Sightings at Loch Ness from 2021 on
Here are the sightings of something unexplained in Loch Ness reported from 2021 on by people who have visited or live by the loch - over twenty years into the 21st Century and people are still reporting activity at Loch Ness.
2024
Total for the year - 1
4 April 2024 - Parry Malm and his family were visiting the area when they saw something near Urquhart Castle. He reported "At first thought was driftwood, but slowly but surely made it's way north towards the castle. Looked like a head above the waves. Was difficult to determine with naked eye." This is the picture he took:
2023
Total for the year - 10
21 October 2023 - Jarod Strong, visiting the area with his family, reported that "I was near the castle with my family at about 1pm when I noticed a little movement in the water then the water started to move a bit more and a long shape came out the water. He wasn't green which I thought he would be, he was more a dark grey colour. Then it quickly went away again but as it was going back under I could see a longer body. I don't know how long it was but it looked really long." He saids that the sighting lasted about 4-5 seconds and the cretaure was in the middle of the loch. It was over too quickly to get photos.
7 October 2023 - Sash Lake, visiting from Wiltshire, reported that at 12.20pm "I was leaving Drumnadrochit on a coach, admiring the view while the coach was driving past the Loch. It started to rain and a light fog rolled in, my view/ vision was partly limited due to the trees alongside the Loch, but something caught my eye for approximately five seconds and made me jump out of my skin, I saw a huge black mass/ hump in the middle of the Loch, roughly the size of a double decker bus. I would say it was around 75-100 yards away from me. I was confused, and in disbelief. I jumped to my feet to get a better look, trees completely blocked my view for about 5-8 seconds, there was a clearing in the trees, and when I looked back to where I saw the black mass/ hump, there was nothing there." He made this sketch of what he saw:
3 October 2023 - Richard Story, visiting from Wigton was on the high walk from Fort Augustus to Invergarry when he reported seeing a creature swim from the bank to the centre of the loch at 10.45am. It then disappeared and then reappeared. He took some pictures and a video - these are two of the pictures he took:
31 August 2023 - Fiona Wade, visiting the area, reported seeeing something similar to that which was reported by Alastair Gray (see below). She said "It was almost identical to that seen on Saturday and probably in a very similar location, I might add that I was not aware of this sighting on Saturday until returning home tthis 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 flat calm and there wad no nearby boat activity. It lasted about 30-40 seconds.
27 August 2023 - at 11.26am on the 27th of August, Siobhan Janaway, who lives locally, reported "There was something causing turmoil in the water off Foyers point then it coalesced into a single object moving at speed just under the surface causing at least a 20m white wake" She confirmed that there were no boats near the location. She took this photo of what she saw:
26 August 2023 - Alastair Gray, taking part in the LNE search, reported that at 3.20pm that he saw something unusual half way across the loch from his position near Invermoriston. Mr Gray, a cilvil servant, reported seeing three odd and seemingly connected shapes where one part was sticking out of the water at 45 degrees with two other humps going up and own as if it was moving. This was reported in the Daily Express on 28 August 2023 - he drew this sketch of what he saw:
17 August 2023 - Steve Valentine visiting from Urmston in Manchester was on holiday with his family when he saw something from the Deepscan boat as they were returning from a tour at around 1pm. He said " I just saw a black shape in the water. It was when we were returning to the dock near to Urquhart Castle. I lost sight of it when the boat turned, but managed to get a quick photo from a distance." The is a zoomed in version of the picture he took:
15 June 2023 - Etienne Camel, a pharmacist from Lyon and his wife Eliane were visiting Loch Ness and claimed to have spotted 65 ft-long dark shape moving just beneath the surface of the water for several minutes. They were taking pictures from the west side of the loch near Invermoriston when they took a series of three pictures, one of which is below. Get more information here
31 May 2023 - Ceci, visIting from the USA, caught on camera the object below at 3.15pm. The sighting of the unexplained object lasted a number of minutes.
5 April 2023 - Francesca McGarvey from Paisley was visiting with her mum and dad when she saw something in the loch at 11.52am. She descrbed being in their car 2-3 miles north of Invermoriston, driving south towards Fort Augustus at around 48mph, when she saw a dark shape emerge from the water, travelling north toward Urquhart castle. She said there were humps seen, possibly like back of a whale and about the length of two saloon cars - about 20 feet in total. It stayed above surface whilst moving for about 30 seconds. She took a picture and alerted her parents, who tried to find place to stop but couldn’t pull in safely but her dad also briefy saw it. They confirmed that there was no sign of boat activity in the area. Here is her picture and a drawing of what she saw:
2022
Total for the year - 6
11 October 2022. A mother and daughter visiting from the East of Scotland reported seeing the following at 17.24:
"200 yards off the bank we noticed a long break in the water which was otherwise still and calm. As we watched a black lump appeared out of the water and sat for approximately 30 seconds before disappearing once again under the water. After another 30 seconds the black lump resurfaced for a shorter amount of time before disappearing under the water again. The lump appeared to be boxy in shape and about the size of a football. It did not appear to swim about, rather it just bobbed and then disappeared under the water before resurfacing to do the same a second time." This is a picture of what they saw:
27 August 2022. A local resident was on the hill above Lochend when they saw a wake moving against prevailing currents from Lochend in the direction of Drumnadrochit. There was no visible cause of wake. The sighting lasted seven minutes and they took some video footage. Here's a still from the video....
