Wednesday 6 July 2016

A Loch Ness Monster Sighting from 1993

I found this Nessie report while I was doing my usual rounds of the Internet a few weeks back. It is taken from the Highland News dated 28th August 1993. It is a known account and Gary Campbell has the sighting listed on his sightings register site for the August 10th.

Steve Feltham, stationed at Dores Bay, has known Roland O'Brien for 25 years and I asked for his opinion of this report. He certainly regards this as a very good sighting by a local fisherman who has fished on the shore extensively.

And I would agree with him. I have said it before, but I always give more credence to people who have a long track record of watching the loch (for whatever reason). They are the ones who are more than familiar with the moods of the loch and are far less likely to be deceived than someone just off a tourist bus who has never lived near a body of water in their lives.

The original clipping is below with the text of the report further below for ease of reading.




A SCANIPORT man has broken his silence on a rare double sighting of the Loch Ness Monster. He is 41-year-old forestry and landscape contractor Roland O'Brien of Balmore Farm, Scaniport.

The memorable night Nessie gave him an encore was Tuesday August 10 but he said that, like most country folk, he's been reluctant to talk about it. He told the Highland News he was waiting for a fishing mate at the 30mph limit sign on the Foyers side of Dores when he had the biggest shock of his life. 

 "I had baited my rod and had been fishing for 10 minutes. and there were quite a few fish rising," he said.

"Something caught the corner of my eye, but I didn't pay it too much attention to start with. It was its strange behaviour that made me look again. I saw a large dark hump about 500 yards out from the shore and heading toward the buoy in Dores Bay. From the size of the buoy, I would estimate that what I saw was between eight and 10 feet long." Roland revealed.

"It was about four feet out of the water at its highest point, making it larger than the buoy. It moved rapidly for about five minutes and seemed to be making lots of splashing in front of it. It came to a stop, then started again. It stopped again, then started off again a third time." Roland said.

"About 50 metres from the buoy it stopped. appeared to turn round, then headed back. Then it sank on the spot without a trace." Roland said he did not know what to do, because he was simply shocked rigid by his experience. But he was to receive a second helping! 

I'd been watching for about four minutes before the creature went down," he said. "then, about a minute later, up she came again! The second time, there was no great commotion. It was moving reasonably slowly back towards me in about a 60-degree angle. The shape was the same as before. It looked fairly bulky.

Swimming back from the buoy, it came to about 350 yards from me. I watched it again for about five minutes. About halfway into the second sighting, there was a big splash beside the hump," Roland said. "The splashing continued for a couple of minutes, then it sank again, and again it left no trace."

Again he was not frightened, just shocked rigid, not knowing what to do. Altogether, he had had a grandstand view of Nessie for something like 10 minutes in excellent visibility with the loch calm.

"I have been watching Loch Ness for something like 10 years," Roland said, "I had seen something twice before, but never anything like this. Any talk of logs, dogs, cattle or deer swimming is nonsense. What I saw was large and capable of going from standstill to extremely fast in seconds. Not only that, but when it turned, I seemed to see something light. There seemed to be a lighter underside to the creature."

His main regret is that his fishing mate Kenny MacKenzie, who has had a classic sighting himself, missed Nessie's double show by 10 minutes.

"Mind you" he laughed, "it was even worse for monster hunter Steve Feltham. He was on the wrong side of the loch, at Fort Augustus, at the time!"

So ends the report and consider that statement, "any talk of logs, dogs, cattle or deer swimming is nonsense". I like that. This man is a "knower" and not just a "believer". I don't actually know Mr. O'Brien's view on his sighting 23 years on, but I suspect he hasn't decided on logs, dogs or ungulates.

Or perhaps, as some sceptics like to aver, this is another of those local "jokers" who love to pull our legs and have a laugh behind our backs. I think I will reserve judgement on who is actually joking here.


