Nessie hunter excitedly claims she's spotted the fabled monster

Nessie hunter excitedly claims she’s spotted the fabled monster as sleuths from around the world descend on Loch Ness to track down beast

• Woman claims to have seen the Loch Ness monster – the sixth ‘sighting’ this year 

A Nessie hunter has excitedly claimed how she spotted the fabled monster as sleuths from around the world are descending on Loch Ness to track down the beast. 

The sixth so-called sighting of the Loch Ness Monster this year was recorded by a woman who was baffled after seeing a curved creature in the legendary water on August 31.

Fiona Wade claimed that it was ‘like nothing I have seen before and I can only describe it as Nessie’.

She reported seeing something similar to that which was spotted by civil servant Alastair Gray on August 26. Mr Gray saw ‘three odd and seemingly connected shapes’ near Invermoriston.

A Nessie hunter has excitedly claimed she spotted the fabled monster as sleuths from around the world are descending on Loch Ness to track down the beast

The sixth so-called sighting of the Loch Ness Monster this year was recorded by a woman who was baffled after seeing a curved creature in the legendary water

Ms Wade said her sighting was ‘almost identical’ to that seen by Mr Gray and ‘probably in a very similar location’.

‘I might add that I was not aware of this sighting on Saturday until returning home this evening. It initially looked like a periscope but then two curved areas followed, it was moving and about half way out in the Loch looking roughly over to mid way between Foyers and Whitebridge.’

‘I have seen deer crossing before but this was like nothing I have seen before and I can only describe it as Nessie as I can’t think of any logical thing it could have been. It was large enough to catch my eye and it appeared to leave a slight wake behind it.’

The sighting took place at 10.45am, the water was calm and there was allegedly no nearby boat activity. 

The sighting, which lasted 30 to 40 seconds, has been accepted by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register.

It came as a 12-year-old girl said she spotted the Loch Ness Monster in 2018 and has the images to prove it.

Charlotte Robinson from Leeds in Yorkshire was staying at Loch Ness Highland Lodges at Invermoriston when she said she saw the beast pop up about 50 feet away from her on the first day of her holiday.

It took place just four days after Chie Kelly captured startling images of a large unidentified creature slowly spinning on the surface of the legendary loch.

Mrs Kelly, 51, was taking photographs from the village of Dores when she and her businessman husband Scott, 68, saw a strange ‘serpent-like’ creature moving over a distance of around 100 metres before disappearing.

Mrs Kelly, who works as a translator, was so shocked by what she saw on August 13, 2018, that she feared public ridicule and did not share the images.

Charlotte Robinson from Leeds in Yorkshire was staying at Loch Ness Highland Lodges at Invermoriston when she said she saw the beast 

Charlotte said the creature popped up about 50 feet away on the first day of her holiday

However, after reading about the biggest search for Nessie in over 50 years that took place last weekend, she was inspired to share the images. 

It was then that she plucked up the courage to show her photographs to veteran Nessie hunter Steve Feltham, who has set a world record for the longest vigil of searching for the Loch Ness Monster – spanning more than 30 years.

He was astounded and described them as the ‘most exciting’ surface pictures of Nessie he had ever seen.

Charlotte said a strange creature surfaced in front of her for about a minute before re-surfacing approximately ten feet away seven minutes later. 

Charlotte was on holiday with her mum Kat, a business intelligence data analyst, and her father Dave, a factory worker.

Mr and Mrs Robinson had stayed at the same holiday centre 16 years earlier. 

Chie Kelly, 51, was taking photographs from the village of Dores when she and her businessman husband Scott, 68, saw a strange ‘serpent-like’ creature moving over a distance of around 100 metres before disappearing

Mrs Kelly, who works as a translator, was so shocked by what she saw on August 13, 2018, that she feared public ridicule and did not share the images. However, after reading about the biggest search for Nessie in over 50 years that took place this year, she was inspired to share the photographs

Charlotte Robinson at Loch Ness. She took the photos just four days after Mrs Kelly captured  startling images of a big unidentified creature

Charlotte saw the creature and captured it on her phone.

‘There was something in the water about 50 feet from the shore. I took a photo. It had a neck and head was in the shape of a hook,’ Charlotte said.

‘I just took what I saw. It was black – I just don’t know how far it was out of the water. I’m not good at judging distances.

‘But after about a minute it disappeared and then came back up again in a different place. It was up for less than a minute the second time. I kinda believed in Nessie, but I wanted to see the proof. I always imagined her as having a long neck and flippers.

‘I have seen something but I’m not sure what.’

Her mum added: ‘Charlotte said she had taken a photo of a creature in the loch and I said, ‘Right, sure you have!’ For weeks she’s been going on about seeing the Loch Ness Monster.

‘But when I saw the picture, I couldn’t believe it. Something’s there. With all the sightings over the years there must be something in the loch.’

Organiser Alan McKenna (left) joins Nessie hunters on board a boat on Loch Ness for what was described as the biggest search for the Loch Ness Monster since the early 1970s

A general view of Loch Ness. It has been 90 years since the Loch Ness Monster phenomenon began

Nessie expert Mr Feltham was astonished by the image and said that it was ‘the best of ‘Nessie’ in years’.

