Murdoch Mysteries - Season 1 Episode 2
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00:00:00In the picturesque corner of the Scottish Highlands lies an ancient body of water shrouded
00:00:11in mystery.
00:00:13The local people always knew of something being in Loch Ness.
00:00:17I know for a fact it's there.
00:00:19I've seen it twice.
00:00:21For centuries, tales of an unknown monster lurking in the depths have captivated locals
00:00:28and tourists alike.
00:00:30I'm on holiday for a few days and I wanted to see the monster.
00:00:35We're on search for the Loch Ness monster.
00:00:38With over a thousand reported sightings.
00:00:41Suddenly this thing came up.
00:00:43I've seen something here I've never seen in my life before.
00:00:47Intense scientific scrutiny.
00:00:48The question is what have they actually experienced?
00:00:52And theories that range from the improbable.
00:00:55I think she's like a dinosaur with a long neck.
00:00:58To the incredible.
00:00:59Yeah, it could well be a supernatural phenomenon.
00:01:02Groundbreaking new evidence is challenging everything we thought we knew.
00:01:07Wow!
00:01:08Did you hear that?
00:01:10We stopped taking photos.
00:01:13We just couldn't figure out what it was.
00:01:17Wow!
00:01:18That's what we're looking for.
00:01:19Hey, what is this?
00:01:21Whatever it is, it doesn't play by the rules.
00:01:24Are we on the brink of uncovering the incredible truth behind one of the world's most enduring
00:01:30legends?
00:01:31There are over 30,000 lochs in Scotland.
00:01:41Each with their own unique character and history.
00:01:45Many are revered for their beauty and wildlife.
00:01:49But one loch harbors a darker secret.
00:01:52Nestled in the northernmost corner of Great Britain, Loch Ness is a vast lake 23 miles
00:01:58long.
00:01:59It contains the largest volume of fresh water in Britain and has an average depth greater
00:02:04than the North Sea.
00:02:07Carved into the Scottish Highlands, it's filled with jet black water stained by peat and flanked
00:02:13by hills covered in dense forest.
00:02:17Could this be the perfect hiding place for the ultimate lake monster?
00:02:21Almost everyone who visits has a theory.
00:02:24I picture her being very green, very big.
00:02:28I've always heard that it was a bit of like a hoax.
00:02:31Or it could just be a giant eel or something like that.
00:02:33It's not going to be a monster.
00:02:35It's a massive big loch and she's down there somewhere.
00:02:39But tales of mysterious sightings in Loch Ness predate all the newspaper articles and
00:02:44blurry photos.
00:02:46In fact, there has been legend of a wild monster concealed in the water here for centuries.
00:03:03St Columba was from Ireland.
00:03:05He was from the north of Ireland and he was a monk.
00:03:09He was on a mission to bring the message of Christianity towards the Scottish Pictish
00:03:13people.
00:03:16The Picts would have been the native people of Scotland in between the 3rd century to
00:03:21the 9th century AD.
00:03:25St Columba's encounters with the Picts were documented by a monk named Adenon.
00:03:31One particular story from his writings is believed by some to be the earliest documented
00:03:36evidence of the Loch Ness monster.
00:03:40This is the northern edge of Loch Ness where the loch meets the river Ness.
00:03:45And the river Ness is actually the location of a very special happening in the 6th century
00:03:50AD.
00:03:54St Columba and his followers came across a group of Pictish pagan folk and these people
00:04:00were mourning the loss of one of their friends who'd gone into the river and who'd been
00:04:04attached by a great water beast.
00:04:10Columba, wanting to showcase the power of the almighty God, ordered one of his followers
00:04:16to head into the water to test it out, to go to the other side, to get a boat and to
00:04:21bring it back.
00:04:24And about halfway across, the water beast starts to come up to the surface and it rears
00:04:30its great head and lets out a shriek.
00:04:34Columba stands on the edge of the river Ness, holds out his staff and with his right hand
00:04:41makes the sign of the cross and orders the beast to stop, go back and harm no man.
00:04:48And that moment the beast was dragged as if by ropes down into the depths of the river
00:04:54Ness.
00:04:55It was said that the beast was actually banished from the river and into Loch Ness itself.
00:05:04It's a compelling story.
00:05:07Did the monster start life in the river Ness only to be banished to the Loch by a saint?
00:05:13Sadly, we lack the historical records to know exactly how the Picts lived and what they
00:05:19believed.
00:05:20The Picts are shrouded in mystery and they are hard to define because they didn't leave
00:05:27behind very many written messages that we can study.
00:05:31When Columba would have been visiting the Picts along here, he would have been entering
00:05:35a landscape that was much wilder than it is now.
00:05:39It would have been full of large predators, wolves and bear and boar.
00:05:45And these Picts, they would have had constant interaction with these wild creatures and
00:05:49so the idea of a wild creature, a wild monster living in Loch Ness is not too far-fetched
00:05:56and wouldn't have been too far-fetched for the Picts.
00:06:00It's a tantalising glimpse into the folklore that permeated society over a thousand years
00:06:06ago.
00:06:07But not all experts agree that this was the first sighting of the Loch Ness Monster.
00:06:12The origins of the Loch Ness Monster are a really, really interesting question.
00:06:16And for some people, it starts with Saint Columba encountering the monster when he's
00:06:22going through the highlands.
00:06:24For me, though, that's not the beginning of the Loch Ness Monster story because Irish
00:06:28saints were often encountering monsters in these dark ages.
00:06:31There's no real evidence for a continuity between the Saint Columba story and the modern
00:06:36Loch Ness Monster phenomena.
00:06:40Locals have been convinced of a monster in a loch long before the photos of the 20th
00:06:43century made Nessie a household name worldwide.
00:06:47Wheelie Cameron's ancestors have lived around Loch Ness for hundreds of years.
00:06:52He now works locally in hospitality and marketing and is affectionately known as Mr Loch Ness.
00:06:59The local people always knew of something being in Loch Ness.
00:07:03They knew about the Loch Ness Monster.
00:07:05They knew about the Loch Ness Monster.
00:07:07They knew about the Loch Ness Monster.
00:07:09They knew about the Loch Ness Monster.
00:07:11They knew about the Loch Ness Monster.
00:07:13The local people always knew of something being in Loch Ness.
00:07:18The word beast was used before monster.
00:07:21The locals treat it just as normal, just like the woods and the hills and the sheep and
00:07:26the cows.
00:07:27It's just there.
00:07:28It's not anything that preoccupies them at all.
00:07:31My father was brought up for a short period of time on foyers on the southern shore of
00:07:36Loch Ness and he always talked about Granny Grey at foyers.
00:07:39He used to talk about the beast and whatever was in Loch Ness.
00:07:43It was quite a general part of conversation.
00:07:47I've been here since 1989.
00:07:50I've seen it twice.
00:07:52If the locals, they are not bothered about the monster, not in the slightest.
00:07:57We just accept that it's there.
00:07:59It's as normal to us as the grass growing.
00:08:03The Loch Ness Monster first gained global attention in the 1930s following a newspaper
00:08:09article in the Inverness Courier documenting what is now accepted to be the first modern
00:08:14sighting of Nessie by a woman called Aldi Mackay.
00:08:19She was manageress of the Drumner Drocket Hotel here, which is now the Loch Ness Centre.
00:08:25And in 1933, she was returning from a house sale in Inverness and she was coming along
00:08:32the unimproved section of the A82.
00:08:36The loch was very flat, calm, as if you'd gone over it with an iron.
00:08:43And every cloud and every leaf and every tree was reflected in the water.
00:08:50And then suddenly, this thing came up.
00:08:57And I can see it still.
00:08:59It just rose out of the water, black, white.
00:09:04Black, white, with the water rolling off it.
00:09:12And I yelled at my husband, stop the beast.
00:09:18And by the time he had stopped, the thing had gone underneath, back down again.
00:09:24And then it suddenly shot off to the far side of the loch,
00:09:31in a circle, and down.
00:09:36And that was it.
00:09:39This was a good story because it came from a reliable source.
00:09:43Aldi Mackay, upstanding member of the community, business lady.
00:09:47She tried to keep it to herself.
00:09:50She didn't come bursting in, telling everybody about it.
00:09:53You must put your mind back to the Presbyterian Drumner Drocket of the 1930s.
00:09:59Self-advertisement was seen as a bad thing.
00:10:03Hard to imagine that today.
00:10:06And she tried to keep it to herself, but her husband dropped her in it
00:10:11with Alex Campbell, the water bailiff,
00:10:14but he also worked for the Inverness Courier newspaper.
00:10:20Alex must have thought to himself, well, Aldi wouldn't be telling porcupines,
00:10:25so I'll just run with the story and hope to get it into the newspaper.
00:10:31The article launched an international sensation.
00:10:35The legend of the Loch Ness Monster was born.
00:10:40And with it, another curious breed, the Nessie Hunter.
00:10:55Alan McKenna runs a voluntary research group
00:10:58dedicated to discovering the truth about Nessie.
00:11:01He makes regular trips to the Loch
00:11:04in the hope that he can be the man to finally solve this famous mystery.
00:11:10I've been a Nessie Hunter full-time now for the last three years.
