The Loch Ness monster and the story behind the mysterious water beast theories – 90 years since first photo
On 12 November 1933, a man named Hugh Gray may well have started the orginal viral trend when he snapped the first known photograph of a creature lurking in Loch Ness.
Or, naysayers would argue, an unidentifiable object floating in Scotland’s famous deep waters.
Either way, the image caused a ripple effect that’s still being felt to this day, with people across the world visiting Loch Ness in the hope of getting a photo of “The Loch Ness monster” themselves.
But it hasn’t just been casual visitors.
Teams of investigators, underwater photographers and search teams have tried to find conclusive evidence of the infamous “water beast”, also known as Nessie.
In fact, the biggest search of the loch in 50 years took place over two days in August, with around 100 volunteers looking for the mysterious creature each day. The beast remained hidden throughout.
Volunteers watch the surface of Loch Ness. Pic: AP
Nessie Hunter vessel used as part of largest monster hunt for 50 years in August. Pic: AP
So are there genuine believers in a giant aquatic monster in 2023, or is Loch Ness now a mere tourist destination for travellers who want to say they’ve been?
Where it all began
The first high-profile report of a Nessie sighting was published by The Inverness Courier in 1933, after a local hotel manageress claimed she spotted a “water beast” in the loch.
Aldie Mackay described the moment she saw a “fearsome-looking monster” as she and her husband were driving near the water.
Mrs Mackay’s statement put Nessie on the map, but reported sightings at Loch Ness go all the way back to 565AD, according to historian, Professor Henry H Bauer.
The Inverness Courier’s report, along with Hugh Gray’s photo taken later that year, sparked a global and long-lasting fascination with finding the elusive monster.
Where we are now
We are now at least 1,155 official sightings in – and counting.
There have been nine logged sightings this year, with the last one coming on 7 October from a man on a coach that was passing the loch.
And much like with most jobs and hobbies, monster hunting has moved into the 21st century, with an Inverness and Loch Ness tourist site allowing you to investigate from the comfort of your home, via 24/7 CCTV across the loch.
Numerous theories have been put forward over the years, including that the creature may be a prehistoric marine reptile, a swimming circus elephant (yes, really) or, most recently, a giant eel.
Remains of a Plesiosaur, the dinosaur which many believe inspired the legend of the Loch Ness monster
‘Real or not, it’s a win-win’
Willie Cameron, known widely by locals as “Mr Loch Ness”, is the founder of Loch Ness Marketing, a company providing services to film and media crews on location at the loch.
He estimates that this year alone, around two million tourists from around the world have visited Loch Ness, “probably generating in excess of £55m to the economy”.
Willie Cameron shows photos of his sighting of an unknown creature in Loch Ness. Pic: AP
“Interest globally has never, ever been higher” in the monster, he adds.
When asked if he thinks there’s a scenario where the search for Nessie stops, the 72-year-old says: “Even if artificial intelligence came out tomorrow with 100 reasons why there is nothing in Loch Ness, trust me, 50% of people would believe that there is something in Loch Ness.
“We’re in a win-win situation. If it’s there, it’s there, if it’s not, it’s not going to make one iota of a difference. People love a mystery.”
The entrepreneur, who says his father had a potential sighting in 1965, told Sky News he also saw something “most unusual” in the loch in August 2016.
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A holidaymaker claims she may have taken a photograph of the legendary Loch Ness Monster
He adds that he knows plenty of people who say they’ve seen the monster, but would never speak to the media or officially log their sightings “for fear of being ridiculed”.
One cannot be blamed for feeling sceptical; the single certainty when it comes to Nessie is that there has never been any conclusive evidence she exists.
In fact, the most famous depiction of the beast, first published in 1934, was revealed to be a hoax in the 1990s.
The ‘Surgeon’s Photograph’ in 1934 of the apparent monster was later confirmed a hoax
It begs the question: if we can’t trust a photo from the 1930s, how are we supposed to have faith in the age of Photoshop and AI modification?
Nurse by day, monster-sighting registrar by night
That’s where sightings gatekeeper Paige Daley comes in.
Ms Daley recently took over the official Loch Ness monster sightings register from her father, Gary Campbell, who also started the Loch Ness Monster Fan Club in 1996 after he had a potential Nessie sighting himself.
The site logs all known sightings dating back to early medieval England.
