Most Recent Loch Ness Photo (via Dale Drinnon)

by Val Sweeney


A LANDSCAPE architect working at Aldourie Castle is wondering whether he has captured the elusive figure of Nessie on camera.

Richard Preston, who has redesigned the castle grounds on the loch's southern shores, snapped the image of a mysterious three-humped object on the water.


"I am not saying it is the monster. But I don't see any reason why it cannot be some sort of a sea-going beast," Mr Preston said.

The 27-year-old Yorkshireman, who is based at Broughton Hall near Skipton, was working at the castle when something close to the opposite shore caught his attention at about 3pm. "It was a glimmer," he said. "It was like a reflection. The rest of the water was still and dark. It was quite odd."

Mr Preston snapped a series of images on his mobile camera but when he turned around, the mystery object had disappeared.

"I was gobsmacked," he said. "I have been working here for the last two or three years and have never seen anything like it."

The mystery `humps' as photographed by Richard Preston.

The photographs have raised the interest of full-time Nessie hunter Steve Feltham who lives in a former mobile library parked by Dores beach.

"I am quite excited about these photographs," he said. "To me, they are unexplained and Richard is a reliable character."

The images were taken from the grounds of the castle looking towards Lochend.

"About three-quarters of the way across, you can see what looks like three humps," Mr Feltham explained. "Initially, I thought they could be the wake of a boat. But there are several photos and the image does not move, whereas if it was a boat wake it would move along to the shore. I don't know what it is. "

Loch Ness Monster expert Adrian Shine, who runs the Loch Ness Project, described the picture as interesting but suggested it could be the reflection of the sun on the water, perhaps against a house or leaves.


{--It seems the image in the water IS EXACTLY the refection of the white building immediately above it on shore, and the second building next to it also has a reflection but it is obscured by the trees on the near shore (our side)

There were asome possibly valid "Loch Ness Monster" photos many years ago but nothing of any much substance since then. And even in the cases I am thinking of, the critics were calling "Hoax." I rember when the photos marked "Gilles" turned up on the internet several years back and in fact I had a dialogue going with both critics and promoters of the photos then (including the person who allegedly took the photos). I had no reason to doubt they were genuine and some good reasons for saying they were Plesiosaurian. Those photos were taken in 2002, within a span of a few years either way of some other Longnecked-Periscope photos. However, if there was a "Monster" in the Loch then it may have died since.

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/13910/Mystery_surrounds_Loch_Ness__91humps_92.html