00:11:14I've had a childhood obsession with it
00:11:17and that's just grown and grown and grown, the older I got.
00:11:21I come to Loch Ness every single month to do hydrophone studies.
00:11:25We record it, we analyse it, we study it.
00:11:31A hydrophone is an underwater microphone
00:11:34that can pick up sounds from over two miles away.
00:11:37For the past three years, Alan has been taking recordings
00:11:41all around the Loch, come rain or shine,
00:11:44determined to capture the elusive call of Nessie
00:11:47and prove her existence to the world.
00:11:50What we're trying to do is to build a database
00:11:53of all the different sounds we can hear in Loch Ness,
00:11:56whether it's man-made sounds, if it's natural.
00:11:59Could we identify it and could we find the origin of it?
00:12:02And that, for me, is quite exciting.
00:12:07Urquhart Bay is probably one of the most interesting places
00:12:10to explore in Loch Ness.
00:12:12The bottom of the Loch is basically a mini mountain range
00:12:15below the surface, and I find that quite fascinating.
00:12:19And if there is something hiding in Loch Ness,
00:12:22then who knows, maybe it's in Urquhart Bay.
00:12:28I mean, if you look down to your right or left,
00:12:31it's nothing but dark, peaty waters.
00:12:34It's terrifying.
00:12:41We're rocking about and you can see the waves.
00:12:44It's scary.
00:12:46It's scary, but I'm in my element here.
00:12:49This is one of my favourite things to do.
00:12:58Ali, is this a good spot to drop?
00:13:01Yeah, no problem. Perfect. Let's do it.
00:13:06Alan uses a hydrophone with a 30-foot cable
00:13:11hooked up to a portable speaker and a digital recorder.
00:13:16Now, we're already picking up some interference,
00:13:19which is quite interesting,
00:13:21but there's a number of possible explanations for that.
00:13:24That could be electrical, it could be the weather.
00:13:27We have to take into consideration everything,
00:13:30because not every noise we hear
00:13:33is going to be the Loch Ness monster.
00:13:39What you're about to hear just now, actually,
00:13:42we've got a boat that's coming in.
00:13:46You can actually hear the boat arriving.
00:13:49It's just in front of us now.
00:13:52If you listen carefully,
00:13:55it's getting louder.
00:13:58We can record that now
00:14:01and we now know that noise
00:14:04is caused by this boat.
00:14:07Boat engines come across quite dramatic.
00:14:10For me, anyway, you can tell that it's mechanical.
00:14:13It's a very, very loud noise.
00:14:16So, in my opinion,
00:14:19if there was an unknown animal in Loch Ness,
00:14:22it would be the complete opposite
00:14:25of what we've just heard there.
00:14:29None of us can be sure about what it would sound like,
00:14:32but that's the exciting part, that's the unknowing.
00:14:35This is why we keep coming back every month,
00:14:38hoping to find that answer.
00:14:43For decades,
00:14:46experts and enthusiasts
00:14:49have argued over what type of creature Nessie really is.
00:14:52Adrian Shine is a naturalist
00:14:55who has been studying at Loch Ness since 1973.
00:14:58The Loch Ness monster
00:15:01is an amalgam of theories,
00:15:04an amalgam of possibilities.
00:15:07It's not just a creature,
00:15:10it's an amalgam of possibilities.
00:15:13Almost every animal in the ark
00:15:16has been suggested as a potential candidate.
00:15:19Loch Ness theories
00:15:22began with the sea serpent idea.
00:15:25And by sea serpent,
00:15:28I mean the sort of vertically undulating,
00:15:31multi-humped serpentine creature.
00:15:34But zoologists tweaked the fact
00:15:37that serpents can't wiggle that way.
00:15:40Serpents wiggle this way.
00:15:43And so what was to be done?
00:15:48A curved neck looping out of the water
00:15:51didn't reflect the reality of how sea snakes moved.
00:15:54Theories began to change,
00:15:57influenced in no small part
00:16:00by the sensational discovery of fossils
00:16:03off the coast of Dorset
00:16:06from paleontologist Mary Anning.
00:16:13Her discovery of the first complete skeleton
00:16:16of a marine reptile called a plesiosaur
00:16:19struck a chord with many Nessie enthusiasts.
00:16:22If the south coast of England
00:16:25can harbour its own prehistoric secrets,
00:16:28why not the ancient waters of Loch Ness?
00:16:31So around that time,
00:16:35scientific papers were publishing
00:16:38these fascinating and exciting scientific findings,
00:16:41including diagrams,
00:16:44skeletal reconstructions of plesiosaurs.
00:16:47The general public were gaining knowledge
00:16:50of the existence of these creatures historically
00:16:53but also, importantly, what they looked like.
00:16:56It seemed more rational.
00:16:59If huge serpents were not really credible,
00:17:02what could be credible?
00:17:05Well, plesiosaurs had existed,
00:17:08these long-necked creatures,
00:17:11so there was still that element of the serpentine in it.
00:17:14So the plesiosaur rose to the top of the pile.
00:17:17They were around from about 200 million years ago
00:17:20to about 66 million years ago
00:17:23when the asteroid hit the Earth
00:17:26that caused the extinction of dinosaurs.
00:17:29There is still evidence of any plesiosaurs
00:17:32having survived beyond that catastrophic mass extinction event.
00:17:35Nevertheless,
00:17:38the idea of a surviving prehistoric creature
00:17:41began to gather pace and is still strong today.
00:17:44Could it be that a creature
00:17:47long believed to be extinct
00:17:50is still living in Scotland's biggest luck?
00:17:53There are the species out there that we know about.
00:17:56They come from folklore and myth
00:17:59and then actually what we have,
00:18:02which I think is possibly most relevant to the Loch Ness Monster,
00:18:05are what are called Lazarus species.
00:18:08And Lazarus species are animals
00:18:11that are thought to have gone extinct
00:18:14that we find evidence that they're actually still out there.
00:18:17One that I find really exciting
00:18:20from a history of science perspective
00:18:23is that a coelacanth was extinct
00:18:26that was only known from fossil evidence.
00:18:29But then a fish scientist at a fish market in East Africa
00:18:32came across this weird and interesting looking fish
00:18:35which ultimately turned out to be a coelacanth.
00:18:38Whether or not prehistoric reptiles still lived
00:18:41Mary Anning's discoveries
00:18:44and the boom in fossil finding that followed
00:18:47signaled a shift in how people thought
00:18:51of the Loch Ness Monster.
00:18:54No longer a mythical beast,
00:18:57Nessie was something more tangible.
00:19:00A flesh and blood creature rooted in science.
00:19:03A living fossil from a bygone era.
00:19:11Well, it was in the winter.
00:19:14It was the month of January.
00:19:17There was no building above Urquhart Castle
00:19:20and to the west of the castle
00:19:23and my friend was with me working
00:19:26and he shouted for his binoculars.
00:19:29So I went out and he was standing
00:19:32pointing towards foyers
00:19:35and halfway across,
00:19:38this was coming across.
00:19:41First of all, it looked like a submarine.
00:19:44And you think it was coming closer and closer.
00:19:47And then there was the long neck
00:19:50and you could see the three humps.
00:19:53It was flat calm.
00:19:56A lot of people say to me
00:19:59do you think were you sober at the time?
00:20:02Well, I had stopped drinking.
00:20:05I used to drink but I was quite sober that day
00:20:08and there was no mistake about it.
00:20:11What I saw was a monster.
00:20:22In January, when I was up here conducting my research
00:20:25I did hear a very bizarre sound
00:20:28which it totally caught me off guard.
00:20:33The recording was captured by Dutch film students
00:20:36late at night on a nearby pier
00:20:39and I had the chance to set up his audio recorder.
00:20:42To the untrained eye, that might look...
00:20:45This film is the only documented evidence
00:20:48of the mysterious sound.
00:20:51In reality, all it is is wind turbulence
00:20:54coming down from the surrounding hills
00:20:57hitting the lockets.
00:21:05Wow! Did you hear that?
00:21:09Could this be the first time in history
00:21:12that we've been able to hear Nessie's true voice?
00:21:30For me, that's the most distinguished sound.
00:21:33That sound that I heard that night
00:21:37I have heard something similar
00:21:40but it's only at night time
00:21:43but it was never that clear before.
00:21:46So if there is something in Loch Ness
00:21:49could it be nocturnal?
00:21:52It would make sense because the loch is pitch black.
00:21:55Today we haven't heard anything too significant
00:21:58we've just heard a lot of natural sounds as well as boats.
00:22:01I'll be back here next week again
00:22:04but always return to Loch Ness
00:22:07because whatever is in there does not play by the rules.
00:22:10Underwater audio recordings
00:22:13are just one of the countless methods
00:22:16that have been used to prove the monster's existence.
00:22:28Probably the most elegant
00:22:31method of measuring species diversity
00:22:34was the environmental DNA study
00:22:37done by Professor Gemmel
00:22:40at the University of Otago in New Zealand.
00:22:43The loch was sampled from end to end
00:22:46side to side and top to bottom.
00:22:49We assisted with the sampling
00:22:52particularly the deep water sampling.
00:22:55Any animal that lives within an aquatic habitat
00:22:58will shed cells and DNA
00:23:01into the surrounding environment.
