A 12-year-old girl said she saw the Loch Ness Monster in 2018 and has the footage to prove it.
Charlotte Robinson from Leeds in Yorkshire was staying at Loch Ness Highland Lodges in Inmorriston when she said she saw the beast appear about 50 feet away from her on the first day of her holiday.
It took place just four days after Chie Kelly captured startling footage of a large, unidentified creature slowly spinning on the surface of the fabled lake.
Ms Kelly, 51, was taking pictures from the village of Dores when she and her husband, businessman Scott, 68, saw a strange ‘snake-like’ creature moving for a distance of about 100 meters before disappearing.
Ms Kelly, who works as a translator, was so shocked by what she saw on August 13, 2018, she feared public ridicule and did not share the footage.
Charlotte Robinson from Leeds in Yorkshire was staying at Loch Ness Highland Lodges in Ingeverriston when she said she saw the beast
Charlotte said the creature showed up about 50 feet away on the first day of her vacation
She was inspired to share the footage after reading about the biggest search for Nessie in over 50 years last weekend.
It was then that she mustered up the courage to show her startling photos to veteran Nessie hunter Steve Feltham, who has set a world record for the longest wake in search of the Loch Ness Monster – now spanning more than 30 years from his Dores -base.
He was amazed, describing them as the “most exciting” surface photos of Nessie he’d ever seen.
But four days after seeing Ms. Kelly, Charlotte said a strange creature appeared in front of her for about a minute, before reappearing seven minutes later, about ten feet away, for less than 60 seconds.
Charlotte was on vacation with parents Kat, a business intelligence data analyst, and father Dave, a factory worker.
Mr. and Mrs. Robinson had stayed at the same holiday center sixteen years earlier, but had not visited since.
Chie Kelly, 51, was taking pictures from the village of Dores when she and her husband, businessman Scott, 68, saw a strange ‘snake-like’ creature moving for a distance of about 100 meters before disappearing
Ms Kelly, who works as a translator, was so shocked by what she saw on August 13, 2018, she feared public ridicule and did not share the footage. She was inspired to share the footage after reading last weekend about the biggest search for Nessie in over 50 years
Charlotte Robinson at Loch Ness. She took the photos just four days after Ms. Kelly snapped startling images of a large, unknown creature
Charlotte saw the creature and captured it on her phone.
‘There was something in the water, about 15 meters from the shore. I took a picture. It had a neck and the head was shaped like a hook,’ said Charlotte.
“I just took what I saw. It was black, I just don’t know how far it was out of the water. I’m not good at estimating distances.
“But after about a minute it disappeared and resurfaced in a different place. The second time it took less than a minute. I kind of believed in Nessie, but I wanted to see the proof. I always imagined her to have a long neck and webbed feet.
“I saw something, but I’m not sure what.”
Mama Kat added: ‘Charlotte said she took a picture of a creature in the lake and I said, ‘Right, you sure have!’ She’s been talking about seeing the Loch Ness Monster for weeks.
But when I saw the picture, I couldn’t believe it. There is something. With all the sightings over the years, there must be something in the lake.”
Organizer Alan McKenna (left) joins Nessie hunters aboard a boat on Loch Ness for what was described as the largest search for the Loch Ness Monster since the early 1970s
A general view of Loch Ness. It’s been 90 years since the Loch Ness Monster phenomenon began
Nessie expert Mr Feltham was amazed at the image, saying it was ‘the best of ‘Nessie’ in years’.
Charlotte’s sighting was accepted by the official Loch Ness Monster Sightings’ Register.
Gary Campbell, the keeper of the register, said: ‘It was a special week because in addition to Charlotte’s sighting there were three others of an unexplained creature.
“It appears the creature moved between Dores and Fort Augustus. These photos of Mrs. Kelly and Charlotte are the best Nessie has ever taken and are totally mind-boggling. It all adds to the evidence that there is definitely something unexplained in Loch Ness.”
Mr Campbell added that Ms Kelly’s sighting had now been added to the official register.
It’s been 90 years since the Loch Ness Monster phenomenon began.
On 14 April 1933, hotel manager Mrs Aldie Mackay reported seeing a ‘cetacean fish’ in the waters of Loch Ness.
As she and her husband drove, she looked across the still-calm water to Aldourie Castle, where she saw something.
Mrs Mackay’s sighting was reported in the Inverness Courier on 2 May 1933 by Alex Campbell, the Loch Ness water bailiff and part-time journalist.
It is widely regarded as the first modern ‘sighting’ of a monster in the lake.
In 2019, Prof. Neil Gemmell, a geneticist from the University of Otago in New Zealand, searched Loch Ness and found no evidence of plesiosaur DNA.
However, he found a lot of eel DNA and suggested that there may be giant eels in Loch Ness, which may be behind the Nessie sightings.
In 2020, startling images of a large creature inhabiting the depths of Loch Ness were captured on sonar off Inmorgenriston by skipper Ronald Mackenzie aboard his tourist boat Spirit of Loch Ness.
Feltham then said they were the “most convincing” evidence of the existence of a Loch Ness Monster.
Experts were amazed at the clarity of the image of an object, estimated at the time to be 10 meters long and hovering 20 meters above the Loch floor.
Leading sonar expert Craig Wallace described the sonar images as “very curious,” “large, clear and distinct contacts, all oddly close to the lake bottom,” and “100 percent real.”
According to Google, about 200,000 searches are made each month for the Loch Ness Monster, and about 120,000 for information and accommodation around Loch Ness. The monster mystery is said to be worth £30 million to the region.
The Irish missionary St. Columba is first said to have lived in 565 AD. encountered a beast in the River Ness.
There have been five ‘official sightings’ of the Loch Ness Monster this year.
The official registry has now recorded 1161 sightings, including webcam images, from documents and other evidence stretching through the ages.
One of the most famous photos of the Loch Ness Monster was later revealed to be a hoax.
In 1994, before his death at the age of 90, Christian Spurling confessed to his involvement in a plot to create the famous Surgeon’s Photo.
The British surgeon, Colonel Robert Wilson, came forward with a photograph in which a sea serpent appeared to emerge from the waters of the Loch.
Wilson claimed he took the photo early in the morning of April 19, 1934 while driving along the north shore of Loch Ness.
The object in the water was in fact a toy submarine equipped with a sea serpent head.
This was revealed in 1994 when Christian Spurling, before his death at the age of 90, confessed his involvement in a plot to create the famous Surgeon’s Photo.