Loch Awe
Loch Awe is Scotlands third largest fresh water loch at with a length of 35km and total surface area of 14.9 miles. It shares a common legend about its creation which concerns a well that flooded. The holy well in question was on Ben Cruachan and each day it would be capped by a large stone. One day the attendant was too tired to replace the stone and she fell asleep. When she awoke three days later she found that the well had flooded the valley below and created Loch Awe.
There was a local tradition of there being a lake monster in Loch Awe but no one has ever seen it as far as we are aware.
Another story relating to Loch Awe concerns a mail coach driver and his girlfriend dating from 1898. He was enroute to deliver some mail, driving along a road by the loch, when his girlfriend suddenly appeared next to him and started attacking him before suddenly disappearing. Distraught the mail driver returned home to find his girl friend had not left the house that day. She did admit though that at th etime of the incident she feeling very anxious and worried for the mail coach driver as she knew he was about to deliver mail at a cottage where a fatal illness had recently been reported. So perhaps her worried state had helped create this apparition in some way.
Re: Loch Awe
James Mackinley in his Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs (1893), refers to John MacCulloch, the author of "A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland” who ‘found the belief in the water-bull a living faith among the people, notably among the dwellers beside Loch Rannoch and Loch Awe. He tells of a farmer who employed his sons to search a certain stream for one of these creatures, while the farmer himself carried a gun loaded with sixpences to be discharged when the monster appeared, silver alone having any effect on such beasts.’