00:23:04So if you collect the water samples
00:23:07you can then genetically profile those water samples
00:23:10and identify the types of animals
00:23:13that are living in or also living around
00:23:16those aquatic habitats.
00:23:19250 water samples were taken
00:23:22at various depths and locations.
00:23:25The DNA was then sequenced
00:23:28and compared against a global database
00:23:31painting a fascinating picture of life in the loch.
00:23:34They have identified a number
00:23:37of animal species that we would expect
00:23:40to find in and around the loch
00:23:43but they didn't find any evidence
00:23:46for reptilian DNA within the samples.
00:23:49They did find mammal, they did find fish
00:23:53The lack of reptile DNA
00:23:56led Professor Gemmel and his colleagues
00:23:59concluding that it was highly unlikely
00:24:02that a plesiosaur was living in Loch Ness.
00:24:05But for diehard plesiosaur believers
00:24:08there is still hope that the prehistoric reptile
00:24:11could still be down there.
00:24:14In any eDNA study there is approximately
00:24:1720% of the DNA that is unexplained
00:24:20There's nothing unusual to suggest
00:24:23that there's a monster that's been detected
00:24:26using the eDNA technique
00:24:29but that 20% of unexplained DNA
00:24:32means that there is room
00:24:35for a Loch Ness monster for anybody
00:24:38who wants it to still be there.
00:24:45The Loch Ness monster is classified
00:24:48as an elusive creature
00:24:51whose existence remains unconfirmed by science
00:24:54but this hasn't stopped a dedicated
00:24:57community of investigators
00:25:00from tirelessly seeking evidence of its reality.
00:25:03Cryptozoology is the study of hidden animals
00:25:06It is currently a pseudoscience
00:25:09but animals have been found in the past
00:25:12such as the Komodo dragon
00:25:15and even the gorilla up until 1847
00:25:18was a cryptid
00:25:21The Loch Ness monster is the most famous
00:25:24cryptid of all time
00:25:27Could there still be undiscovered creatures
00:25:30out there? I believe there could
00:25:33Hopefully if we all get involved
00:25:36if we all take up the mantle
00:25:39one day we'll find them
00:25:42It's curious. We want to know
00:25:45about how the world works, about what's out there
00:25:48The idea that there is this huge creature
00:25:51swimming around in that dark loch
00:25:54is something that's definitely got a romantic appeal
00:26:00One of the most famous monster hunters
00:26:03in Loch Ness is Steve Falfen
00:26:06Since 1991 he has lived on the shore
00:26:10with the hope that he would be the man
00:26:13to find Nessie once and for all
00:26:16I've been fascinated by this mystery all my life
00:26:19I came here when I was seven
00:26:22and I just got hooked on the possibilities
00:26:25Grown men looking for monsters in a Scottish loch
00:26:28I thought, that's what I want to do, that's what I want to be
00:26:31A full-time Nessie hunter solved this mystery
00:26:34I was in my mid-twenties, maybe about 27
00:26:37My fear would be not doing that
00:26:40and getting to my ripe old age of retirement
00:26:43and looking back on life and saying
00:26:46I wish I'd tried to solve that mystery when I had a chance
00:26:49Make my life the adventure I want it to be
00:26:56So convinced was Steve that the monster existed
00:26:59he quit his job, broke up with his girlfriend
00:27:02and put his house on the market
00:27:05He was in a converted mobile library van
00:27:08driving from his home in the south of England
00:27:11to the Scottish Highlands
00:27:14I've been here full-time now since 1991
00:27:17That's currently 33 years
00:27:20living in this van on the shores of Loch Ness
00:27:23watching and waiting
00:27:26For me, probably the most mysterious thing I've seen
00:27:29happened in the first year
00:27:32I saw something on the surface of the water
00:27:35just pushing against the waves like a torpedo
00:27:38So, as the waves are this size, they're all going that way
00:27:41and for five seconds this thing went
00:27:44just a white spray of water
00:27:47As it hit each oncoming wave, there'd be a bigger splash
00:27:50against the waves
00:27:53And I looked at that
00:27:56and I still can't explain what that was
00:27:59That gave me the impression that this job
00:28:02would be really quite easy
00:28:05I see that in the first year
00:28:08should take about three years to get the mystery solved
00:28:11Still haven't done that
00:28:14Like so many others
00:28:17Steve's leading theory was that the monster
00:28:20was a plesiosaur
00:28:23This was in no small part influenced
00:28:27known as the surgeon's photo
00:28:30If there is one photograph of the Loch Ness monster
00:28:33which would be recognised virtually throughout the world
00:28:36it is the surgeon's picture taken in 1934
00:28:39by the surgeon Kenneth Wilson
00:28:42And it has done much to prop up
00:28:45the plesiosaur idea
00:28:48This photo must have been real
00:28:51not simply because of the way it was presented
00:28:54but because of the person who took it
00:28:57This man was a gynaecologist
00:29:00a consultant on Harley Street
00:29:03holidaying at the Loch
00:29:06He had a lot to lose by publishing this photo
00:29:09and yet he still did
00:29:12Surely that meant that it must have been genuine
00:29:15That was the main piece of the jigsaw puzzle
00:29:18in my growing up years
00:29:21I can't believe this animal looked like...
00:29:24It's a plesiosaur
00:29:27It had to be
00:29:30And a large part of the reason I thought it was a plesiosaur
00:29:33was the surgeon's photograph
00:29:36because there's no other explanation for that
00:29:39That's what I was looking for
00:29:42Plesiosaurs swimming about in Loch Ness
00:29:45Now this photo shows
00:29:48the swan-like head and neck
00:29:51emerging from the water
00:29:54with a disturbance below it
00:29:57Researchers went wild
00:30:00Newspapers went wild
00:30:03all around the globe
00:30:06This was proof finally that Nessie did exist
00:30:09Here was an animal that we did not recognise
00:30:12It appeared in textbooks
00:30:15and comics
00:30:18and even on television
00:30:21and it still appears in the papers
00:30:24Whenever Nessie is mentioned
00:30:27that photo is used
00:30:30That is still the benchmark
00:30:33of what the Loch Ness Monster looks like
00:30:37So
00:30:40I caught this black object
00:30:43which I thought at first was an upturned boat
00:30:46and it was coming across slowly
00:30:49but the hump would be about
00:30:52I would say 6 or 7 feet above the waves
00:30:55and I was really glued to it
00:30:58and it was coming across slowly towards me
00:31:01about half a mile behind where I was stopped
00:31:04I'm sure it was going down slowly
00:31:07I was losing the sight of the hump as it were
00:31:10until it went completely out of my sight
00:31:13I've seen something here
00:31:16I've never seen in my life before
00:31:19and I'm sure it was Nessie
00:31:30If Aldi Mackay's sighting of the monster
00:31:33is a modern Nessie phenomenon
00:31:36the surgeon's photograph sent it stratospheric
00:31:39But the story of how the photo was captured
00:31:42is almost as shocking as its famous subject
00:31:45A very flamboyant character called Marmaduke Wetherall
00:31:48was hired by the Daily Mail newspaper
00:31:51in the winter of 1933
00:31:54to join the first ever expedition
00:31:57to try and investigate the monster
00:32:00He found some footprints
00:32:03on the other side of the lock on the south shore
00:32:06They took plaster casts with due reverence
00:32:09sent them down to the Natural History Museum
00:32:12and they concluded that
00:32:15the plaster casts
00:32:18were from the foot of a hippopotamus
00:32:21Yes, a hippopotamus
00:32:24The footprints had in fact been made
00:32:27by a taxidermy astray
00:32:30The Daily Mail fell for the hoax
00:32:33and printed a headline declaring the existence
00:32:36of a monster in Loch Ness
00:32:39When the hoax was exposed
00:32:42the paper denounced Wetherall publicly
00:32:45distancing themselves from the stunt
00:32:48and hanging their former correspondent out to dry
00:32:51Well, Wetherall then went home
00:32:55And he got onto his stepson
00:32:58Christian Sperling
00:33:01to make a monster, no more than so big
00:33:04He then took the model
00:33:07back up to Scotland
00:33:10went to a little inlet
00:33:13and took pictures of it
00:33:16To conceal his part in the hoax
00:33:19Wetherall sold the photo
00:33:22to his son, Kenneth Wilson
00:33:25Fittingly, the photo was first offered
00:33:28to the Daily Mail
00:33:31who gladly printed it on the front page
00:33:34of their paper on Saturday, April 21st, 1934
00:33:37All good pictures are fakes
00:33:40It's just the way it is
00:33:43The bad pictures might have something to them
00:33:46but the good pictures are fakes
00:33:49If the hoax were genuine
00:33:52I would probably still believe plesiosaurs
00:33:55were swimming about in here
00:33:58It was the iconic piece of evidence
00:34:01The hoax was finally exposed
00:34:04when Christian Sperling confessed his role in it
00:34:0760 years later, in the 1990s
00:34:10Confronted by researchers with the famous picture
00:34:13he scribbled across it
00:34:16A photograph of the monster
00:34:19made by me in 1933-34
00:34:22for Mr A. Wetherall
00:34:25Sperling passed away not long after
00:34:28One of the most enduring images of Nessie
00:34:31was finally proven to be a fake
00:34:36When I opened the Sunday paper
00:34:39and read the story
00:34:42I was crestfallen
00:34:45In the 33 years that I've sat here
00:34:48it was the point when I thought
00:34:51Well, if the surgeon's photograph's fake
00:34:54what have we got left?
