Loch Ness Monster Sightings

At 11:58 a.m. on August 21, 2026, Felix Tiekemeier, a German tourist watching from the shore, photographed a black shape he estimated at roughly 6 metres long about 300 metres out. He said it surfaced, stayed at the surface about 20 seconds swimming close to the top of the water with what looked like a head, then went under again. Accepted by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register as the 14th recognised on-site report of 2026 — passing the 13 recorded in 2020 and making 2026 the most active year of the decade. Reports that year came from witnesses in eight countries. COORDINATES APPROXIMATE — the register did not publish the shore location, so this marker is placed mid-loch.

Source: Inverness Courier; https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/further-visitor-sightings-of-loch-ness-monster-brings-number-444907/

At 1 p.m. on August 6, 2026, Jocelyn Boyce, visiting from Barcelona, filmed "a dark, almost black, mound-like shape protruding above the surface" from the Urquhart Castle viewpoint, roughly half a mile out on the loch. The shape stayed visible for 13 seconds of video footage. Accepted by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register.

Source: Inverness Courier; https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/further-visitor-sightings-of-loch-ness-monster-brings-number-444907/

At about 8:50 p.m. on August 5, 2026, Norbert Kawka, visiting from Malta, watched something he estimated at a minimum of 7 metres long moving against the current near Fort Augustus, at the southern end of the loch. He said it looked "like a very large eel" and stayed in view for roughly 15 minutes, throwing up a significant disturbance in the water. Accepted by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register.

Source: Inverness Courier; https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/further-visitor-sightings-of-loch-ness-monster-brings-number-444907/

At around 10:46 a.m. on July 27, 2026, John and Jamie Wallace, visiting from Renfrewshire, photographed what they called a "strange shadow in the water." They were clear that nothing broke the surface: as the register's spokesperson put it, "they say there was nothing above the water." Accepted as the 13th recognised report of 2026, a total that already exceeded the whole of 2025 with four months of the year still to run. COORDINATES APPROXIMATE — the register did not publish where on the loch the photograph was taken, so this marker is placed mid-loch.

Source: Inverness Courier; https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/two-further-loch-ness-monster-sightings-take-number-of-encou-443142/

On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 2, 2026, around 1:30 PM, a young man visiting from Cambridge was scanning the surface of Loch Ness through binoculars from the Urquhart Castle site when he glimpsed an unidentified creature in Urquhart Bay for about two seconds before it vanished. The encounter was logged to the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register among the year's tally.

Source: Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register; https://www.lochnesssightings.com/

The sixth official Loch Ness Monster sighting of 2026. At 10:14am on May 18, 2026, American tourist Nickolas Weigand was aboard a Highland tour bus driving past the loch in the Great Glen near Inverness when he filmed a dark object breaking the water's surface through the bus window. Using roadside signs as reference points to gauge distance, he judged the shape 'relatively large.' Five of 2026's six sightings were from on-site visitors, the sixth from a live webcam — already matching the entire 2025 in-person total with more than half the year remaining.

Source: Northern Times; Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register; https://www.northern-times.co.uk/news/a-large-dark-object-new-loch-ness-monster-encounter-take-436434/

At 2 p.m. on April 25, 2026, Holly Palmer, visiting from Worcestershire, and Scot McMillan photographed an unidentified object on the surface of the loch while aboard a Jacobite cruise boat. The photograph was accepted by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register. Coordinates are approximate to the cruise route between Dochgarroch and Urquhart Castle; the register does not publish the boat's position at the time of the sighting.

Source: Inverness Courier; https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/is-this-nessie-two-new-sightings-of-the-loch-ness-monster-t-434582/

At 11:50 a.m. on April 23, 2026, Margaret Sunstrum and Joan Sweeney, visiting from Ontario, Canada, were on the A82 just south of Dochgarroch Lock when they saw a large shape in otherwise calm water that they compared to a whale, trailing an S-shaped wake that extended a considerable distance behind it. Accepted by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register.

Source: Inverness Courier; https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/is-this-nessie-two-new-sightings-of-the-loch-ness-monster-t-434582/

At about 7:55 a.m. on April 21, 2026, Sara Gubicza, an American tourist riding a southbound bus along the shore in the Loch Dochfour area, looked out the window and saw what she took for a white shark fin in the water, moving north against the bus's direction of travel. She described it as "about an 18 inch triangle and it was whitish grey," and acknowledged the brief view from a moving bus: "I'm not really sure as I was on a bus riding by when I saw it." Accepted by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register as the fifth recognised report of 2026, ending a cluster-free stretch of roughly six months before March.

Source: Inverness Courier; https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/flurry-of-nessie-sightings-continues-with-fifth-of-the-year-435274/

The first official Loch Ness Monster sighting of 2026, captured not in person but on a livestream. On the evening of March 5, 2026, prolific webcam-watcher Eoin O'Faodhagain — who has logged more than two dozen purported sightings over three years — recorded a black object on the Visit Inverness Loch Ness webcam at the Clansman Hotel at 17:20. He described two humps partially emerging from the water, submerging, then a single large hump appearing, rising and sinking four times against the current.

Source: Coast to Coast AM, 2026-03-09; https://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/video-webcam-watcher-captures-first-virtual-nessie-sighting-of-2026/

American tourist reported a dark greenish-gray body rising about two feet above the water roughly 15 feet from his boat before submerging.

