English Couple Spot Loch Ness Phenomenon

The Highland News out of Inverness is reporting that an English couple twice spotted something in Loch Ness during a visit to the area. Here’s the report in full followed by my comments. By, the way, this is the same publication that brought the August sighting of an unknown object off Dores to the attention of the world and led me to investigate.

Nessie at the double

But although they feel fortunate to have spotted the legendary Loch Ness Monster, they say lady luck was not smiling on them as they did not manage to capture her on film.

Nick Thurston (32), of Frome, Somerset, a former Wiltshire Constabulary employee now working for Vodafone, and his fiance Emma Louise Jones (22), won a two-day holiday in Inverness and decided to stay for two weeks.

The couple admit to being intrigued by the legendary monster but were sceptical prior to visiting that anything prehistoric could exist in the year 2006.

They booked a trip with Jacobite Cruises on the loch and set sail on Friday, October 6, on a trip which would sway the opinion of at least Emma Louise who was the most sceptical out of the two.

She said: ‘As we sailed along I saw a hump, much like that of a bridge, which was dark brown in colour and was relative to Urquhart Castle.

‘I shouted to Nick to get the camera, but he was unfortunately not quick enough to capture what I had seen, and then the drizzle started to come down and the mist closed in.’ Nick was not over enthused at the sighting, but Emma Louise remained convinced she had seen Nessie.

The following week, the couple decided to visit Ben Nevis, and as they drove down the lochside road to Fort William, just after Urquhart Castle, the incredible happened.

Said Nick: ‘I noticed what looked like a rounded dark tree stump that appeared to be around 1-2 metres protruding out of the water, which was very close to the banks opposite the castle. I only realised this was more sinister when I saw something like Emma had described previously that was also raised and appeared black or extremely dark brown in colour.

‘This rear raised section was around 3-4 metres behind the raised stump, but there were no other sections.

‘I yelled to Emma to quickly grab my camcorder from the rear passenger seats, which resulted in something of a disagreement. Emma thought I had lost my marbles as we were in a very precarious position on the road with a very deep loch just below us.

‘The glimpse that I caught only lasted for around five or six seconds, but it was enough to convince me wholeheartedly that this was no collapsed tree, wave, human, boat, seal, dolphin or catfish.

‘The tree trunk-like stump very slowly and gracefully submerged beneath the water within a matter of seconds at which point I was completely shocked and dumbfounded, as anyone would be!’

He said they were unable to stop as there were no parking places. Nick stressed: ‘I can now firmly say hand on heart that I have witnessed something remarkable that I would argue about until the day I die!

‘I know what I saw and that’s all that matters to me – people can believe me or not as it really does not bother me!

‘I can say to myself that I saw something very, very unusual that was alive and could well have been something that we do not yet know about! If only I could pop into Boots and get my memory processed – that will be the day should it come in my lifetime!’

He said work colleagues and customers remain reserved about his sighting, but a few believe there is something lurking in Loch Ness.

‘I am so convinced that I have seen something that could well be the supposed Loch Ness Monster that I would happily take a lie detector test to prove that I am not fabricating what I saw,’ he says.

Nick and Emma Louise plan to return to the Highlands next year, hopefully for another close encounter of the Nessie kind.

Firstly, I want to observe that quite a few recent sightings I am aware of, have been by English visitors (including the two witnesses above) rather than by local Scots and quite a few English people transp[lanted to the Highlands who live around the loch. I note from my visits to Loch Ness that the local people are extremely good at identifying extraneous phenomena in the loch and are hesitant to say they have had a sighting of an unknown creature unless they are absolutely certain.

Both the above sightings were very brief and the second was of something on the opposite side of the loch. The loch can be as wide as two miles at some points so for a person on one side to see something near the opposite shore without magnification can really take some doing. It is interesting to me that Nick Thurston said: ‘I noticed what looked like a rounded dark tree stump."

It is therefore then distinctly possible that Nick did see a tree stump which then became waterlogged and sank. It is equally possible that Nick did see an unknown creature, but as he was such a long distance from the opposite shore, how sure can he be of the identity of the object?

I hope it was an unknown creature that Nick Thurston saw, as many Cryptomundo readers will know that I have very strong reservations that there could be an unknown animal living in Loch Ness. However, I am open enough to say that I would love to be proved wrong about this creature. It’s a bit of an icon of the Scottish Highlands and adds to distinctive splendour of one of the most beautiful places on earth.

We’ll just have to wait and see if a body of one of these creatures ever washes up, as this is the only proof of the Loch Ness phenomenon that is acceptable to science.

John Kirk About John Kirk
One of the founders of the BCSCC, John Kirk has enjoyed a varied and exciting career path. Both a print and broadcast journalist, John Kirk has in recent years been at the forefront of much of the BCSCC’s expeditions, investigations and publishing. John has been particularly interested in the phenomenon of unknown aquatic cryptids around the world and is the author of In the Domain of the Lake Monsters (Key Porter Books, 1998). In addition to his interest in freshwater cryptids, John has been keenly interested in investigating the possible existence of sasquatch and other bipedal hominids of the world, and in particular, the Yeren of China. John is also chairman of the Crypto Safari organization, which specializes in sending teams of investigators to remote parts of the world to search for animals as yet unidentified by science. John travelled with a Crypto Safari team to Cameroon and northern Republic of Congo to interview witnesses among the Baka pygmies and Bantu bushmen who have sighted a large unknown animal that bears more than a superficial resemblance to a dinosaur. Since 1996, John Kirk has been editor and publisher of the BCSCC Quarterly which is the flagship publication of the BCSCC. In demand at conferences, seminars, lectures and on television and radio programs, John has spoken all over North America and has appeared in programs on NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, TLC, Discovery, CBC, CTV and the BBC. In his personal life John spends much time studying the histories of Scottish Clans and is himself the president of the Clan Kirk Society. John is also an avid soccer enthusiast and player.

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