00:34:57What am I here to find?
00:35:00What are we looking for?
00:35:03It took a long time to re-evaluate all the evidence
00:35:06and look again and say
00:35:09OK, if it's not a plesiosaur
00:35:13What is it?
00:35:22When you visit somewhere like Loch Ness
00:35:25and you know of its reputation
00:35:28and there's a part of you that really would be quite keen
00:35:31to see this monster
00:35:34and you look out across those dark murky waters
00:35:37and there's waves and there's logs floating
00:35:40People can end up seeing and hearing things
00:35:43that aren't actually really there
00:35:46They've taken in some information
00:35:49and they've filled in the gaps themselves
00:35:57There have been suggestions
00:36:00that maybe the sightings could be explained
00:36:03by a large exotic fish
00:36:06There are advantages and disadvantages
00:36:09to any animal group that you might suggest
00:36:12One of them is my favourite
00:36:15the odd navigationally challenged sturgeon
00:36:20The most likely thing is a kind of catfish
00:36:23The biggest catfish go to five metres long
00:36:26What that eDNA study did find
00:36:29was lots of evidence of eels
00:36:32Some people have interpreted that
00:36:35as indicating that there could be a giant eel
00:36:38and therefore that the Loch Ness monster
00:36:41could be explained as being a giant eel
00:36:44The reality is that it's much more logical
00:36:47and reasonable to interpret a lot of eel DNA
00:36:50as meaning that there are a lot of eels in Loch Ness
00:36:53rather than it being a giant eel
00:36:56I sometimes think are any two of us
00:36:59looking for the same explanation here
00:37:02There's so many theories as to what Nessie could be
00:37:05I don't think that all of them
00:37:08have as much validity as the next one
00:37:19Loch Ness has long been a battleground
00:37:22for conflicting theories
00:37:25But a startling discovery in 2016
00:37:28threatened to end the debate once and for all
00:37:31A Norwegian maritime company
00:37:35developed an underwater robot named Moonin
00:37:38to map the loch's depths with powerful sonar
00:37:41The torpedo-shaped submersible
00:37:44previously used to search for buried treasure
00:37:47and plot pipeline routes deep at sea
00:37:50made its most famous finds yet
00:37:53on a grey spring day in the Scottish Highlands
00:38:01As the scans fed back to the operational team
00:38:04an anomaly immediately drew the eye
00:38:07The 30-foot long body
00:38:10and unmistakable protruding neck of Nessie
00:38:15The images were scrutinized and shared around the world
00:38:18Could this be the conclusive evidence
00:38:21of Nessie's existence?
00:38:25The scans were indeed of a monster
00:38:28But this monster was man-made
00:38:34It was a prop that had sunk
00:38:37during the shooting of a Hollywood film
00:38:40The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes in 1969
00:38:43The giant model had broken free of its restraints
00:38:46and disappeared into the black water
00:38:49before filming had even begun
00:38:52For the next 50 years it lay undisturbed
00:38:55180 meters beneath the surface
00:38:58It wasn't the silver bullet
00:39:01It wasn't what it had been hoped for
00:39:04but rather a reminder that sometimes
00:39:07truth is stranger than fiction
00:39:17Well, my last sighting actually
00:39:20was in September 1976
00:39:23and I was in the garden at the time
00:39:26I was looking across the bay
00:39:29and I saw a great disturbance close to the shore
00:39:32and then I saw this terrific great black thing
00:39:35at right angles to the shore on the far side of the bay
00:39:3860 or 70 feet long
00:39:41a long black thing on top of the water
00:39:44but the funny thing was
00:39:47it had three peculiar sort of humps on it
00:39:50and then I suddenly saw something move
00:39:53on the shore about 20 yards nearer the pier
00:39:56and it sort of moved along like that
00:39:59towards where the other one had been
00:40:02and went into the water and disappeared
00:40:05so there were obviously two of them
00:40:08In the 1930s new sightings were reported
00:40:11in local newspapers and by word of mouth
00:40:14but in the past 90 years
00:40:17technology has allowed a global community
00:40:20to develop online
00:40:24People can post sightings and comment
00:40:27on the famous Scottish monster
00:40:30The image you're looking at caused one of the biggest debates
00:40:33We have video footage of Loch Ness Monster
00:40:36Paige Daly is registrar of the Loch Ness Monster fan club
00:40:39and head of the official Loch Ness Sightings Register
00:40:42Breaking news TikTok from this
00:40:45Blooding in Scotland is insane
00:40:48There's only one logical response to this
00:40:51There's a huge role in getting the word of the fan club
00:40:54out there to the next generation of people
00:40:57The reach of people around the world is quite wide
00:41:00I'm just looking at my TikTok right now
00:41:03We'll have a look at some of the countries
00:41:06I mean UK and United States are quite standard
00:41:09but then we even reach Malaysia, Israel, Germany, Canada, Spain
00:41:12It's all around the world that people are sending in
00:41:15interest about the Loch Ness Monster
00:41:18The Loch Ness Monster stems from her father
00:41:21Gary Campbell who founded the fan club in 1996
00:41:24So my dad was driving along Loch Ness
00:41:27when he saw this strange dark thing
00:41:30coming out of the water
00:41:33He pulled the car over, he had a closer look
00:41:36and after a few minutes this thing disappeared
00:41:39After a bit of research
00:41:42he realised no one was tracking Nessie
00:41:45and that's when he started the official Loch Ness Monster fan club
00:41:48and alongside that he started the register of sightings
00:41:51Then in 2023
00:41:54I had my TikTok account and I decided
00:41:57hey I'll talk about Nessie and see what the world thinks
00:42:00and it kind of went a bit viral
00:42:03I don't know if you heard but the Loch Ness Monster is back
00:42:06Here is the first official confirmed sighting of 2023
00:42:09We got over 100,000 views
00:42:12I asked my dad
00:42:15I think we should be doing some more videos about Nessie
00:42:18because people are really interested
00:42:21and that's when the Loch Ness Monster fan club started to transition
00:42:24over to social media and mainly on TikTok
00:42:27Paige took over the fan club
00:42:30and since it relocated to TikTok
00:42:33its following has exploded
00:42:36giving her the ability to reach millions of viewers in an instant
00:42:40Nowadays all I have to do is film a quick TikTok
00:42:43put it out there and the whole world is aware
00:42:46that something has happened at Loch Ness
00:42:49With the algorithm it pushes it out to a wide variety of people
00:42:52and that's really where the debate comes in
00:42:55Breaking news something unexplained has been seen at Loch Ness yesterday
00:42:58As you know guys I'm always open for suggestions
00:43:01but what do you think this could be
00:43:04And quite a few people thought at this sighting
00:43:07And quite a few people thought at this sighting
00:43:10maybe it was just a cloud shadow on the loch
00:43:13Of course we've got the sceptics out there
00:43:16but we've also got people debating it and really pulling apart this information
00:43:19A lot of people are really happy and saying that they've made it to Nessie talk
00:43:22and it's a great side of TikTok to have finally found
00:43:25We really just want to grab people's attention
00:43:28so that we can take them into this world
00:43:31and say hey what is this
00:43:34Please let us know
00:43:37It's a big mystery at the end of the day
00:43:40no one really knows what's in there
00:43:43and that's really the true attraction
00:43:46Could you be the one to solve one of the biggest mysteries out there
00:43:49The powerful mystery of what lies beneath Loch Ness
00:43:52draws over a million tourists every year
00:43:55who flock to the shores of the loch with their cameras at the ready
00:43:58Every shadow in the water is meticulously scrutinised
00:44:01and for Steve Fathom keeping track of it all is a full time job
00:44:06Because everybody around Loch Ness knows I'm here on Dawes Beach
00:44:09people get sent to me with photographs
00:44:12and so every week, more than every week
00:44:15in the summer I'm seeing people turn up here
00:44:18saying oh my son took a photograph of something
00:44:21do you want to look at it
00:44:24I always have an open mind at the start of looking at an image
00:44:27but I would say that 90% of the time
00:44:30when I'm shown something I can instantly look at it
00:44:33and say well, it's a duck
00:44:36They're not out to trick me
00:44:39they're not out to fool
00:44:4290% of the people are genuinely mystified
00:44:45There's another 5% I would say
00:44:48that are deliberately trying to cause a hoax
00:44:51They've gone oh, I'll just put that into Photoshop
00:44:54and I'll just put a little Nessie in the background
00:44:5890% of the people are just monster hunting nuts up at Loch Ness
00:45:01and the other 5%
00:45:04that's the stuff that gets me up in the morning
00:45:07that's what I look at and go wow, that's what we're looking for
00:45:10what's that?
00:45:13The Legend of the Loch Ness Monster
00:45:24The legend of the Loch Ness Monster has echoed through the ages
00:45:27It was said that the beast was actually banished from the river
00:45:30and into Loch Ness itself
00:45:33But with a fifth of DNA sample from the loch still unexplained
00:45:36the mystery continues to grow
00:45:39The mystery continues to grow.