Charlotte’s sighting was accepted by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings’ Register.

Gary Campbell, the keeper of the register, said: ‘It was some extraordinary week because as well as Charlotte’s sighting there were three others of an unexplained creature.

‘It appears that the creature was moving between Dores and Fort Augustus. These pictures by Mrs Kelly and Charlotte are the best of Nessie ever taken and are totally baffling. It all adds to the evidence that is definitely something unexplained in Loch Ness.’

READ MORE: Is this the most convincing Loch Ness Monster proof yet? Nessie hunter shares photos of creature in ‘most exciting ever’ sighting – as large animal is also seen on ‘thermal image’ cam

Mr Campbell added that Mrs Kelly’s sighting had now been added to the official register.

It has been 90 years since the modern phenomenon of seeking out the Loch Ness Monster began.

On April 14, 1933, hotel manageress Mrs Aldie Mackay reported seeing a ‘whale-like fish’ in the waters of Loch Ness.

From the car, she glanced out across the still calm waters towards Aldourie Castle where she spotted something.

Mrs Mackay’s sighting was reported in the Inverness Courier on May 2, 1933 by Alex Campbell, the water bailiff for Loch Ness and a part-time journalist.

It is widely regarded as the first modern ‘sighting’ of a monster in the loch.

In 2019, Prof Neil Gemmell, a geneticist from the University of Otago in New Zealand, trawled Loch Ness and found no evidence of plesiosaur DNA.

However, he found a great deal of eel DNA and posited that there may be giant eels in Loch Ness and that these might be behind the Nessie sightings.

In 2020 startling images of a large creature inhabiting the depths of Loch Ness were captured on sonar off Invermoriston by skipper Ronald Mackenzie aboard his Spirit of Loch Ness tourist boat.

Feltham said they were the ‘most compelling’ evidence yet of the existence of a Loch Ness Monster.

Experts were astounded by the clarity of the image of an object, estimated to be 32 feet long and hovering 62 feet above the bottom of the loch.

Leading sonar expert Craig Wallace described the sonar images as ‘large, clear and distinct contacts, all strangely near to the loch bed’ and ‘100 percent genuine’.

According to Google, there are around 200,000 searches each month for the Loch Ness Monster and around 120,000 for information and accommodation close to Loch Ness. 

The monster mystery is said to be worth £30m to the region.

Irish missionary St Columba is first said to have encountered a beast in the River Ness in 565AD.

There have been five ‘official sightings’ this year of the Loch Ness Monster.

The official register has now logged 1,161 sightings, including webcam images, from records and other evidence spanning centuries.

One of the most well-known photographs of the Loch Ness Monster later proved to be a hoax.

In 1994, before his death at the age of 90, Christian Spurling confessed to his involvement in a plot to create the famous Surgeon’s Photo

British surgeon Colonel Robert Wilson came forward with a picture that appeared to show a sea serpent rising out of the water of the loch.

Wilson claimed he took the photograph early in the morning on April 19, 1934, while driving along the northern shore of Loch Ness.

In 1994, before his death at the age of 90, Christian Spurling confessed to his involvement in the plot to create the famous Surgeon’s Photo. 

He revealed that the object in the water was in fact a toy submarine outfitted with a sea serpent head.

What IS the Loch Ness Monster?

Rumours of a strange creature living in the waters of Loch Ness have abounded over the decades, yet scant evidence has been found to back up these claims.

One of the first sightings, believed to have fuelled modern Nessie fever, came in May 2, 1933.  

On this date the Inverness Courier carried a story about a local couple who claim to have seen ‘an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface’.

Another famous claimed sighting is a photograph taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson.

It was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged.

Other sightings James Gray’s picture from 2001 when he and friend Peter Levings were out fishing on the Loch, while namesake Hugh Gray’s blurred photo of what appears to be a large sea creature was published in the Daily Express in 1933.

Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, captured arguably the most famous image of the Loch Ness Monster. The surgeon’s photograph was published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934 – however it was later proven to be a fake 

The first reported sighting of the monster is said to have been made in AD565 by the Irish missionary St Columba when he came across a giant beast in the River Ness.

But no one has ever come up with a satisfactory explanation for the sightings – although in 2019, ‘Nessie expert’ Steve Feltham, who has spent 24 years watching the Loch, said he thought it was actually a giant Wels Catfish, native to waters near the Baltic and Caspian seas in Europe.

An online register lists more than 1,000 total Nessie sightings, created by Mr Campbell, the man behind the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club and is available at www.lochnesssightings.com. 

So what could explain these mysterious sightings? 

Many Nessie witnesses have mentioned large, crocodile-like scutes sitting atop the spine of the creature, leading some to believe an escaped amphibian may be to blame.

Native fish sturgeons can also weigh several hundred pounds and have ridged backs, which make them look almost reptilian.

Some believe Nessie is a long-necked plesiosaur – like an elasmosaur – that survived somehow when all the other dinosaurs were wiped out.

Others say the sightings are down to Scottish pines dying and flopping into the loch, before quickly becoming water-logged and sinking.

While submerged, botanical chemicals start trapping tiny bubbles of air.

Eventually, enough of these are gathered to propel the log upward as deep pressures begin altering its shape, giving the appearance of an animal coming up for air.

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