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The evidence board
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The evidence board
What was reported, and what later checks showed
Showing all 7 cards.
1933: Aldie Mackay and the Courier
What was reported Alec Campbell, the Inverness Courier’s Fort Augustus correspondent, reported a sighting by Aldie Mackay of a whale-like creature and water “cascading and churning.” The editor, Evan Barron, suggested calling the beast a “monster.”
What later checks showed This is the report BBC News treats as the start of the modern newspaper story. It is a witnessed claim, written up at the time, not a later identification of an animal.
Sourced wording BBC News says the modern story gathered pace when, in 1933, the Inverness Courier’s Fort Augustus correspondent, Alec Campbell, reported a sighting by Aldie Mackay of what she believed to be Nessie. Campbell described a whale-like creature and the loch’s water “cascading and churning.” The editor, Evan Barron, suggested the beast be described as a “monster.”1
1933: Mr and Mrs George Spicer
What was reported They told newspapers they saw a monster, 40 to 50 ft (12 to 15 m) long, crossing the road near the loch, then disappearing into the water.
What later checks showed The BBC records this as one of the well-known 1930s reports, in a period that also produced hoaxes. No physical remains were produced.
Sourced wording The same BBC page records that in 1933 Mr and Mrs George Spicer told newspapers they saw a monster, measuring 40 to 50 ft (12 to 15 m) long, crossing the road near the loch.2
1934: the “Surgeon’s Photograph”
What was reported Colonel Robert Wilson was said to have photographed the monster on 19 April 1934. For sixty years it was the most famous picture of “Nessie.”
What later checks showed In 1994 it was revealed to be a hoax: a toy submarine bought from Woolworths, with a head of wood putty, given to Wilson after earlier “Nessie footprints” had been ridiculed. This site does not reproduce the copyrighted picture; the later check is the point.
Sourced wording In 1994, the BBC records, the most famous of the published photographs — taken by Colonel Robert Wilson on 19 April 1934 — was revealed to be a hoax.2
1970s: a flipper in a photograph
What was reported A photograph associated with Dr Robert Rhines — the BBC’s spelling — seemed to show a flipper or fin. Sir Peter Scott gave the creature the name Nessiteras rhombopteryx.
What later checks showed The BBC notes that the name is also an anagram of “Monster hoax by Sir Peter S,” and that the image was later revealed to have been computer enhanced.
Sourced wording It also records that in the 1970s a photograph taken by Dr Robert Rhines — the BBC’s spelling — attracted worldwide attention and seemed to show a flipper or fin. The creature was given the scientific name Nessiteras rhombopteryx by Sir Peter Scott. The BBC notes that the name is also an anagram of “Monster hoax by Sir Peter S,” and that the image was later revealed to have been computer enhanced.2
1987: Operation Deepscan
What was reported A line of boats with echo sounders swept the loch. Three sonar contacts were of interest; they were stronger than ordinary fish echoes and, when revisited, had disappeared.
What later checks showed The Loch Ness Project says they were certainly not 10-metre monsters, and that the contacts remain unexplained. Sources disagree on whether twenty or 24 boats took part.
Sourced wording When interesting contacts were revisited, most proved to be fixed, but three had disappeared. The Project says they were “certainly not 10 metre monsters,” yet were stronger than fish echoes and lay far deeper. “The contacts remain unexplained.”3
2003: a BBC sonar search
What was reported Programme-makers carried out what the BBC called the most extensive search yet, with 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation.
What later checks showed They found nothing. That is a later check of the water column, not a verdict on every earlier report.
Sourced wording In July 2003, the BBC says, programme-makers carried out what it calls the most extensive search yet, using 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology, but found nothing.2
2019: environmental DNA
What was reported A University of Otago team, led by Professor Neil Gemmell, sampled water across the loch to catalogue living species from environmental DNA.
What later checks showed No evidence of a plesiosaur, sturgeon, catfish or Greenland shark was found. There was a great deal of eel DNA; the work does not give the eels’ size, and does not discount unusually large eels.
Sourced wording In 2019, BBC News reported work led by Professor Neil Gemmell of the University of Otago, which tried to catalogue living species in the loch from environmental DNA in water samples. No evidence of a prehistoric marine reptile called a plesiosaur, or of a large fish such as a sturgeon, was found. Catfish, and the idea of a wandering Greenland shark, were also discounted.1
Sources differ. The Loch Ness Project says twenty vessels took part in Operation Deepscan. BBC On This Day called it a flotilla of 24 boats. Both accounts agree that three sonar contacts were of interest, and the Project says those contacts remain unexplained.
The Loch Ness Project’s own account of Operation Deepscan, in 1987, says twenty vessels from Caley Cruisers of Inverness were equipped with Lowrance echo sounders and formed a slow-moving front line.3 BBC On This Day, reporting the end of the 1987 search, called Deepscan “a flotilla of 24 boats” that picked up three sonar “contacts,” shown as crescent-shaped marks, in the waters below Urquhart Castle — possibly a seal or a group of salmon.2
Sources differ. The Gazetteer dates the modern wave of sightings to 1932. BBC News and BBC On This Day place the well-known Mackay and Spicer reports in 1933. This site keeps both in view.
The Gazetteer says it was not until 1932 that a plethora of sightings began.4