“I’m a nurse by day,” Ms Daley tells Sky News, “and then I spend the rest of my time looking into the Loch Ness monster and mystery of Loch Ness, trying to work out what’s going on.
“We receive hundreds of sightings through the year of unexplained things in Loch Ness. But it does go through a verification process.
“We’ve got to weed out what could be an actual occurrence in Loch Ness, what could be a hoax, and what does actually come down to being something unexplained that could be the monster.”
Steve Challice is another member of the public who claims to have spotted the monster while on holiday in 2020. Pic: Steve Challice/Cover Images/AP
Ms Daley says she carries out a list of tasks before formally logging a sighting:
- Assessing the background and foreground of images to make sure it’s Loch Ness and not a random body of water
- Ruling out things that could be naturally occurring in Loch Ness. She says people sometimes send photos of what can be dismissed as ducks or seals, wakes from boats, or even scuba divers making bubbles in the water
- With some sightings, contacting academics who have degrees in marine biology, to get their take.
She may also log sightings where no photo was taken – but anyone contacting her should expect an interrogation about what they saw.
“I think there is a heavy weighting towards people feeling that it is a true touristy gimmick,” Ms Daley admits.
“However, I feel that every person who does go there deep inside them believes that they truly could capture a glimpse of the Loch Ness monster.
“We’ve had over a thousand sightings of this unexplained creature at Loch Ness, so it may be an easy copout for people to say it’s a tourist attraction instead of looking at the evidence suggesting that there is something unexplained in Loch Ness.
“It’s amazing to see that 90 years ago, the world got the first glimpse of the Loch Ness Monster and that 90 years later, we’re still getting submissions.”
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Enthusiasts descended on the Scottish lake in a large search for the mythical creature in August
The scientist who didn’t quite rule it out
Professor Neil Gemmell, a scientist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, led a major international monster hunt at Loch Ness in June 2018.
He took 250 water samples from various depths, hoping to identify the tiny fragments of DNA that skin, feathers, scales and urine leave behind and compared it with known species.
It was from this study’s findings that the giant eel theory was born.
“There is a very significant amount of eel DNA. Eels are very plentiful in Loch Ness,” Prof Gemmell said when sharing the findings.
“Our data doesn’t reveal their size, but the sheer quantity of the material says that we can’t discount the possibility that there may be giant eels in Loch Ness.”
He added: “For the people who still want to believe in monsters, there is still a lot of uncertainty in our work.”
The professor wanted to search the lake to showcase the science of eDNA to the world.
He floated the idea on social media in 2016, expecting little interest. But a Scottish newspaper picked it up and “all hell broke loose”, Prof Gemmell told Sky News.
“I was getting phone calls and requests for interviews,” he said.
“Suddenly I was the New Zealander who was going to go hunting this monster using DNA technologies… I hadn’t actually done a damn thing yet. I’d just opened my mouth and said we could do it.
“I’ve never had that level of interest in any of my other science. My kids, who were about five and eight at the time, and all their friends were really excited by it.
“So I sat there and thought to myself, ‘You know, they don’t get excited about my other work. Maybe, I could take a few people – and myself – on a bit of an adventure’.”
He says he still receives emails about the monster to this day. Some of them are children’s drawings of Nessie, which the professor says are “always fun”.
His personal favourite piece of mail, he adds, was a five-page letter, “beautifully embossed” by someone claiming to be from a Scottish university, detailing a wild conspiracy involving the Official Secrets Act, the British military and the revelation that the Loch Ness monster was in fact a camel in a wetsuit.
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His interactions with Loch Ness enthusiasts has led him to conclude that “there are people who genuinely, fervently believe” in the monster, “and there’s others who exploit it”.
The man who gave up his job, girlfriend and house for Nessie
There are those who believe, and those who believe.
Steve Feltham holds the Guinness World Record for “the longest continuous vigil for the Loch Ness Monster”, with 32 years under his belt – and counting.
“I very much arrived here with a mission statement to prove to the world that this mystery warrants investigation,” he tells Sky News.
“But now, I’m doing it primarily for the satisfaction of my lifelong fascination, and anything I discover along the way that then seeps into the public domain is a bonus. It’s no longer my mission to convince the world.”
Mr Feltham speaks to us from his once-mobile library van – which he has dubbed “the research van” – now permanently located on Dores Beach, Loch Ness.
