Stories of alleged collisions with the Loch Ness Monster are a rare class of report indeed and normally involve the larger vessels that have traversed the loch over the decades. But like the proverbial bus, you wait a long time for one to turn up and suddenly two arrive. Given this unusual rarity (whether it was Nessie or not), I am noting them down in the "incident log" or should I say incident blog? First up is Duncan Roberts as printed in the Daily Record dated 18th September 2024 (link here).
A swimmer in Scotland has claimed he felt something brush up against him in Loch Ness. Duncan Roberts, 39, from Australia was bracing the icy waters of the iconic Scottish loch for a charity challenge. The daredevil was swimming to the deepest part of Loch Ness when the chilling encounter occurred. He commented:
"The depth and the darkness of that water plays tricks with your mind. There is some weird energy at play in that water. And during my swim I experienced a bump half way across. It was something big. The water is pitch black and I had my eyes closed a lot of the time as the depth and darkness terrified me so I didn't see anything. I just felt it, a big thud in the chest."
Speaking to What's The Jam, Roberts added:
"I think anyone who swims in the deep part of the loch is lying if they say they haven't thought about the monster. I was focused on getting across as quickly as possible so the hit was a shock. I was already nervous enough before the swim. If I knew something was going to bump into me halfway across I would definitely have been having second thoughts."
Roberts is one of only five people in the world to have skateboarded 870 miles around Iceland. However, he stated that the swim across the fabled Scottish loch was far tougher. He said:
"It was one of the toughest things I've ever done mentally. I live in Australia and surf all the time often with Great White Sharks. I was way more scared of getting in the Loch Ness water. It was one of the toughest things I've ever done mentally. I flew all the way from Australia so it would've been tough to back out. The loch is beautiful but definitely has a vibe about it that makes you freeze at the thought of swimming in it. Not to mention that it is roughly six to 10C.
It also has the sensation of pulling you under a little. I think because it is fresh water and so deep. It is very different to salt water. I was hoping to not have an encounter. The deep dark water alone is scary enough, let alone worrying about what else might lurk below. There were definitely moments of awe and beauty as I caught glimpses of the length of the loch while I took breaths during the swim. But I wanted to get to the other side at Urquhart. Swimming into the castle shores was pretty magical."
However, the swim was only half the challenge. Roberts then got out of the loch and donned a kilt. The daredevil proceeded to climb Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Great Britain. Once at the summit, he played the bagpipes and climbed back down all in one day.
Then we move onto the second "collision" but this time involving two canoes. This is taken from the Daily Star dated 24th September 2024 (link here).
A father and son duo claim they were attacked by the infamous 'Nessie' while canoeing on Loch Ness. Geoff Potts, an experienced guide, and his son Chris were each paddling in their own canoes when they were both struck from below. The sudden impact almost caused Chris to lose grip of his paddle. Geoff, 53, and Chris, 24, are no strangers to the famous loch, having canoed there numerous times, but this time was different. Geoff shared:
"I guide canoe trips on the Great Glen. I've done around 40 or so in the last few years. A few weeks ago while I was out with my son Chris something bumped my canoe hard from below. And when I mentioned it to Chris he said he hit something with his paddle which nearly took it out of his hand. I didn't see anything. I just felt a big thump against the bottom of my boat. In nearly 40 Great Glen crossings I've never experienced it. Chris saw nothing too but he also hit something hard with his paddle which nearly made him drop it. I've completed around 40 crossings since 2021 including the first recorded non stop solo crossing that I'm aware of in an open canoe."
He added that the impact felt different from hitting a log.
"Loch Ness has an impressive presence about it - I mean it's huge, As I've completed it so many times it was confusing to get a thud which sounded dull. I have hit logs before but this was not like hitting wood at all. You immediately wonder what it was. But the water is so dark you can only see down a foot or so."
Looking at Duncan Roberts first, I was not certain what swimming route he took, although it looks like he started at Dores and swam diagonally down loch to Urquhart Castle for a swim of about five and a half miles. Using Google maps to draw a line to his finishing point at Urquhart Castle allows us to mark the rough halfway mark where he says he collided with the object.
Duncan talked about the uncertainty of swimming in a loch with a reputed monster in it. He certainly made me think of the old phrase "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know". Where the devils he knew where the great white sharks he has swum near and the unknown one was lurking in Loch Ness. Whatever he may have been hit by, a primal psychology can kick in which leads to a surge of emotion and perhaps confusion.
But for some reason he doesn't actually tell us how he reacted or what went through his mind. What if the next bump proved to be more violent? Dare he look down into the water to see what the object was? The closest we get is that if he had known this would happen, he would have had second thoughts.
