The Legend of the Loch Awe Pike

Loch Awe, Argyll, Scotland

A pike of supernatural size is said to inhabit the deepest part of Loch Awe — large enough to have capsized a rowing boat in 1927. A fisherman claimed to have seen its fin surfacing near Kilchurn Castle.

Loch Awe is one of the longest freshwater lochs in Scotland, running twenty-five miles through Argyll. Its depth — reaching nearly 100 metres in places — and the darkness of its peaty water have sustained a tradition of something large in its depths that is distinct from the Nessie phenomenon of Loch Ness. The Loch Awe creature is specifically described as a fish — a pike of impossible size — rather than a reptilian or mammalian creature. This puts it in a different category of Scottish loch lore: the orc-pike tradition, which appears in several Scottish freshwater lochs and in Norse sources. The most documented 20th century incident: in 1927, a fishing boat returning across Loch Awe near Kilchurn Castle was struck from beneath and partially lifted. The boatman — a Mr. MacDougall, whose testimony was recorded by the local newspaper — described a disturbance in the water that was clearly caused by something very large moving just below the surface. He refused to cross that section of the loch again. Casual reports of an anomalously large fin or tail have continued sporadically. Sport fishermen in the area know the tradition well. Pike are real inhabitants of Loch Awe — there are verified specimens of six feet or more — which gives the tradition a plausibility unusual in Scottish cryptid lore.