Probably there is no place in Scotland more famous than Loch Ness. This fame all happens to be due to a monster that may or may not exist depending on who you talk to. Disproving the monster appears to be almost impossible due some unique properties of the loch (lake) itself. This means that every year hundreds of thousands of people trek to Lock Ness in the hopes of finding a monster. So of course while we were visiting Scotland we went to Loch Ness for our own glimpse at the fabled creature.
Seeing Loch Ness
Loch Ness is extremely long, which is one of the reasons they can’t disprove the existence of a monster living there. The loch is so big that all of it cannot be observed, monitored or scanned at one time. This means that when you visit you will only see one piece of the loch.
Most people view the loch from Urquahart Castle. But our tour which was with WOW Scotland went to Dores Beach instead after visiting Brodie Castle nearby. Dores beach provides a peaceful place to view the lock and the opportunity to meet the man who has maintained the longest hunt for the Loch Ness monster.
We did not see a monster while we visited Loch Ness, but we did enjoy seeing the loch and walking along the rocky beach.
Visiting Steve Felthman, the Monster Hunter
Parked on Dores Beach near the Dores Inn is an old camper van. You know I was interested the moment I found out there was a van there. In this van lives Steve Feltham, who has maintained a hunt for the Loch Ness monster, beginning in 1991 and still going.
Steve used to drive his camper van around Loch Ness trying to find the monster, but when his van couldn’t go any longer he parked it here and now he watches the lake from this vantage. If you go up to his van he will talk to you. I took advantage of this to talk to him about his van, and a little bit about his hunt. He told me that he has not yet seen the monster himself, but he has talked to hundreds of people who have.
If you visit this side of Loch Ness you should probably stop by and see Steve, he is an interesting person to have met if nothing else. How does he live? He sells clay models of the monster to tourists.
