There are many large dead creatures that have washed ashore and also occasionally parts of large dead things too. There is of course a name for the latter; the term for one of these large unidentified lumps is a globster, and Scotland has had a few of these over the years.

In this book we will be looking not just at those creatures that have come ashore from the sea but also at the ones that have been found floating dead in the water around the coast, as well as having a look at the supposed remains of lake monsters. You may be surprised to learn just how many times a bit of Nessie has been found.