00:45:41Almost every animal in the ark has been suggested as a potential candidate.
00:45:49Recent discoveries have shed new light on the debate.
00:45:52In January, when I was up here conducting my research, I did hear a very bizarre sound.
00:46:02It totally caught me off guard.
00:46:04Did you hear that?
00:46:06I still don't know what it was.
00:46:08But are we any closer to discovering the true identity of the elusive beast?
00:46:14I sometimes think, are any two of us looking for the same explanation here?
00:46:18It's a topic that divides opinion.
00:46:22But for those who have witnessed the creature firsthand, there is no question of its existence.
00:46:35Some of the most convincing sightings have come not from visitors, but the locals who
00:46:40live and work alongside this famous body of water all year round.
00:46:47First time I saw it was straight over the other side of the bay, close to the headland.
00:46:52Straight over there.
00:46:55Val Moffat has lived in a cottage overlooking the northern shore of Loch Ness for the past
00:47:0035 years.
00:47:03People who turn up here expect to see it just because they've come to Loch Ness, so they'll
00:47:09see the monster.
00:47:12I've been here since 1989 now, and I've seen it twice.
00:47:24The first time I saw it was in 1990.
00:47:27I was driving back from the village, and as I came up the hill, I could see the far side
00:47:32of the bay, and it was right over there, just close to the shoreline, but straight
00:47:37down there.
00:47:40I glanced over towards the bay, and I saw this large, like an upturned boat, dark grey
00:47:46colour, and shiny from the water on it.
00:47:50It wasn't moving.
00:47:52It was just in the water.
00:47:54I glanced out at it several times as I drove up the hill, and the last time I glanced it
00:47:58was gone.
00:48:00But it was about, I'd say, 25 to 30 feet in length, from front to back of it.
00:48:07It was just like an upturned boat.
00:48:09That's the best way I can describe it.
00:48:12It was dark grey in colour, and shiny from the water that was on its back.
00:48:17Didn't see it for very long, and it was gone.
00:48:22Later in the afternoon, I had to go down to the village.
00:48:24I went to the post office, and there was a lady, her name was Elma, so I went up to
00:48:30the countess.
00:48:31I said, Elma, I've seen it, I've seen the monster.
00:48:33And she said, have you, dear, that's nice.
00:48:37Nobody's bothered.
00:48:39They just accept that it's there, and they just don't talk about it.
00:48:43When I saw it again ten years later, I never said a word.
00:48:50Elma's second sighting came in November 2001, when she was in her garden with friend Jenny.
00:48:57We were both just pottering around, and I'd spotted the monster at the front of the house,
00:49:04and Jenny happened to see it a few minutes later and said, well, what's that out there?
00:49:08I said, it's Nessie.
00:49:10She said, you're joking.
00:49:11I said, no, it is.
00:49:13Because it was exactly the same, just it was slightly smaller, because it was further out
00:49:16of the lock.
00:49:20It was the strangest thing, but brilliant to see.
00:49:28One of the interesting questions is, how do we explain situations where we maybe have
00:49:33more than one witness?
00:49:36When people witness something unusual, like a possible sighting of a UFO or a ghost or
00:49:43the Loch Ness monster, then they will discuss it with each other.
00:49:47And what can happen then is that one person's account can actually influence another person's
00:49:51memory.
00:49:52And if that first person gives a very confident account of what they say they've seen, then
00:49:58another co-witness may actually end up taking some of that information and not realising
00:50:03it, incorporating it into their own memory, and so the accounts can become more similar
00:50:07in that way.
00:50:10Unfortunately, no matter how many people have seen it, they're always doubted by everyone.
00:50:16But I know for a fact it's there.
00:50:18And I've seen it twice.
00:50:28Long-term Nessie hunter, Steve Felfen, has yet to experience his own clear sighting.
00:50:34But his faith remains unwavering.
00:50:37To fund his constant vigil over the lock, he relies on the sale of small Nessie figurines
00:50:43to passing tourists.
00:50:45It doesn't take much money to keep me sitting on this beach trying to solve this mystery.
00:50:49And the models that I make brings in enough to make my life sustainable.
00:50:57But 33 years is a very long time to wait for that one big break.
00:51:03So has Steve ever been tempted to fake his own Nessie sighting and finally cash in on
00:51:08a life spent waiting?
00:51:11Over the years, people have said, you could make a fake and you'd get away with it.
00:51:15I know that I wouldn't get away with it because I wouldn't be able to straight-faced lie that
00:51:21it was anything it wasn't.
00:51:23I try to retain integrity in anything that I sincerely think is unexplained here.
00:51:30And that's all I can do.
00:51:32While Steve gets by on a modest income and a pair of binoculars, not all monster hunters
00:51:38have operated on a shoestring budget.
00:51:43In 1972, a wealthy American named Bob Rynes arrived at the lock for the first of several
00:51:49high-profile expeditions.
00:51:52He was flush with cash, cutting-edge equipment and a determination to solve the mystery and
00:51:57make a name for himself.
00:51:59I met Bob Rynes a couple of times.
00:52:02He was always a hero of mine.
00:52:06Just for his passion for the subject, just for the amount of summers that he would come
00:52:10back here and the amount of money he threw at trying to solve what it was that he believed
00:52:17was in here.
00:52:20Perhaps Rynes' most famous contribution to the Nessie debate came when he took an underwater
00:52:25camera and a strobe light on one of his expeditions to the highlands.
00:52:31As the camera was dragged across the bottom of the lock, it picked up an object that sparked
00:52:35a global debate with everyone from Harvard scientists to experts at the British Museum
00:52:41weighing in.
00:52:43Could this be the giant flipper of the Loch Ness monster?
00:52:48We were encouraged by some pictures of a flipper, apparently a flipper.
00:52:55And we were fascinated by those.
00:53:00The flipper photo was a huge deal.
00:53:03And the reason it was a huge deal is that until that point, we had no physical evidence
00:53:08that the Loch Ness monster existed.
00:53:10Sure, we had the surgeon's photo on top of the water, but this thing was swimming beneath
00:53:15the water.
00:53:16Not only was there a photo, there was also a sonar signature to go with it.
00:53:22The eminent naturalist, Sir Peter Scott, threw his weight behind the findings and helped
00:53:28Rhynes propel his photo into the academic spotlight.
00:53:32They co-authored an article in the esteemed science journal, Nature, putting the images
00:53:37to the scientific community and for the first time suggesting an official scientific name
00:53:42for the monster.
00:53:44Nessiterus Orombateryx, the diamond-finned wonder of Loch Ness.
00:53:51Now, it's a big word.
00:53:53It's got a lot of letters.
00:53:55And so it is a very good opportunity for anagrams.
00:54:01One sceptic came up with Monster Hoax by Sir Peter S.
00:54:06But Bob Rynes came up with another one.
00:54:09Yes, both pics are monsters are.
00:54:14And I'm sure there are Scrabble players who could come up with a lot more.
00:54:19The debate over the authenticity of Bob Rynes' flipper photo raged, until it finally emerged
00:54:26that the photos had indeed been doctored.
00:54:30It was a great disappointment when we found that they'd been faked.
00:54:34The outline of the flipper had actually been retouched onto a picture of swirling the silt
00:54:39as the camera dragged through the sediment.
00:54:42So it was a bit of a disgrace.
00:54:47They airbrushed the shape in there.
00:54:50That's cheating a bit, really.
00:54:57When it comes to hoaxes and people just making stuff up,
00:55:01there are multiple motivations there.
00:55:04On the one hand, there's a definite mindset amongst some hoaxers,
00:55:09it's nothing more than just getting away with it,
00:55:12just pulling it off, just fooling people.
00:55:15For other people, there might be some kind of financial interest.
00:55:20It's even possible that some of these hoaxers might genuinely believe in the monster
00:55:27and believe that this is just a good way of keeping public interest in the thing,
00:55:31which they believe really is there,
00:55:33even if their particular claim is actually not quite what it seems.
00:55:41Do hoaxes matter?
00:55:44We have to accept that this is a bit of a national joke.
00:55:50It's fair game.
00:55:51We are fair game.
00:55:53Can we work it out?
00:55:56For lifelong Nessie hunters like Steve,
00:55:59the day job often entails more debunking than discovering,
00:56:03as hoaxes and misidentifications abound.
00:56:08I would say I've maybe come across about 20 hoaxes
00:56:12that are ones that if I hadn't applied my local knowledge to them,
00:56:21those hoaxes would still be in the canon of evidence.
00:56:26They would still be in the jigsaw puzzle as a possible sighting of Nessie.
00:56:32I never realised when I set off in 1991
00:56:35that so much of what I do is disproving evidence.
00:56:42I'm like a dog with a stick.
00:56:44If I suspect there's something that does not add up in this sighting,
00:56:48I'll not leave it until I can identify what it is.
00:56:55Purists such as Steve and Adrian
00:56:57interrogate every piece of evidence brought to light,
00:57:01looking for inconsistencies and rational explanations.
00:57:06But for the local economy,
00:57:07a Nessie sighting that goes viral is never a bad thing.
00:57:12BIRDS CHIRP
00:57:23We have all the wildlife of Great Britain
00:57:25sitting around this loch in the Highlands of Scotland,
00:57:29but the only creature that people really want to see when they come here,
00:57:32of all these millions that come here,
00:57:34is the Loch Ness monster.
