OF those who are aware of the story of the Loch Ness Monster, you’d be hard-pressed to find a soul who doesn’t look across the water with stifled hope to see the infamous long neck and humps cutting through the waves.

People come from all over the world to scan Scotland’s deepest loch with darting eyes, and there is no sign of it stopping. Visiting in October on a dry but cold day with a snell wind, the Loch Ness Centre’s Deepsea Cruises were fully booked.

“We thought it would calm down after summer," centre employee Shalom Brown told me as I waited for the exhibition tour.

“People just love Nessie, and when tourists come here, they don’t plan to do anything except enjoy nature. Then they then see the exhibition and come straight away, because they know the monster. Everyone knows the story.”

The Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition opened it’s new, state-of-the-art museum at the site of the former Drumnadrochit Hotel in June 2023, and has since hired more staff to keep up with public demand. The hotel had been at the heart of the modern phenomena, with Aldie MacKay being landlady in 1933 when she reported the sighting which set off a media frenzy.

MacKay reportedly did not want the attention.

The media coverage combined with area becoming more accessible, with the opening of the A82 alongside the loch in 1936 resulting in the number of reported sightings (and hoaxes) increasing. Media plus sighting after sighting have created a never-ending legend and booming industry for the area and Scotland.

Life for the village, water and land was never the same again. On our cruise were visitors from England, France and Brazil, with Americans on another boat, and Spaniards next in the queue. Without the monster myth, they would likely never have stepped foot in Drumnadrochit.

READ MORE: Loch Ness Monster is algae-based creature, DNA test claims

The largest search for the monster in the last 50 years took place in 2023 and was replicated at a lesser extent in 2024. The event is set to become an annual venture with next year’s exploration to take place from May 22 to 25. All who join hope to assist in delivering breakthroughs for the search.

Skipper Ali Mattheson took us out on the water in the late morning sun and introduced us to the 23-mile long and 745-feet deep loch.

The Deepscan vessel is one of the many boats taking part in the never-ending research of the loch’s depths. The boat is equipped with sonar and radar systems, a hydrophone and most recently a state-of-the-art holographic camera to catch the smallest of fish and the biggest of potential plesiosaurs.

Recently the boat detected a "distinct anomaly" in Loch Ness, sparking intrigue and speculation among researchers and enthusiasts.

While the exact nature of these readings remains under investigation, preliminary analysis suggests they could represent substantial underwater presences or potentially large aquatic creatures inhabiting the loch creating a disturbance on the loch bed.

The group and I sailed past Urquhart Castle to the deepest point, where Mattheson told us Edinburgh Castle could be covered over twice and the loch holds more fresh water than all of England’s lakes combined.

Once my brain wrapped around and contextualised the depth, I shivered, and not from the wind.

The water is so dark and peaty that it terrifies, but also makes it even more challenging for researchers to get any images that don't make the imagination run wild.

And although the water is murky, it’s clear why people are drawn to believing there is a magic to be found. Whenever clouds passed above and blocked the light, there was a grey tone to the loch and Great Glen.

The atmosphere changed, and the depth of myth was as tangible as the depth of water.

READ MORE: Loch Ness search identifies 'monstrous' disturbances

Everyone kept an eye on the radar screen, looking for the red dot which would symbolise something underneath the boat. Small flecks turned up on the screen, which we were told were likely fish or debris, but nothing resembling a monster.

Mattheson, who has sailed on the loch for 12 years, told us of several sightings, starting with Saint Columba in the sixth century and including one by his friend’s dad Ian Cameron, a retired police sergeant. Cameron was fishing on the shore one afternoon in when he saw a hump in the water. He watched it for a few minutes, zipping through the water and then it was gone.

What gave the story credit, Mattheson believed, was the seven other witnesses who saw the shape. All were separate from each other.

I asked Mattheson if he and those who worked on the cruises truly believed there was something in the water.

“Yes, generally all of know there is a mystery here to be solved. I’m not a fan of a plesiosaurus swimming about in Loch Ness that we haven’t discovered yet. I’m a bit more of ‘something of this earth’.

“When there’s been so many people who have seen so many things, and you boil it all down, you end up with that single humped kind of monster.”

Brown said he also didn’t think there was any plesiosaurus monster but something “didn’t feel right” in the loch and he didn’t want to find out.

“I’ve been swimming in there, and something just doesn’t feel right. You can’t see anything at all underneath the surface, so there absolutely could be something huge in there – I just don’t ever want to find out.

“It’s a scary thought that you can’t see your own feet when you swim and there could be anything”.

His college Antonio Dann said he believed the time of Nessie had passed, adding: “I think there could have been something in there at one point, but is it in there any anymore? I’m not really sure.”

The actual animal which it could be is theorised by Mattheson and others. A giant eel? An Atlantic sturgeon? A catfish? Or is it just a log or seal brought in from the undercurrents?

It is understood that the water is too cold to be home to a reptile. But other suggestions such as a larger fish have still not been disproven.

The only possibility not ruled out by DNA research in 2019 was that of a giant eel, and testing in 2023 suggested an algae-based creature.

After the tour, narrated by David Tennant and  which took us through Scotland's myths alongside the science of the loch, our group voted on whether we see Nessie, nonsense and possibilities.

The centre has recorded that overall, 46% of people see Nessie, 24% see nonsense, and 30% possibilities. 

So, did I see the Loch Ness Monster?

Well, no. People across the world would have already heard if I did. It was not for lack of trying, equipment on board the boat, or the weather.

But to see people from all over the world be enamoured by Scotland’s landscape, myth, and magic – that was possibly better than seeing the monster.

Science, video, photographs, and eye-witness testimonies can neither prove or disprove the legend of the Loch and so as amateur naturalist Adrian Shine, founder of the Loch Ness Project research group, said, “the fun continues”.