Looking at the map, that right turn at the halfway point is a third of a mile swim to shore as opposed to the remaining 2.5 to 3 miles to the castle. If you have received a worrying shunt, does your more primal self not scream to take the shortcut or by sheer effort of the will you plough on, telling yourself it was just a tree log and that no one has ever been killed by such a beast? If I thought something huge had put in a first hit, I would be doing a rapid right angle turn towards the nearest shore!
So what could have hit him? He merely says it was "a big thud in the chest", but pronounced enough for him to say "it was something big". Nothing was seen and perhaps he didn't want to look down into the inky depths. It would have been useful to know if this was a short, sharp collision or more prolonged, like something rasping along your mid rift. It sounds more like a sudden event to me, as if something came up vertically from below and then receded back down.
Was the "big thud" bigger than a thud from a pike, ferox trout, log or seal? A thud can be as much a product of speed as mass, but again how extended was the "thud"? It was unlikely a seal was in Loch Ness and if it was a log, I would have thought it more likely that he would have collided with it head first? If there had been heavy rainfall a day or two before then there could be a fair bit of debris floating in the loch, though generally nothing one could call "big".
I think I need to ask Duncan some more questions and I noticed he was posting on Facebook and he himself is not excluding larger fish as an explanation. But I move onto the canoeists. This is certainly on the face of it a more interesting story as we have two experienced canoeists who have some credentials as regards familiarity with the paths along the loch surface. One gets the impression they had gone over this route before and certainly no experienced canoeist is going to go into shallows where a barely submerged rock is going to hit them and cause some serious damage.
The sequence of events looks like it collided with Geoff's canoe first and then his son hit the object with his paddle just as Geoff was asking Chris about it. I have taken a few pictures of canoeists with my trap cameras and they tend to travel in a line, one in front of the other which would suggest to me that the object was moving in the opposite direction to the canoes, hitting Geoff's at the front first. Whatever the story, it was lacking in detail and so I contacted Geoff and/or Chris Potts on their commercial adventures website with more questions. The answer I got back from someone saying they were Chris Potts was:
This never happened…. I’m still wondering why on earth my photo is in the newspaper!!
Okay ... so I noticed that Geoff was already on social media telling his story on Alan McKenna's Loch Ness Exploration Facebook group. He stated this happened two weeks before his posting on the 14th September, placing it on about the 1st September. He joined the group on June 21st 2024 and further commented on the 26th that "My money is on a large freshwater sturgeon". So is he saying his canoe collided with a sturgeon? Just in case anyone didn't know, there are no sturgeons in Loch Ness.
Duncan Roberts had joined the group on the 10th September, three days before he posted. This leads to a few questions. What held up Duncan for four months from publicizing this story? Geoff had been on the group since June 21st without a word as far as I can see, then has his alleged encounter on the 1st September, but says nothing on the group until yet another rare collision story coincidentally turns up 12 days later from Duncan? I welcome any corrections to the timeline as I see it.
Does telling potential canoe trip customers that you might collide with Nessie a negative or a positive for bookings? Maybe it is time to move on from these accounts for other reasons. If it was one of the creatures, then such collisions stories are, as said already, rarer than rare. Other accounts I have gathered over the years are boat collisions from 1978 and 1943 which I detailed in this article. The curious thing is that the owner of the 1978 boat was called Stephen Roberts, surely not related to our swimmer, Duncan Roberts? I also covered an article from 1969 regarding the Vickers Pisces submarine being jolted by unidentified objects (link here).
There is also Alex Campbell's story about how he was out in his rowing boat when something suddenly heaved up his vessel from the water below and then settled back down again. You then have speculations about other boating accidents being caused by the monster with no one at the time suggesting anything other than normal but tragic circumstances.
That is four stories from the past eighty years prior to these two recent accounts. There may be other stories out there and one must point out that none of these accounts mention seeing the cause of their collision apart from the 1943 story from Lt Commander Francis Russell Flint. So that gives a huge gap in such accounts since 1978.
Animals in general do not go out of their way to crash into other objects, it tends to reduce their health points, so to speak. But animals do collide with boats as has been seen on various phone videos of whales breaching and dropping onto nearby vessels and so on. They also collide when they deliberately attack prey or competitors.
Under what circumstance would a Loch Ness Monster crash into something or somebody? Maybe that dark peat stained water is too opaque at times? Or maybe the given creature was sick and disoriented? Or perhaps it just wasn't paying attention and was distracted by a tasty passing salmon? Since 1978, they seem to have managed to avoid hitting anything, even a Nessie won't win an argument with a Jacobite Cruise Boat.
If Duncan or Geoff wish to make further comments, they can join the conversation at the link below.
Comments can be made at the Loch Ness Mystery Blog Facebook group.
The author can be contacted at lochnesskelpie@gmail.com