The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com


21 comments:

  1. This is why I still have hope there's something remarkable in the loch. Every so often an experienced local gets a good long look at Nessie and they can just tell it's not a log or deer or what have you. Of course it may not be a monster, but it won't be just a boat wake! I recall one sighting from decades ago where a carload of people watched Nessie frolic for minutes at a time. They had plenty of opportunity to identify a deer or debris, but it was something unknown to them. Maybe it is something like a wels catfish. Something huge and alive but not normally expected in the loch.

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  2. The extra commotion and splash makes this reminiscent of Hugh Gray's sighting. And no long neck either time :)

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  3. Its these sort of reports that keep me going.

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    1. Right enough. Roland is on facebook, so hope to get his latest comments to update this article.

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  4. Old tosh. Never believe the Highland News when they use the word 'Monster' There is no monster. but there may be a series of different things that are being taken for an individual creature.

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    1. It's more a case of whether one believes Roland O'Brien than the Highland News.

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  5. Fascinating sighting. Reminds me of a similar sighting from 1978 IIRC by an experienced Loch Ness fisherman. While fishing below Urquhart Castle the man saw a big hump like an upturned boat surface about 50 yards away. After a few moments a neck several feet long came up. The man was so stunned by what he saw that he scrambled up the embankment!
    Paddy

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  6. Alan Ross might be right, but perhaps not how he imagined. The white underbelly is interesting, again. Must be an otter then, a bloody big one.

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    1. Right, a 30 foot otter. Sceptics get all excited when "white" is mentioned - because this means it must be an otter or a bird. They don't get so excited when black or grey is mentioned.

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    2. I often mistake 30ft trucks for supermini cars, at a distance and under certain lighting conditions etc
      Really, some of the excuses are more improbable than Nessie herself.

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    3. One sceptic has put up a video of merganser birds in response to this report.

      Wow, how dumb do they think these witnesses are? It seems 10 years experience of fishing on the loch counts for nothing. Nessies don't exist - therefore the witnesses must be wrong.

      At least he didn't go for the well worn local joker theory ....

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  7. I know Roland. So describe him as 'a local characte would be to understate things quite a bit.

    His account is good enough for me. Wonder what on earth it was he saw??

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    1. Dr tucker phd said he ( dr tucker) saw an elasmosaurus

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    2. What did he see? Well, we can begin by excluding what he did not see. I'll begin with birds.

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  8. What I find strange in Mr O'Brian's report he states the sighting distance... "I saw a large dark hump about 500 yards out from the shore" then he changes to meters...."About 50 metres from the buoy it stopped"

    Something that caught my eye when reading the report. Also 500 yards 5x the distance on count down markers approaching a roundabout, to give a ball park perspective as to distance. He sure must have 20/20 vision "It was about four feet out of the water at its highest point"

    A possible fisherman's tale?

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    1. I think you are clutching at straws here. The witness used a known object (the buoy) to estimate the height and length of the object.

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    2. I too believe there is something swimming in the Loch that has perplexed the watchers.

      I have great doubts as to every sighting report from the 1930s onwards being genuine. Hoaxing/made up story reports, there must be many the trouble is filtering those non genuine sightings by 'reading between the lines'

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  9. Dick Raynor says Roland O'Brien just saw birds. Mr. O'Brien came back with this n Facebook:

    "I have never heard of Raynor's "opinion" on what I experienced and witnessed that August evening .I did not seek any publicity whatsoever.I was persuaded to do so reluctantly.As I have stated before,the report is exact in every detail.Was it a flock of birds ? NO.I have observed the Loch for 1000 s of hours throughout the years.I saw a living creature, obviously large moving about in Dores bay.What was it? I do not know .What I do know is ,it was not a sturgeon.If anyone does not believe me,personally,I do not care."

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  10. Im with Roland on this one. As an experienced loch ness man he would know if it was a flock of birds or not. I have seen many birds on the loch and never have i thought they were a large creature. The bird theory is complete nonsense.
    On a positive note i spoke to a young local man yesterday who told me he saw a large creature just under the surface last year.

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    1. Feel free to email me with more details on that one, NH.

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