00:57:43Here at Nessieland, we get people from all over the world visiting.
00:57:46America, Europe, Asia, you name it.
00:57:49And, you know, people are just attracted to the whole Nessie phenomenon.
00:57:52It's our bread and butter.
00:57:54It's very much what keeps this area alive.
00:57:58Would you like a receipt for it?
00:58:00No, it's all right.
00:58:01That's great. Enjoy your holiday. Thank you. Bye-bye.
00:58:05My business is mostly to do with tourists.
00:58:08The mystery of the Loch Ness monster is definitely a good one.
00:58:11The Loch Ness monster is definitely a good thing for the area.
00:58:14Everybody comes to see her.
00:58:16Very often, she's viewed kind of at the beginning of April.
00:58:20You get a few spottings of her.
00:58:22But every time I go past the loch, I have a wee look, so you never know.
00:58:28Yeah, I would say people in the States,
00:58:31we're aware of what the Loch Ness monster is.
00:58:33You know, you see it on TV programmes and stuff, that sort of thing.
00:58:36I know. I remember when I was maybe nine or ten,
00:58:39I would go to the Loch Ness and things like that.
00:58:41I'm on holiday for a few days,
00:58:44and I wanted to see the monster.
00:58:47My husband told me that he's living inside the water,
00:58:50and sometimes, if you look really, really hard,
00:58:54you can see the monster, but I couldn't, unfortunately.
00:58:58If it weren't for Loch Ness, the monster,
00:59:01and all the myths and what have you, and the legends,
00:59:04then I don't think I would have...
00:59:06I probably wouldn't have even known about this place
00:59:08and wouldn't have come up here.
00:59:10I think the Loch Ness monster tale is just one that's fun to chase,
00:59:15and when in Scotland, you must go see.
00:59:18I think, worldwide, the Loch Ness monster is known.
00:59:23Figurines, cuddly stuffed toys, fridge magnets, postcards.
00:59:27People buy a bit of everything.
00:59:30Yeah, OK, it's business, but what's wrong with business?
00:59:35We've got to survive, one way or the other.
00:59:39It's huge. Multi-million pound business.
00:59:44The future is bright, green and cuddly.
00:59:57Come rain or shine, tourists flock in their thousands to the Loch,
01:00:02all hoping to catch a glimpse of the highland's most famous celebrity.
01:00:06And each year, hundreds of sightings are reported.
01:00:10But what exactly are people seeing?
01:00:13Ever since I was a child, I've been interested in the mysterious and the strange,
01:00:17but I'm also a professional scientist,
01:00:19and I was kind of interested in how science could really inform
01:00:22how people think about the unknowing,
01:00:24and maybe we can answer some questions
01:00:26about why people report strange things which we couldn't do in the past.
01:00:29There's a common belief among sceptics that witnesses are lying
01:00:32or they're just making up what they've seen.
01:00:34But actually, we've got evidence that isn't necessarily the case.
01:00:38The question is, for me as a scientist, what have they actually experienced?
01:00:44In his quest to find some clarity in the murky world of Nessie hunting,
01:00:48Charles has compiled a database containing over 1,800 reports
01:00:52of monster sightings in Loch Ness,
01:00:55spanning from the 1930s to the present day.
01:00:58If we look at cultural imagery of the Loch Ness monster,
01:01:02it's often portrayed with hoops above the water.
01:01:06So you might expect, if there's a strong cultural influence on the witnesses,
01:01:10that this would have a high proportion of the reports
01:01:13would reflect that stereotyped image of the looped monster.
01:01:17In fact, hooped-form Nessie reports are really, really rare.
01:01:22About 2.5% of the total number of reports
01:01:26and that implies to me, witnesses are reporting what they've actually seen.
01:01:32So if the vast majority of reported sightings are made in good faith,
01:01:36it begs the question, what is it that people are witnessing in the Loch?
01:01:45I saw what appeared to me to be an upturned boat,
01:01:50but it disappeared.
01:01:52I just presume it sank.
01:01:55I had no other feelings at all in the matter.
01:01:58But then it reappeared.
01:02:01And I would describe it as a whale-like object.
01:02:07It was block-ended,
01:02:09going from, say, a metre above the surface
01:02:12to about 20, 30 feet the other end.
01:02:17It was on neither head nor tail nor fins.
01:02:20It appeared to be drifting towards us
01:02:24and I am perfectly satisfied it realised
01:02:28that it was going to drift ashore
01:02:31and it did not want to drift ashore.
01:02:34So it turned
01:02:36and cutting across the wind,
01:02:39cutting across the south-west wind,
01:02:41it went out into the deep
01:02:43and went below us.
01:02:45Now, the interesting thing is,
01:02:47this sighting overall is over 45 minutes,
01:02:50so it's not just a flash.
01:02:52It's quite a prolonged sighting.
01:02:54I don't know to this day what it was,
01:02:57but I was fascinated by it more than anything else.
01:03:04Whatever does lie beneath the surface,
01:03:07Loch Ness is still a highly dangerous body of water
01:03:10with intrepid swimmers and amateur boaters
01:03:13regularly getting into trouble.
01:03:16It's for this reason that it's home
01:03:19to the only inland lifeboat station in Scotland,
01:03:25run by a team of volunteers on call 24 hours a day.
01:03:29Aberdeen Coast Guard,
01:03:31Aberdeen Coast Guard, Loch Ness Lifeboat.
01:03:33Loch Ness Lifeboat, this is Aberdeen Coast Guard,
01:03:35get out of it.
01:03:37This is a lifeboat.
01:03:39This is a lifeboat.
01:03:41Aberdeen Coast Guard, get out of it.
01:03:43It's normal, remaining to the port.
01:03:46Roger, that's received.
01:03:50It's very deep, very dark, very cold.
01:03:53The weather here changes very, very quickly.
01:03:56We can get waves on here up to 3 metres.
01:04:01My perception of Loch Ness before being part of the crew
01:04:04was completely different.
01:04:06I would never have realised what a dangerous place it is.
01:04:11The water is quite often colder than the sea,
01:04:14never really goes above 6 degrees.
01:04:16When it's hot and sunny out,
01:04:18everyone thinks, oh, I'll go for a quick dip.
01:04:20Actually, you could be hyperthermic in Loch Ness in 20 minutes.
01:04:26Every Thursday night, the crew report to their station
01:04:29on the northern shore of the loch
01:04:31to train and to keep up to date with life-saving techniques.
01:04:35Do you imagine that bollard over there
01:04:37being the bow of the casualty vessel?
01:04:41Though often calm in appearance,
01:04:44the water here has a monstrous side of its own.
01:04:47A lot of the time when we train,
01:04:49the weather is, like today, quite calm and placid
01:04:53and it's a great way to learn the steps and the processes.
01:04:57OK, light's secure. Yeah. OK, lovely.
01:05:00But the reality is, as soon as the wind's up
01:05:03and the rain's hammering down
01:05:05and the waves are bouncing the boats all over the place,
01:05:08everything changes.
01:05:11MUSIC PLAYS
01:05:26Navigating the deep and treacherous water requires skill
01:05:29and while the crew of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution
01:05:33are always looking out for people in trouble,
01:05:36the thought of something lurking below the surface is hard to escape.
01:05:40We all like to think that Nessie's down there somewhere.
01:05:43I'm definitely a believer.
01:05:45At the end of the day, the body of water here is so big,
01:05:48who says what's in there, with any certainty?
01:05:50You do think about it, whether you believe in Nessie or not.
01:05:53When you're in the middle of that expanse of dark water,
01:05:56in the dark, you can barely see the shoreline.
01:05:59There's mist across the water,
01:06:02you might have a little bit of moonlight
01:06:05and then you'll hear some waves go...
01:06:07..in the background.
01:06:09It's nice to think that that might be Nessie keeping an eye on things.
01:06:19For some, the thought of Nessie is a source of comfort.
01:06:22But for others, the idea of a monstrous creature lurking in the lock
01:06:27is enough to keep them firmly on dry land.
01:06:30You couldn't pay me enough money to go swimming in Loch Ness,
01:06:33I just won't do it. I just will never do it.
01:06:35No way, no.
01:06:38I would not set foot in that lock.
01:06:40It's too eerie, it's too deep, it's too dark,
01:06:43it's too cold, the thing's pitch black.
01:06:45I don't think I'd ever go swimming or paddling in Loch Ness.
01:06:48It's too cold and there's a monster in there, guys.
01:06:51Oh, yeah, sure. I could ride Nessie.
01:06:58When you're there and you look down
01:07:01into the dark depths of the lock,
01:07:04it's very uninviting.
01:07:06It's a place that if you go too far down below the surface,
01:07:09you will disappear.
01:07:11You can't see a thing.
01:07:13It's a dark place, it's a cold place.
01:07:16There's been many stories of people going for a swim and drowning,
01:07:19as if being pulled down by the lock.
01:07:24For centuries, those living around Loch Ness
01:07:27have been aware of its dangers,
01:07:29with accidental drownings all too common.
01:07:32Could it be that stories of a monster lurking
01:07:36in icy waters serve a more practical purpose?
