Columba met a bear, not Nessie

I READ of David Feltham, and others of his ilk before him, and I despair (“20 years on, Nessie hunter still undaunted”, The Herald, July 19).


Does no-one grasp the importance of studying original sources, such as, in this case, Saint Adamnan’s Life of Columba?

I suggest Nessie hunters read his report of the saint’s encounter with what could only have been a bear.

The animal was in the river where the monks were to ford it; there were salmon there and men fishing; the so-called monster growled, then mauled a man to death, before retreating at a speed everyone found astonishing; and the River Ness shares its latitude with the home of the most famous salmon fishing bears in the world, Kodiak Island.


Read on: http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/herald-letters/columba-met-a-bear-not-nessie-1.1113153