It’s the mythical creature that has captured the attention of people around the world for decades.

And now the search for the Loch Ness monster has been taken up a gear.

Shaun Sloggie, a seasoned Loch Ness skipper, was cruising across the loch when he spotted a mysterious shape on sonar.

While its source remains unclear, Sloggie, 30, admits he’s ‘never seen anything like it’.

‘The strangeness of it was chilling – it’s the sort of thing that leaves you speechless,’ he said.

Shaun Sloggie, a seasoned Loch Ness skipper, was cruising across the Loch when he spotted a mysterious shape on sonar

The sonar indicated that a large, object was lurking at a depth of around 98-metres, described by the stunned skipper as ‘the biggest thing I’ve ever seen’

Slogg and maritime pilot Liam McKenzie, 29, were doing their usual rounds at Cruise Loch Ness when they stumbled upon the strange shape.

On September 22, 2024, while preparing for another vessel’s arrival, Sloggie’s sonar flashed up.

The sonar indicated that a large object was lurking at a depth of around 98-metres.

He described it as ‘the biggest thing I’ve ever seen.’

With its elongated shape and distinct features hinting at air pockets, the team couldn’t help but wonder if the sonar reading was tied to the infamous Loch Ness Monster.

It’s the mythical creature that has captured the attention of people around the world for decades. And now the search for the Loch Ness monster has been taken up a gear (artist’s impression)

Despite returning to the scene to investigate, the mysterious contact had vanished, leaving the team baffled

‘We’ve seen all sorts of fish that shouldn’t be here, but this? This was different,’ Sloggie said.

Despite returning to the scene to investigate, the mysterious contact had vanished, leaving the team baffled.

Sloggie admitted: ‘We’re not sonar experts, but I’ve never seen anything like it.’

Spookily, the last major sonar contact in Loch Ness occurred almost exactly four years ago, on September 24, 2020.

The news comes shortly after a photographer revealed ‘compelling’ photographs of what she suggests is the mythical Loch Ness Monster, after keeping them a secret for five years.

With its elongated shape and distinct features hinting at air pockets, the team couldn’t help but wonder if the sonar reading was tied to the infamous Loch Ness Monster

Chie Kelly, 52, took the pictures of the creature from Scottish folklore half a decade ago but did not share them out of fear of public ridicule.

The first 15 images were revealed last year and now The Cryptid Factor podcast has released and analysed all 71 frames. It hoped that the photographs taken by Ms Kelly, who works as a translator, would spark debate in investigators around the world.

The images have been put into a video and appear to show something moving across the loch in the Highlands.

Despite many images of the so-called monster – including a famous photograph taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson – proven to be fakes, it has not stopped tourists flocking to the area each year in hope of seeing the mythical beast.

What IS the Loch Ness Monster?

Rumours of a strange creature living in the waters of Loch Ness have abounded over the decades, yet scant evidence has been found to back up these claims.

One of the first sightings, believed to have fuelled modern Nessie fever, came in May 2, 1933.

On this date the Inverness Courier carried a story about a local couple who claim to have seen ‘an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface’.

Another famous claimed sighting is a photograph taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson.

It was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged.

Other sightings James Gray’s picture from 2001 when he and friend Peter Levings were out fishing on the Loch, while namesake Hugh Gray’s blurred photo of what appears to be a large sea creature was published in the Daily Express in 1933.

Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, captured arguably the most famous image of the Loch Ness Monster. The surgeon’s photograph was published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934 – however it was later proven to be a fake

The first reported sighting of the monster is said to have been made in AD565 by the Irish missionary St Columba when he came across a giant beast in the River Ness.

But no one has ever come up with a satisfactory explanation for the sightings – although in 2019, ‘Nessie expert’ Steve Feltham, who has spent 24 years watching the Loch, said he thought it was actually a giant Wels Catfish, native to waters near the Baltic and Caspian seas in Europe.

An online register lists more than 1,000 total Nessie sightings, created by Mr Campbell, the man behind the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club and is available at www.lochnesssightings.com. 

So what could explain these mysterious sightings?

Many Nessie witnesses have mentioned large, crocodile-like scutes sitting atop the spine of the creature, leading some to believe an escaped amphibian may be to blame.

Native fish sturgeons can also weigh several hundred pounds and have ridged backs, which make them look almost reptilian.

Some believe Nessie is a long-necked plesiosaur – like an elasmosaur – that survived somehow when all the other dinosaurs were wiped out.

Others say the sightings are down to Scottish pines dying and flopping into the loch, before quickly becoming water-logged and sinking.

While submerged, botanical chemicals start trapping tiny bubbles of air.

Eventually, enough of these are gathered to propel the log upward as deep pressures begin altering its shape, giving the appearance of an animal coming up for air.