A US travel writer blasted Loch Ness as a ‘boring overhyped’ lake – and described Nessie as a hoax which does not exist.
Writer and photographer Cameron Hewitt, from Seattle, posted the scathing review on Facebook after driving from Inverness to the Isle of Skye passing the loch.
He said it was his ‘professional duty’ to drive by the famous loch – but described it as ‘the longest, deepest, most boring, and most overhyped lake’ he had ever seen.
Cameron said there was ‘nothing remotely interesting’ about Loch Ness and Scots had come up with the ‘fabricated story’ of Nessie to promote the ‘giant waste of space’.
He insisted the Loch Ness monster was not real and said it was ’empty hype’ invented in the 1930s to get people excited about ‘a little stretch of the nothingness’.
The blogger said he didn’t blame people for being curious about the loch and that visitors are up against a ‘global conspiracy‘ to drum up interest in a ‘dumb lake’.
Cameron wrote: “Yesterday I drove from Inverness to the Isle of Skye – across the middle of Scotland.
“I could have taken a scenic back-roads route, through little villages whose names you’ve never heard of.
“But I had to drive along the longest, deepest, most boring, and most overhyped lake I have ever laid eyes on, simply because so many people want to see it.
So, therefore, I have to see it, too, it’s my professional duty. What’s their excuse?
“Famous as it may be, there’s nothing remotely interesting about Loch Ness, once you’re actually here.
“Loch Ness doesn’t even crack the top 25 list of ‘prettiest Scottish lochs’.
“It’s simply a long, narrow lake with a string of cheesy roadside attractions, and a not-very-dramatic mountains on the far side.
“It’s almost as if the Scots, determined to wring a little touristic value out of this giant waste of space, at some point said, “hmm we should come up with some utterly fabricated story to get people to want to spend time and money here.
“There is no Loch Ness Monster period.
“It does not exist. Never has.
“It’s just empty hype, invented in the 1930s, kept alive by hoax after hoax, seemingly for no other reason than to get people excited about a little stretch of the nothingness contained within the Scottish interior.
“It’s frustrating because there is so much to see in Scotland that’s so much better than Loch Ness.
“But if you’re taking a ‘Highlands Highlights’ tour from Edinburgh or Inverness, it’s practically obligatory to include this giant lake.
“Many of these tours even add on a pointless boat trip on the loch.
“If you choose to skip the boat trip, you save a little money, then you waste a lot of time by having to wait around, lakeside, while the paying customers waste their time and their money on a boring lake trip, looking for something that no tourist, in the history of tourism, has ever actually seen, in millions and millions of attempts, not once, not ever.
“I think I have such a chip on my shoulder partly because I find it insulting to the other great sights of Scotland and its Highlands that Loch Ness consumes far more than its share of oxygen.
“I like to imagine a parallel world where Loch Ness does not exist.
“In that world, people devote their time to so many other, genuinely amazing attractions in this part of Scotland.
“I don’t blame you for being curious to see Loch Ness.
“You are up against a massive, well-funded, global campaign (if not conspiracy) to drum up some interest in this big, dumb lake.
“And for this reason, tour companies have to include Loch Ness because if they don’t, everyone will complain.”
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