Monster hunter Steve Feltham outside his van. Pic: Steve Feltham
It’s been his home since he left his job as a burglar alarm installer, broke up with his long-term partner and sold his house in Dorset to pursue full-time monster hunting in 1991 – a dream born from visiting the loch with his parents when he was seven.
The 60-year-old has now spent more than half of his life watching over the Scottish waters, living off profits from handmaking and selling Nessie models to tourists.
In that time, he’s only had one near-sighting; when he saw something go through the water “like a torpedo”, with water spraying off the back of the object.
That was more than 30 years ago.
Asked if he’s still confident of spotting the infamous water beast, he says: “Well believe I’m in the right place to find it. Definitely.”
Mr Feltham looks over the loch. Pic: Steve Feltham
Pic: Steve Feltham
Mr Feltham suspects Nessie is most likely to be a Wels catfish – one of the world’s largest freshwater fish – though he admits “we don’t have enough information yet to give a definitive answer”.
There are no guarantees in the monster-hunting trade. If he spends the rest of his life on Dores Beach and never finds Nessie, would he still stand by his life decisions?
“Good God, yes,” he assures us. “I spent 10 years in the rat race and at the age of 28 decided that it wasn’t for me and that there were other things I would rather do with my life.
“Following my passion, my dream, and being fully involved in a wonderful mystery on all sorts of levels… it’s the place I’m meant to be.”
A monster hunter’s legacy
Asked about what he wants to be remembered for, Mr Feltham says: “I want other people to remember that they don’t have to live a mundane life, doing something they really don’t want to do.
“If they’ve got a dream to do something else – to be a painter or be a singer, or go live in America or whatever their passion is – I’m here to say it doesn’t matter how odd that is. I mean, it’s quite an off-the-wall pursuit that I’ve chosen.
“But whatever they do,” he warns, “I certainly don’t want those people to come and sit in a camper van and try to solve this mystery! I want them to go on their own adventure.”
Schoolchildren are asking teachers how to strangle a partner during sex safely, a charity says, while official figures show an alarming rise in the crime related to domestic abuse cases.
Warning: This article contains references to strangulation, domestic abuse and distressing images.
It comes as a woman whose former partner almost strangled her to death in a rage has advised anyone in an abusive relationship to seek help and leave.
Bernie Ryan, chief executive of the Institute for Addressing Strangulation, has been running the charity since its inception in 2022 after non-fatal strangulation became a standalone offence.
“It’s the ultimate form of control,” she says.
She says perpetrators and victims are getting younger, while the reason is unclear, but strangulation has seeped into popular culture and social media.
“We hear lots of sex education providers, teachers saying that they’re hearing it in schools.
“We know teachers have been asked, ‘how do I teach somebody to strangle safely?’
“Our message is there is no safe way to strangle – the anatomy is the anatomy. Reduction in oxygen to the brain or blood flow will result in the same medical consequences, regardless of context.”
Bernie Ryan, CEO of the Institute for Addressing Strangulation
A recent review by Conservative peer Baroness Gabby Bertin recommended banning “degrading, violent and misogynistic content” online.
Violent pornography showing women being choked during sex she found was “rife on mainstream platforms”.
Ms Ryan says she “wants to make sure that young people don’t have access to activities that demonstrate that this is normal behaviour”.
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Strangulation is a violent act that is often committed in abusive relationships.
It is the second most common method used by men to kill women, the first is stabbing.
According to statistics shared by the Crown Prosecution Service, in 2024 there was an almost 50% rise in incidents of non-fatal strangulation and suffocation – compared to the year before.
Kerry Allan pleads for other victims of abuse to leave before it’s too late
Domestic abuse victim Kerry Allan has a message for anyone who is in an abusive relationship.
Kerry met Michael Cosgrove in September 2022. While she said “at the beginning it was really good”, within months he became physically abusive.
In August last year her friends found his profile on a dating app.
“I confronted him and he denied it. I knew we were going to get into a big argument and I couldn’t face it, so I said I was going to my mum’s for a few days and take myself away from the situation.
“I came back a few days later and stupidly I agreed we could try again and everything escalated from that.”
Injuries to Kerry’s chest. Pic: CPS
In the early hours of 25 August the pair had come in from a night out at a concert and got into an argument.