01:07:41Of course, there is a theory that the tales of the beast
01:07:45was to ward off people going near the lock,
01:07:49going near the water,
01:07:51because the water is very, very deep,
01:07:53underwater currents.
01:07:55Well, it's a good way, isn't it,
01:07:57of stopping people swimming in Loch Ness,
01:07:59which is generally a very bad idea.
01:08:01It's a magical way of getting your children
01:08:04to remember the stories
01:08:06and also remember why you shouldn't get too close
01:08:08to the edge of the dark loch.
01:08:11I've never once swam in Loch Ness,
01:08:13and either that's because of my own irrational fear of dark water,
01:08:17or maybe it's because I know too many stories
01:08:19about the Loch Ness monster.
01:08:23Cautionary tales of monstrous creatures
01:08:26have served a valuable purpose since ancient times.
01:08:29In Greek mythology,
01:08:31Siren's deadly songs lured distractive sailors to their death,
01:08:37while classic fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood
01:08:40and Hansel and Gretel
01:08:42use witches and child-eating wolves
01:08:44to warn about the perils of trusting strangers.
01:08:49Every culture has its own parables and myths,
01:08:52but the idea of an elusive river monster
01:08:55transcends borders and languages.
01:08:57Could creatures similar to that suspected of living in Loch Ness
01:09:01exist in large bodies of water all over the world?
01:09:07In British Columbia, Canada,
01:09:09a monster called Ogopogo
01:09:11is said to reside in the vast Okanagan Lake.
01:09:15For hundreds of years,
01:09:17indigenous people told stories
01:09:19of a water spirit inhabiting the lake.
01:09:21However, as European settlers arrived,
01:09:24the legend of Ogopogo
01:09:26evolved into a long serpentine beast
01:09:28with humps rising from the water's surface.
01:09:33The Ogopogo is an elongate lake monster.
01:09:36It's dark green in colour,
01:09:38has very deep scales,
01:09:40yellow eyes, it's about 30 to 40 feet long.
01:09:43It's very attracted by fishing boats
01:09:45or anything that's emitting an electrical pulse.
01:09:49But is Ogopogo merely a figment of overactive imaginations?
01:09:54Or could there be something more lurking beneath the waves?
01:10:00An incredible 16% of British Columbians
01:10:03believe in its existence.
01:10:05Researchers and fans alike
01:10:07have theorised about what the Ogopogo could be.
01:10:11Is it a lake monster
01:10:13or is it a species we have yet to discover?
01:10:16No-one really knows.
01:10:206,000 miles away, in eastern Turkey,
01:10:24a van is another body of water
01:10:26said to harbour its own mythical creature.
01:10:32The Loch Ness Monster, Turkish style.
01:10:35A fabled monster from the depths
01:10:37apparently captured on video.
01:10:41For decades, there have been whisperings
01:10:43of a beast lurking beneath the surface.
01:10:46And in 1997, an incredible new video
01:10:49supposedly capturing the monster's silhouette
01:10:52added fuel to the fire.
01:10:54When this video came out, people were perplexed.
01:10:57What makes it so interesting
01:10:59is that you can clearly see the head and back
01:11:02of a very elongate creature
01:11:04gliding the lake, on the surface of the lake.
01:11:08The footage was captured by a local man
01:11:11called Uno Kozak.
01:11:13He had staked out the lake
01:11:15after a number of recent sightings
01:11:17convinced him of the monster's existence.
01:11:19Just what the monster is, isn't clear.
01:11:21Although there are plenty of theories
01:11:23some say a money-making hoax
01:11:25others in the world of research
01:11:27take it more seriously.
01:11:30Expeditions were launched
01:11:31as intrepid monster hunters
01:11:33raced to search for the creature
01:11:35but nothing conclusive was ever found.
01:11:39And the debate rages on.
01:11:41On the other side of Europe
01:11:43Iceland is a country renowned
01:11:45for its natural wonders.
01:11:47With its high density of lakes
01:11:49shaped by intense volcanic activity
01:11:51it's perhaps no surprise
01:11:53that this small island nation
01:11:55has its own lake monster.
01:11:59The Lagerfljort worm
01:12:01is said to inhabit the depths
01:12:03of the Lagerfljort lake
01:12:05in eastern Iceland.
01:12:07The first sighting
01:12:09was made in 1345
01:12:11and since then
01:12:13countless reports of a worm-like beast
01:12:15that can stretch up to 90 metres long
01:12:17have come to light.
01:12:19The monster was even documented
01:12:21on a medieval map.
01:12:33In 2012
01:12:36a video surfaced
01:12:38allegedly showing
01:12:40the Lagerfljort worm
01:12:42moving through the icy waters
01:12:44reigniting interest
01:12:46and debate about its existence.
01:12:50It was captured on film
01:12:52its long, bumpy, snake-like form
01:12:54moving, avoiding
01:12:56the ice flows
01:12:58as though it had a will of its own.
01:13:02This was actually proof
01:13:04for many cryptozoologists
01:13:06including myself at the time
01:13:08that lake monsters were real.
01:13:10Even the naysayers
01:13:12even the sceptics
01:13:14went very hard to disprove
01:13:16that that animal was not in fact genuine.
01:13:18The local authority
01:13:20set up a truth commission
01:13:22to get to the bottom of the mystery
01:13:24once and for all
01:13:26and after two years
01:13:28the panel concluded
01:13:30that the Lagerfljort worm
01:13:32was not genuine.
01:13:39The Loch Ness monster
01:13:41may hold the spotlight
01:13:43but the human fascination
01:13:45with lake monsters
01:13:47is a universal one.
01:13:49All across the globe
01:13:51the search for answers
01:13:53continues to captivate
01:13:55and intrigue us.
01:13:57We were in the lay-by
01:13:59just above Temple Pier
01:14:01for a couple of hours
01:14:03just sat in the car
01:14:05I just noticed a small dark shape
01:14:07just out of the corner of my eye
01:14:09moving along
01:14:11from left to right
01:14:13I thought possibly it was just
01:14:15a piece of wood going along
01:14:17or a diver swimming
01:14:19but then
01:14:21all of a sudden
01:14:23whatever it was
01:14:25was moving
01:14:27it did a U-turn in the water
01:14:29right back on itself
01:14:31in a horseshoe shape
01:14:33but then
01:14:35this huge black hump
01:14:37came rolling
01:14:39out of the water
01:14:41and it was just
01:14:43huge
01:14:45it was like
01:14:47a boat upside down
01:14:49it was the size of a yacht hull
01:14:51except it was completely symmetrical
01:14:53it was black
01:14:55smooth looking
01:14:58and as it rolled out
01:15:00there were several feet of it actually rolled through
01:15:02before it actually sort of stabilised and sat there
01:15:04and it must have been there for
01:15:06well I think it must have been there
01:15:08for at least 10 seconds
01:15:10I hadn't even thought
01:15:12about picking up the camera
01:15:14I mean I had an SLR camera with a 400mm lens
01:15:16just that far away from me
01:15:18if I'd just reached down and got it
01:15:20knocked the lens cap off, bang
01:15:22I could have done it
01:15:24but it's just one of those things
01:15:26you just stare at it
01:15:38Worldwide there are stories
01:15:40of mythical beasts
01:15:42yet to be proven or discovered by science
01:15:44So why is it
01:15:46that the most enduring legend of all
01:15:48comes from this sleepy corner
01:15:50of the Scottish Highlands
01:15:52To have monsters
01:15:54you need some lost worlds
01:15:56you need inhospitable
01:15:58or inaccessible
01:16:00environments
01:16:04The Yeti is pretty inaccessible
01:16:06in the snows of the Himalayan
01:16:08there aren't too many of us
01:16:10that actually go there
01:16:12Bigfoot
01:16:14in the dark North American woods
01:16:16again
01:16:18it's inaccessible
01:16:20walk in there
01:16:22you get lost in 5 minutes
01:16:24the depths of the ocean
01:16:26are a lost world
01:16:28well
01:16:30Loch Ness qualifies
01:16:32in a way as a lost world
01:16:34because it's deep
01:16:36and it's dark and it's cold
01:16:38and it's hostile
01:16:40but it is also accessible
01:16:42geographically
01:16:44it's only 14 miles south
01:16:46of the Highland capital
01:16:48in the Ness
01:16:50anybody can participate
01:16:52you can come down the A82
01:16:54park in a lay-by
01:16:56look at the loch
01:16:58eat a sandwich
01:17:00and you are on the brink
01:17:02of discovery
01:17:16G.A. Kelly moved to the Highlands
01:17:1920 years ago
01:17:21and now lives a stone's throw
01:17:23from Loch Ness
01:17:25my husband is originally from Inverness
01:17:27so I know this area
01:17:29quite well
01:17:31but my husband took me
01:17:33here for the first time
01:17:35just before we got married
01:17:37and I just fell in love with the place
01:17:39it's so beautiful
01:17:43G.A. and her family are frequent visitors
01:17:45to Doors Beach
01:17:47G.A. was born and grew up
01:17:49on the southern shores of the loch
01:17:51in August 2018
01:17:53while out with her husband and daughter
01:17:55G.A. took a set of photos
01:17:57that some consider to be
01:17:59the most compelling evidence
01:18:01of Ness' existence to date
01:18:03it was a typical
