Depending on how you look at it, the Loch Ness monster is either one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the world or an excuse for the shameless marketing of green stuffed toys wearing tartan hats.

Either way, the iconic Nessie is on course to join the Great Wall of China, Stonehenge and the Great Barrier Reef at the pinnacle of global fame as a World Heritage Site.

In an imaginative move by the local community, capitalising on the considerable power of the myth, Loch Ness is being rebranded into the premier league of scenic spots: from tacky to the Taj Mahal.

The area has been visited by Unesco and should join the “tentative list” in two years’ time. Approval will put it alongside Scotland’s four other World Heritage Sites – St Kilda, Orkney, New Lanark and the centre of Edinburgh. Hadrian’s Wall, Blenheim Palace, Westminister and Kew Gardens are among other British sites.

“I think it’s an inspired thing to do,” said Margaret Davidson, a lochside dweller and local councillor. “Loch Ness is a place like nowhere else in the world. I have lived in the Falklands and travelled the world. But there is a quality to Loch Ness which you don’t find anywhere else.

“It is mysterious. It’s deep and imponderable and – dare I say it – all of us who live on the lochside have seen weird things out there. We don’t rush to claim any prize from Ladbrokes, but we know.

“The loch holds you, especially on grey days when you can see how still it is.”

The World Heritage bid is the brainchild of a new destination management organisation, Destination Loch Ness, which seeks to promote the surrounding scenery and the immensely rich heritage, which includes the Thomas Telford-built Caledonian Canal at Inverness, the first state-funded transport initiative in Britain in 1803; 4000-year-old Iron Age forts; and roads upon which Bonnie Prince Charlie fled from Culloden in 1746.

Companies such as Jacobite Cruises, which runs trips on the loch, are fully behind the move to turn Loch Ness into a quality international destination. In four years, its business has quadrupled. “We prefer not to talk about ‘monster’. We would rather say ‘mystery’ and keep the unknown,” a spokesman said.

Nevertheless, a 3D scanner installed on their boats, to look underwater, has proved to be hugely popular with tourists.

Loch Ness is sometimes seen to be almost blighted by its legendary inhabitant.

Over the years the world’s most famous monster has been used for international marketing campaigns to sell, among other things, running shoes, Kit Kats, drinks, electronics, chocolate and Baxter’s soup. It has been turned into a souvenir staple of rucksacks, key rings, hot-water bottle covers, fridge magnets and plastic toys.

“Everyone knows about the monster,” said one insider in the tourist industry, “but nobody knows what a beautiful area it is.

“We needed to rebrand. All people think of is green toy Nessies. But the heritage is there by the bucketload. It’s all a matter of presenting it well.”

It is impossible, however, to ignore the pull of the brooding loch, the largest and deepest inland expanse of water in Britain, deeper than the North Sea at 754 feet (230m). Eerily, despite the coldness of the water, which is said to deter the usual wildlife, it has never been known to freeze.

And inseparable from the loch is the legend. The first recorded account of the monster was a confrontation with the Irish St Columba in the 6th century. Sightings have been sporadic over the centuries, but in 1933 the first photograph was taken by a London surgeon, showing something with a long neck arched over a thick body. It caused a sensation when it was published in the Daily Mail.

Those who have seen the “monster” do not think that it is a myth. Yesterday Muriel Buie, 79, who claims that she saw it in 1937 as a ten-year-old girl, said: “I certainly believe what I saw.

“I was with my mother and father, and we were coming down from Laggan to Inverness. At Urquhart Castle another car had stopped, and we did, too. I saw two humps in the water and a wash, in the middle of the loch.

“I believe honestly there was something there. The monks in the abbey, they fully believed it too. At that time, people did not seek publicity. Now, it has become an industry.” Mrs Buie agreed that it would be a good idea if Loch Ness moved on from the monster.

Larger than life

–– St Columba, it is said, ordered one of his monks to swim across the loch and fetch a boat. Halfway across, the monster rushed at the swimmer, roaring. St Columba cried out: “Go no further, nor touch the man! Go back!”

–– In 1951 Lachlan Stuart, a forestry worker who lived beside the loch, saw three humps in the water and ran to get his camera. After taking one photograph the shutter jammed, but his photograph got wide publicity as further proof of the existence of Nessie

–– Over the years several scientific investigations have taken place. In the early 1960s the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau was formed, and two submarines were brought into the search, with sonar experts on board. When the submarine Pisces was diving off Castle Urquhart, a vast underwater cavern was found, which prompted some to speculate that this was Nessie’s home

–– The circus owner Bertram Mills offered a £20,000 reward to anyone who could capture the monster for his circus, but so far no one has claimed the reward

Source: Times database

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