25 April 2022 - a couple on holiday for a week were staying in a cottage overlooking Urquhart Castle when they saw something in the water at 6.16am. They took a video which was later examined by a local photographic and video expert who said that what they captured was clearly animate, came out of the water before going back in again (and then out once more) and was definitely larger than, for example, the bird life in the loch. The full video can be seen here and this is a still of what they saw:
15 April 2022 - local man Glenn Blevins reported in April 2022:
“I was near Aldourie Castle on Friday 15th April working on the banks of the loch when I saw a large animate object in the water between both banks of the loch at approx 9.30am. It was dark in colour and stayed there for around 20 seconds before sinking into the water. I watched it with binoculars that I’d taken with me in the hope of seeing ospreys that had recently returned to the area. It was difficult to estimate the size but it was definitely larger than a seal and given the angle, there may have been two, one behind the other.”
He explained that he had lived in the area for over 30 years and had worked regularly around the loch during that time and had fished many times on Loch Ness. He said he’d never seen anything like this before and felt privileged to have witnessed it.
4 April 2022 - Tom Ingram visiting from Portsmouth took a picture aboard the 13:00 'Spirit Of Loch Ness' Cruise departing from Fort Augustus. Contact was made on the boat's sonar at around 13:26 near the turning point at Invermoriston. This is what he saw:
30 March 2022 - Jamie Huntley, a documentary maker visiting from Tyne & Wear reported that at 11.18 am he saw the following with his colleague Warren Speed:
"Driving down road past Boleskine cemetery myself as passenger in vehicle, I looked towards cemetery and then large object/creature in the loch caught my eye at first I thought was a big boulder or something as first time to the area I don't know the layout I said to my friend driving, "what's that it's huge!" I could see movement and the water breaking against it so told friend to stop the car where the car stopped trees obscured the view so he reversed and the object/creature was fully gone I had phone out and took pictures of the ripple in water expanding from point the object/creature disappeared down. The object/creature was reflecting the water so looked wet, almost like a whale skin crossed with a fish skin it was dark in colour darker than the water surrounding it, there were dark grey's, black, browns in colour, it almost looked like how a whale hump might look breaking the surface minus the fin, there was a definite movement but didn't see too much of the movement before trees obscured it, it was a very big size at least 15 foot long, maybe bigger, around the middle of the loch. There was a small speedboat that came up the loch after my sighting but wasn't anywhere near the spot I seen the object/creature but wouldn't be surprised if they had seen it too in the distance as they started circling around the area, using their speedboat as a reference it was much larger than the boat, as an estimate I'd say the object was around 7 foot height out of the water. " This is the picture he took just after he managed to get his camera out, showing the disturbance on the water just after the sighting. He also drew an image of what he saw:
2021
Total for year - 7
26 August - Benjamin Scanlon was on holiday with his family and took a trip on the 'Nessie Hunter' of Loch Ness Cruises. He spotted something on the sonar on the boat and caught the image below. Captain Mike of the boat estimated it to be
3-4 metres in length, at a depth of about 20 metres, while the boat was in water about 40 metres deep.
30 July - Thomas Dobinson, visiting from Wiltshire, spotted an unknown object in the water near Urquhart Castle at 11.41. He said that the object on the water was about the size of a dog and roughly 200 yards away from him and hus family. The object was wet and dark in colour so appeared black. The sighting lasted less than a minute and he took this picture:
30 July - Mr Veacock visiting from the North West of England was parked up in the last lay by north of the castle scanning the loch with his binoculars when he noticed something two thirds across the loch away at 3.10pm. He originally thought it was a foot high and some five foot long, but later was able to compare it with the Jacobite Warrior as it passed by the area. As such, he stated that what he observed was easily the length of the handrail at the rear of that boat which led him to re-asses what he saw as nearly two foot high and ten to twelve feet long. He said the same was witnessed by two other families in the layby. He provided this sketch of what he saw:
26 July - Sebastian, Oscar and Alexandra Norman were visiting the loch from Surrey and took a trip on a Jacobite cruise boat. They said that towards the end of their boat ride at around 11.30am, as they were heading back, Sebastian saw in the distance about 20-30 metres ahead what he described as a black dot... they explained "as we got closer to it it was scaly, black shape the size of a dinner plate that was higher at one end and was like a tiny slope". They managed to capture this picture:
19 July - a man and his daughter visiting from Chester reported seeing an unidentified movement in the loch. They were hillwalking above Fort Augustus and made the sighting at 3.20pm. They said a cruise boat had passed some 20 minutes earlier but that there was no boat activity at the time of the sighting.
30 June -
Four visitors from Wakefield were on a Caley Cruisers boat, on the way
to Urquhart Bay from Fort Augustus. They explained "Suddenly, the boat began to
rock quite strongly from side to side. Then a large wake/ wave appeared to the front
of the boat and then to the left of the boat, moving sideways towards
the shore which was about 500 yards away. We watched this for approx
one minute . All four of us were watching it and wondering what it was.
Then it began to fade out and a round, I would say cream coloured
object which looked like a head, came out of the water for approx 10
seconds then disappeared under and we didn’t see anything else.
Unfortunately we didn’t take photos as we were fascinated by what
was happening and what we saw. I’m not saying we saw the Loch Ness
monster, but whatever it was caused the boat to rock pretty violently
and something was definitely swimming underwater before its head came
up".
2 June - A young man visiting from Cambridge saw an unidentified creature for two seconds in Urquhart bay close to the castle on Wednesday 2 June around 1.30pm while scanning the loch surface with binoculars from the Castle site. He said a hump came up going against the waves, looking like a turtle's back, black in colour with a green tinge to it. He reported that the weather was warm and sunny with excellent visibility.