01:18:05Scottish summer
01:18:07beautiful but quite cold
01:18:09and grey
01:18:11we didn't see any boat
01:18:13just people walking around
01:18:15but Scottish summer
01:18:17I think
01:18:19it was our daughter
01:18:21who spotted some strange movement
01:18:23on the surface of the water
01:18:25near that white buoy
01:18:27some sort of rolling
01:18:29and it was moving
01:18:31from right to left
01:18:33not just in a straight line
01:18:35it was a bit like a zigzag
01:18:37it went right and then came back
01:18:39no left and came back
01:18:41but we could see the surface
01:18:43sort of humps moving
01:18:45in a screwdriver like movement
01:18:51the unusual humps had appeared
01:18:53around 200 meters from the shore
01:18:55and the longer they remained in sight
01:18:57the harder they became to explain
01:19:01at the very very beginning
01:19:03I thought it was a fish
01:19:05a salmon or something
01:19:07but then usually fish would jump
01:19:09and then go back to the water
01:19:11and you wouldn't probably see it that way
01:19:13but we just debated
01:19:15quite a long time
01:19:17about
01:19:19to just figure out what it was
01:19:21and we thought, ok, otters
01:19:23seals, fish
01:19:25but then
01:19:27we explored all sorts of
01:19:29possibilities but
01:19:31we just couldn't figure out
01:19:34Chie took a total
01:19:36of 71 photos
01:19:38in quick succession
01:19:40that when played back in sequence
01:19:42form a short video
01:19:44that offers a fascinating insight
01:19:46into what was seen
01:19:48in the water that day
01:19:50as the video cycles through each image
01:19:52something clearly breaks the surface
01:19:54trailed by a large wake
01:19:56or shadow
01:19:58two domelike images
01:20:00of the ocean
01:20:02two domelike shapes
01:20:04emerge from the water
01:20:06then plunge back under a fraction of a second later
01:20:14one image even appears to resemble
01:20:16the head of the creature
01:20:18complete with glistening eye
01:20:23it's truly a unique piece of evidence
01:20:25but one that Chie
01:20:27was initially reluctant to share with the world
01:20:29we didn't want to go
01:20:31public with those photos
01:20:33because
01:20:35most of all
01:20:37we were worried
01:20:39that we would be ridiculed
01:20:41and we would be targeted
01:20:43by online trolls
01:20:45for five years
01:20:47Chie kept the photos to herself
01:20:49but everything changed
01:20:51when she met one of the locks
01:20:53most famous monster hunters
01:20:55she said, oh, can you just look at
01:20:57these photographs, I want to show you
01:20:59these photographs I've got on the phone
01:21:01and so fully expecting them to be
01:21:03ducks or birds
01:21:05or the wind or whatever
01:21:07I didn't expect to be that impressed
01:21:09and I looked and just scrolled through
01:21:11the pictures
01:21:13and I thought, wow
01:21:15I don't know what this is
01:21:17I can't explain that
01:21:19I said, you need to make this public
01:21:21so that investigators
01:21:23around the world can all look at it
01:21:25it's not up to me to decide
01:21:27it's up to all researchers
01:21:29to decide what these things are
01:21:31and Chie very much
01:21:33said, well, I've had these
01:21:35pictures in my drawer for five years
01:21:37already and I'm not intending to go public
01:21:39because I see the ridicule
01:21:41that this subject attracts
01:21:43and I don't want to be a part of that
01:21:45and I said, yeah, but you can't just put this
01:21:47back in the drawer, this is too
01:21:49important
01:21:52Despite her hesitation
01:21:54Steve eventually convinced Chie
01:21:56to release her photos
01:21:58and as soon as she did
01:22:00theories about what they could be
01:22:02started to emerge
01:22:04Yes, they are unusual
01:22:06Very, very strange
01:22:08Very, very strange indeed
01:22:10Some were saying, oh, it's a bin bag
01:22:12being blown along by the wind
01:22:14but, you know, it's patently not
01:22:16It might be animated
01:22:18but it's certainly
01:22:20doesn't look like an animal
01:22:22to me, but it's a very interesting
01:22:24sequence. My best guess
01:22:26is divers' bubbles
01:22:28No, I don't go with that
01:22:30It's very, very odd
01:22:32Then we looked at the date
01:22:34which was the 13th of August
01:22:36and
01:22:38that's a Monday
01:22:40The only divers I've ever seen here
01:22:42in 30 years are on a Sunday
01:22:44half a dozen times a year
01:22:46That very much
01:22:48means to me
01:22:50that divers wouldn't have been out here
01:22:52on a Monday
01:22:54We didn't see any divers that day
01:22:56We were here for about
01:22:58an hour or so
01:23:00so you'd have eventually seen
01:23:02divers going in or coming out
01:23:04They can't stay underwater
01:23:06forever
01:23:08Animals, mammals
01:23:10fish, maybe
01:23:12eels
01:23:14sea serpent, I don't know, I still don't know
01:23:18As Chie's photos
01:23:20went viral, the comments
01:23:22came flooding in from every corner
01:23:24of the internet
01:23:34The reactions
01:23:36were very mixed
01:23:40I think it's typical of this
01:23:42Loch Ness monster mystery
01:23:44that people can get very, very
01:23:46polarized
01:23:48So-called believers were very, very enthusiastic
01:23:52At the same time
01:23:54lots of people started to call me
01:23:56a hoaxer or fake
01:23:58and some even celebrities
01:24:00said that this was
01:24:02an outrageous fakery
01:24:04and that was very hurtful
01:24:06That's the precise reason why
01:24:08we didn't want to go public
01:24:10And yes, lots of online
01:24:12comments
01:24:14Quite nasty ones
01:24:16I know many, many people that have seen something
01:24:18A lot of people, for gain, fame or fortune
01:24:20wouldn't want to come before
01:24:22you yourselves
01:24:24dare I say it, for fear of ridicule
01:24:26because they have reputations
01:24:28and for people
01:24:30in reasonable
01:24:32positions in business and working life
01:24:34to go around saying that they're
01:24:36seeing monsters in Loch Ness
01:24:38makes their credibility go a little bit out the window
01:24:41I'm sure
01:24:43there are lots of people who have seen
01:24:45or who have something interesting
01:24:47but who are like
01:24:49ourselves don't want to
01:24:51go public because of that
01:25:03Almost 1500 years
01:25:05after the first recorded sighting
01:25:07the identity of the Loch Ness monster
01:25:09still divides opinion
01:25:11If there was anything, I think it's some sort of
01:25:13prehistoric thing, you know, like
01:25:15the dinosaur era
01:25:17It's not too big, dark
01:25:19with a huge tail
01:25:21Or it could just be a giant eel
01:25:23or something like that
01:25:25or people could have just been having too much
01:25:27Scottish whiskey and dreaming up stuff
01:25:31Loch Ness is a place where science
01:25:33and folklore converge
01:25:35and value is placed not in the answers we possess
01:25:37but in the questions that remain
01:25:41I think the world cherishes
01:25:43this mystery for
01:25:45the possibilities that it represents
01:25:47We've mapped all
01:25:49the continents, we've
01:25:51identified most of the big
01:25:53animals that are on the planet
01:25:55and yet, in spite of
01:25:57our global knowledge
01:25:59we maybe haven't answered all the
01:26:01questions yet
01:26:03But are we any closer
01:26:05to discovering the truth?
01:26:09Breaking news, something unexplained
01:26:11has been seen at Loch Ness yesterday
01:26:13Iconic photos have been
01:26:15dismissed as hoaxes
01:26:17But the sightings continue
01:26:19to this day
01:26:21To my mind, it's neither myth nor
01:26:23legend, it's fact, it's factual
01:26:25People are seeing something out there
01:26:27Have we really
01:26:29recorded Ness's voice for the first
01:26:31time? No one has
01:26:33said with full conviction what the Loch Ness
01:26:35monster is, so we don't know
01:26:37Nobody knows
01:26:39Or is the famous beast
01:26:41hiding in plain sight?
01:26:43We are only mere mortals
01:26:45at the end of the day, who are we to say that they're not
01:26:47seeing anything?
01:26:49There are those who want the mystery to remain
01:26:51I think that they'll
01:26:53catch her one day
01:26:55and they'll pull her to pieces and then
01:26:57everybody will know what she was
01:27:00I personally feel
01:27:02like I would rather never
01:27:04know the truth of the Loch Ness
01:27:06monster, I would rather keep it a mystery
01:27:08and always be wondering
01:27:10And those who
01:27:12will always be searching for answers
01:27:14They know we're not going to find
01:27:16it
01:27:18but they know we're not going to
01:27:20stop
01:27:22I'm not wasting my time at all
01:27:24I'm recharging my soul
01:27:26There is no negative in this
01:27:28whatsoever at all
01:27:30I do wonder
01:27:32what I will do when I
01:27:34finally get the piece of evidence that
01:27:36solves this mystery
01:27:38Sometimes I think
01:27:40I would shout it from the highest
01:27:42heights, here's the evidence for
01:27:44Nessie, sometimes I think
01:27:46I wouldn't tell anyone
01:27:48I'd keep it to myself
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