The Mystery of the Highland Herd: The True Story of Luno the Loch Ness Alpaca

Of all the characters I’ve introduced over the years, Luno has a very special place in the collection. He has become something of a mascot for me—”Loch Ness Luno: An Alpaca on An Adventure.” But the way he came into existence is a story involving a delivery run, a very real herd of alpacas, and a bit of mistaken identity!

A Chance Encounter at Dores

The whole thing started quite practically. I was delivering copies of my other books—Santa and Rupert—to the lovely owner of Ness Gifts at Dores. As we were chatting, she suddenly asked me if I had any stories about alpacas.

I was a bit taken aback. “Alpacas?” I asked. “Why alpacas?” She grinned and told me, “Because there’s a herd right here on the banks of Loch Ness.” I was floored! I’ve lived around here a long time, but I hadn’t realized we had a local herd. It turns out she actually owned them.

Mistaken for a Monster

Now, being asked to write a story is the easy part—the tricky bit is finding the soul of the story. I kept her talking, and she told me a brilliant tale about one of her alpacas named Galaxy (her entire herd has astronomical names, which I think is just smashing).

She had posted a photo of Galaxy on the Loch Ness Alpacas website. In the picture, Galaxy was standing up to her ankles in the chilly waters of the loch. Apparently, it took exactly twenty minutes for the first email to arrive asking if this was definitive proof that the Loch Ness Monster was real!

I immediately saw the vision: if an alpaca were to fully submerge, with that long thin neck, the tufty fleece, and the hindquarters sticking up, it would look exactly like the classic descriptions of Nessie. The story practically wrote itself!

A Global Connection

As we talked, she also mentioned Ogopogo, the Canadian equivalent of Nessie that supposedly lives in the Rocky Mountains. I loved the idea of these two legendary “monsters” having a connection through a wandering alpaca.

The book also ends with a bit of a “cliffhanger” regarding pasta. I have a long-standing fascination (and confusion) with the hundreds of different pasta shapes—some shapes even have different names depending on which village you’re in! I haven’t managed to write a dedicated poem detailing every single shape yet, so it became the grand finale of Luno’s first outing.

A Result for the Ages

Luno has proven to be my best seller at the time of writing. There’s something about a “fleece with a face” embarking on a Highland adventure that seems to resonate with everyone. He started as a question at a gift shop and ended up as my official mascot. Result!!!

Join the Adventure: You can follow Luno’s mistaking-identity mishaps and explore his astronomical friends by visiting his dedicated page.