“He was having a go at me, accusing me of flirting with other people, and I was angry. I told him he had a nerve after what he’d done to me in the week and how he humiliated me.
“I told him that I wanted to leave, that we were done and that I wanted to go to my mum’s and that’s when it got bad.
“He pinned me to the bed and that’s when he first strangled me.”
Kerry’s neck injury. Pic: CPS
Kerry says this was the first time she’d ever been violently assaulted. Cosgrove was eerily silent as he eventually let go and Kerry gasped for air.
“I remember trying to get my breath back, I was crying and hyperventilating… I was sick on the bedroom floor and I was asking him to go.”
Cosgrove strangled her for a second time before letting go again.
“He was saying I wasn’t getting out of this bedroom alive. I was dead tonight, he hoped that I knew that. Just kept saying how I’d ruined his life.”
Injury to Kerry’s eye. Pic: CPS
“I remember feeling a sort of shock thinking at this point, I’m not going to get out of this bedroom, he’s actually going to kill me.”
Kerry began screaming and shouting for help as loud as she could.
Her neighbours heard the commotion and called the police. While they were en route, Kerry was once again being assaulted.
Bleeding in Kerry’s eye
“I ran over to the bedroom window and tried to jump out, he grabbed me as I went to open the window, and we struggled. And then I was back in the same position, he was on top of me on the bed, and his hands were round the throat again. But this time it didn’t stop.
“I remember trying to struggle and trying to kick out and hit him and I just kept thinking that I definitely was going to die, because at this point, it wasn’t stopping.”
The next memory Kerry has is opening her eyes to see police and paramedics in the bedroom.
Michael Cosgrove. Pic: CPS
Cosgrove had heard the sirens, jumped out of the bedroom window and went to hide in Kerry’s car.
Kerry remembers opening her eyes to paramedics caring for her: “I remember thinking, I’m alive. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that I was alive and I wasn’t dead. My last memory is him being on top of me with his hands on my throat.”
Kerry met Michael Cosgrove in September 2022
She gives this advice to anyone who is in an abusive relationship: “Please speak to somebody, whether it’s friends, family, a work colleague, whether it’s somebody online, whether it’s a charity that you’re directed to, any sort of abuse is not okay.
“Whether it starts off emotional, they often start off that way, and they escalate, and they can escalate badly.
“Take what happened to me as a huge warning sign, because I wouldn’t want anyone else to be in the position I’ve been in the last eight months.”
Cosgrove was found guilty of attempting to murder Kerry and intentional strangulation.
He will be sentenced in July.
The King echoed the words of his grandfather as he delivered a speech at the precise moment King George VI addressed the nation to mark VE Day 80 years ago.
At 9pm, Charles spoke at Horse Guards Parade in central London and called on the country to “rededicate ourselves” to “the cause of freedom” and “the prevention of conflict”.
His grandfather spoke to the nation from Buckingham Palace at 9pm on 8 May 1945, to thank the country for their contribution as war came to an end in Europe.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla wave Union flags during the concert celebrating the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, held at the historic Horse Guards Parade in central London. Picture date: Thursday May 8, 2025.
Recalling the VE Day speeches, Charles said: “We should remind ourselves of the words of our great wartime leader, Sir Winston Churchill, who said ‘meeting jaw to jaw is better than war’.
“In so doing, we should also rededicate ourselves not only to the cause of freedom but to renewing global commitments to restoring a just peace where there is war, to diplomacy, and to the prevention of conflict.
“For as my grandfather put it, ‘We shall have failed, and the blood of our dearest will have flowed in vain, if the victory which they died to win does not lead to a lasting peace, founded on justice and established in good will’.
Stressing the responsibility we still hold today, he added: “Just as those exceptional men and women fulfilled their duty to each other, to humankind, and to God, bound by an unshakeable commitment to nation and service, in turn it falls to us to protect and continue their precious legacy – so that one day hence generations yet unborn may say of us: ‘they too bequeathed a better world’.”
King Charles III and Queen Camilla alongside the Waleses at the concert celebrating the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, held at the historic Horse Guards Parade in central London. Picture date: Thursday May 8, 2025. Pic: PA
The King’s words were designed to be a reminder of current conflicts.
In recent months, the monarch has been placed at the forefront of diplomatic matters, making his call for “unity” even more pertinent.