The fourth official sighting of 2025 — a tally that surpassed the three recorded in all of 2024. At about 1:30 PM on October 15, 2025, Peter Hoyle, a man from Moray, watched a dark shape sticking out of the water move steadily from the right side of the loch to the left for 20–30 seconds. It travelled fairly quickly, though 'not speed-boat speed,' and disappeared before reaching the far shore.

Source: Inverness Courier; Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register; https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/loch-ness-monster-sighted-again-fourth-official-incident-of-417742/

A long-time local resident captured a two-minute video of unusual surface disturbance in calm conditions near Lochend, the resident's first such sighting after 30 years of living on the loch.

Source: https://www.lochnesssightings.com/index.asp?pageid=717286

The second official sighting of 2025. On May 23, 2025, around 3:40 PM, a visitor taking part in the Loch Ness Centre's 'Loch Ness Quest' was watching from a high vantage point over Urquhart Bay when a small motor boat passed and something long and thin popped up in its wake. It vanished and reappeared several times over a 3–5 minute span, and the witness managed to film it through binoculars.

Source: Inverness Courier; Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register; https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/could-it-be-nessie-second-official-sighting-logged-for-2025-384792/

The first official sighting of 2025 in the Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register. At about 7 PM on March 22, 2025, a couple visiting from London watched a creature 130–160 feet offshore near the north bank where the River Tarff enters the loch at Fort Augustus. They described a hump 'like if a large seal or walrus was swimming,' with a second mass following in its wake about one-and-a-half to two metres behind, moving gracefully and silently as one long creature at two to three metres per second before slowly submerging toward deeper water.

Source: Inverness Courier; Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register; https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/long-very-graceful-creature-first-official-nessie-sighti-380631/

Parry Malm and family spotted a shape they first took for driftwood that 'slowly but surely made its way north towards the castle' — the only entry on the Official Register for the first half of 2024.

Source: https://www.northern-times.co.uk/news/tourist-claims-first-nessie-sighting-of-2024-as-monster-duc-348312/

Jarod Strong reported a long dark-grey shape that emerged for four to five seconds at the southern end of the loch, logged as an official entry in the Sightings Register.

Source: https://www.lochnesssightings.com/index.asp?pageid=717286

Manchester visitor Steve Valentine, aboard the Deepscan vessel during the 'Quest Weekend' search, reported observing an unexplained shape in the loch near Urquhart Castle.

Source: https://www.lochnesssightings.com/index.asp?pageid=717286

Veteran Nessie watcher Eoin O'Faodhagain captured webcam footage of a long dark shape moving on the surface near Urquhart Castle, then a wake seven minutes later — accepted onto Gary Campbell's official register.

Source: https://www.lochnesssightings.com/index.asp?pageid=717286

Hospital clerk Eoin O'Faodhagain of Castlefin, Ireland, recorded an unexplained object on the live Loch Ness webcam, becoming the first official sighting of the decade per the Sightings Register.

Source: https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/first-recorded-nessie-sighting-of-the-decade-191042/

Megan Clarkson of Florida captured webcam video of an animate object moving through the water close to the shore in Urquhart Bay; accepted onto the Official Sightings Register.

Source: https://www.lochnesssightings.com/index.asp?pageid=498361

An Academy of Applied Science expedition led by Robert Rines captured the controversial 'flipper photos' via underwater strobe camera after sonar detected two large moving objects in the bay.

Source: https://tetzoo.com/blog/2020/8/17/loch-ness-monster-flipper-photos

Veteran Nessie hunter Tim Dinsdale, motoring south near Foyers in rough conditions, observed a neck-like object that whipped back underwater and reappeared briefly before submerging in white foam.

Source: http://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2020/01/tim-dinsdales-other-nessie-sightings.html

Loch Ness Investigation Bureau volunteer Mary Macintyre, watching from the LNIB caravan camp opposite Foyers, observed a huge triangular lump emerge mid-loch through her telescope, leaving massive ripples before submerging as a boat approached.

Source: https://www.lochnesssightings.com/index.asp?pageid=543532

Mr. and Mrs. Brand and Andrew Walker watched a creature of considerable size surface near the castle shore on a mill-pond-calm day before moving rapidly toward the loch's center.

Source: https://www.lochnesssightings.com/index.asp?pageid=543532

George Coutts and three companions, driving the south-shore road, pulled into a layby and saw an object resembling an upturned boat about a quarter of the way out from Inverfarigaig with salmon jumping nearby.

Source: https://www.lochnesssightings.com/index.asp?pageid=543532

Aeronautical engineer Tim Dinsdale filmed a mahogany-red hump moving across the loch from a vantage point above Foyers, capturing 40 feet of 16mm cine film that was later broadcast on BBC Panorama.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Dinsdale

Surgeon Robert Kenneth Wilson claimed to photograph a long-necked creature in the early morning while driving along the loch; published by the Daily Mail and exposed in the 1990s as a hoax involving a toy submarine.

Source: https://hoaxes.org/photo_database/image/the_surgeons_photo/

Hugh Gray took the first alleged photograph of the monster after church, capturing a blurred image of an animal-like form raising a tail-like appendage above the water near where the River Foyers enters the loch.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/08/21/loch-ness-monster-photos-scotland-hugh-gray/

George and Mrs. Spicer of London reported a long-necked, large-bodied creature lurching across the lochside road in front of their car and disappearing into the undergrowth — the famous land sighting that ignited modern Nessie lore.

Source: https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/Loch-Ness-Monster-Sightings-On-Land/