“The Allied victory being celebrated then, as now, was a result of unity between nations, races, religions and ideologies, fighting back against an existential threat to humanity,” the King said. “Their collective endeavour remains a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when countries stand together in the face of tyranny.”
After a week which has seen the Royal Family make it a priority to ensure VE Day commemorations have been special for the surviving veterans, the King thanked not just those who served in uniform but acknowledged the contribution of those left back home.
“We unite to celebrate and remember with an unwavering and heartfelt gratitude, the service and sacrifice of the wartime generation who made that hard-fought victory possible,” he said. “While our greatest debt is owed to all those who paid the ultimate price, we should never forget how the war changed the lives of virtually everyone.”
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King arrives at VE Day service
Like families up and down the country remembering VE Day, it was clear Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was at the forefront of his mind.
Remembering his mother’s story of what happened when she was allowed to leave the palace, he said: “The celebration that evening was marked by my own late mother who, just 19 years old, described in her diary how she mingled anonymously in the crowds across central London and ‘walked for miles’ among them.
“The rejoicing continued into the next day, when she wrote ‘Out in the crowd again. Embankment, Piccadilly. Rained, so fewer people. Conga-ed into House. Sang till 2am. Bed at 3am!’.
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Charles continued: “I do hope your celebrations tonight are almost as joyful, although I rather doubt I shall have the energy to sing until 2am, let alone lead you all in a giant conga from here back to Buckingham Palace.”
Earlier in the week, at a tea party held at Buckingham Palace, the King said to one veteran: “Do you do the conga? I remember doing congas with my grandmother round and round the house.”
Red Wall MPs should push for the two-child benefit cap to be lifted rather than a reversal of the winter fuel payment policy, Baroness Harriet Harman has said.
Baroness Harman, the former Labour Party chair, told Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast that this would hand the group a “progressive win” rather than simply “protesting and annoying Sir Keir Starmer” over winter fuel.
Earlier this week, a number of MPs in the Red Wall – Labour’s traditional heartlands in the north of England – reposted a statement on social media in which they said the leadership’s response to the local elections had “fallen on deaf ears”.
They singled out the cut to the winter fuel allowance as an issue that was raised on the doorstep and urged the government to rethink the policy, arguing doing so “isn’t weak, it takes us to a position of strength”.
Labour’s decision to means test the policy has snatched the benefit away from millions of pensioners.
But Baroness Harman said a better target for the group could be an overhaul of George Osborne’s two-child benefit cap.
The cap, announced in 2015 as part of Lord David Cameron’s austerity measures, means while parents can claim child tax credit or Universal Credit payments for their first and second child, they can’t make claims for any further children they have.
Labour faced pressure to remove the cap in the early months of government, with ministers suggesting in February that they were considering relaxing the limit.
Baroness Harman told Beth Rigby that this could be a sensible pressure point for Red Wall MPs to target.
She said: “It could be that they have a kind of progressive win, and it might not be a bad thing to do in the context of an overall strategy on child poverty.
“Let’s see whether instead of just protesting and annoying Sir Keir Starmer, they can build a bridge to a new progressive set of policies.”
Jo White, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw and a member of the Red Wall group, suggested that her party’s “connection” to a core group of voters “died” with the decision to means test the winter fuel payment for pensioners.
“We need to reset the government,” she told Electoral Dysfunction. “The biggest way to do that is by tackling issues such as winter fuel payments.
“I think we should raise the thresholds so that people perhaps who are paying a higher level of tax are the only people who are exempt from getting it.”
Pic: AP
A group of MPs in the Red Wall, thought to number about 40, met on Tuesday night following the fallout of local election results in England, which saw Labour lose the Runcorn by-election and control of Doncaster Council to Reform UK.
Following the results, Sir Keir said “we must deliver that change even more quickly – we must go even further”.
Some Labour MPs believe it amounted to ignoring voters’ concerns.
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One of the MPs who was present at the meeting told Sky News there was “lots of anger at the government’s response to the results”.
“People acknowledged the winter fuel allowance was the main issue for us on the doorstep,” they said.
“There is a lack of vision from this government.”
Another added: “Everyone was furious.”
Downing Street has ruled out a U-turn on means testing the winter fuel payment, following newspaper reports earlier this week that one might be on the cards.
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