"We Heard SOUNDS!" - Loch Ness Monster Hunters On The Search For The Mysterious Sea Serpent

Now it's time to talk about one of my favourite subjects which you might not know is one of my favourite subjects because I don't talk about it very often. Jeremy Carl made fun of me once because he expected me to say no. He said do you believe in the Loch Ness Monster? I went yeah of course I do because you know I'm Scottish. I like the idea that there's a monster up there somewhere in lurking in the murky depths of the Loch Ness and sure enough this weekend there was a massive hunt for Nessie. Hundreds of people came from all over the world including from places like Canada, America and they all searched for it and of course they didn't find anything. One of the people who was there with them was Charlotte Ivers from the Sunday Times. Charlotte very good afternoon and welcome back. Thank you for having me. I've just seen your tweet saying that it was four years ago that you started here and doing politics for us and it doesn't seem that long I must say. I was quite shocked that it was four years. I know well what a journey I've been on since we used to sit here and very seriously analyse practices questions and now I'm here to tell you about my hunt for a mysterious Loch Ness Monster. All it proves is that you're a completely versatile journalist and you can basically do anything. So the Sunday Times sent you up to Loch Ness to sort of take part. What was the point of or when did they all decide that this would be the weekend to do it? Well this was a deliberately organised search. It's the biggest search in 50 years and they have new technology they're using so they had a underwater microphone 60 feet down to pick up any new sounds. Then they also had thermal imaging drones using both those at the same time for the first time and then as you say as well a bunch of volunteers just sitting watching. And the first day you were there was horrible weather which is quite often the case wasn't it? It was absolutely you know blowing a gale and very very wet. It was on both days actually it was quite weird the first three or so hours I was there it was glorious sunshine and I got a bit worried that I'd packed wrong and then the minute I put my coat away in my hotel room the heavens opened and I never saw the sun again. You can never pack right for Scotland I think you never quite know what's going on. Did you have a midgie problem at all? No I think the rain had scared the midges off. So we're going to talk in a minute to somebody that you spoke to who's a guy called Mark Theudlis who's from Nessie Land which is one of the places up there because it's quite a small town isn't it Loch Ness? I mean you've got the lock itself is really long and when you drive along it you're driving along it for what seems like a good sort of 20 minutes half an hour almost or at least I was and it's very black isn't it the water? It really is it is a remarkable part of the world it's incredibly beautiful incredibly almost austere and it is the type of place where you think if I came across a monster here I wouldn't be wildly shocked so I can completely see where all of this mythology has come from. And presumably all the people you were with were very much convinced that there is one? Some of them were a lot of them were basically oh there I am on my boat that was very much the photo the picture editor was demanding that we get get yourself on a boat now I was told but no I would say there was a bit of a mix everyone was fascinated by the lock in some way they had this sense that there was something in there but it could be seismic activity it could be a massive sturgeon it could be any number of things but it was just really wonderful actually because everyone had this passion for it everyone was giving up their time for no benefit really apart from just to enjoy themselves. And the picture you wrote kind of captured that love that people have for mystery that you know there's something weird about the thought that there might be a monster and people really quite like that and maybe in this day and age of kind of you know throw away everything it's something that people can sort of get into. I think that's true and it can often feel can't it like there are no mysteries left we all kind of live in this world where we feel like science has explained everything but actually that's not true particularly under the water the depths of the ocean there are definitely sea monsters. Well there are well I was making the argument let's let's cross now to Mark Thewlis who's at Nessie Land for us I think we're able to see him in a moment now his story itself is quite interesting isn't it Mark a very good afternoon to you welcome. Good afternoon Mike thanks for having me. No not at all listen this is for me I get ridiculed quite a lot because under normal circumstances people think of me as a sort of relatively semi-serious journalist anyway but I believe in the Loch Ness monster I for example will say to people well there is an underground I think there's an underground channel is there not that goes from Loch Ness into the sea now if that's the case there's said to be an underground cabin there's no reason for presumably why there couldn't be a sea serpent of some description that comes in whenever it wants to come into the loch hangs about you know pops up every now and again then goes back out to the sea right exactly exactly right I mean there's numerous possibilities right I mean uh you know the with all the modern equipment that we've got today we've barely scratched the surface of the loch yes still I mean yeah I mean slight problem with what happened this weekend I've got Charlotte here who I think you spoke to uh yes up there um yeah was that they did make some they heard some sounds but but for whatever reason they didn't record them yeah some of you forgot to hit the record button you get a job here there's plenty of people like that here they did pick but they did pick up some sounds yeah right that's true and did you hear those sounds I wasn't on the search personally right I was I was uh busy uh in Nessieland just uh talking to people that were on it yes um but so yeah there were all sorts of people allocated all around the loch all volunteers and stuff right but um yeah the feedback I've heard you know is uh yeah that they did pick up something yeah okay and what about yourself have you I mean you've been there since you went to play at the rock festival I understand uh no I first came to Loch Ness in 2008 um I was touring with my then band in the UK right they all went back to us came up here and I've been coming here periodically since then okay uh I came in 2011 2017 January this year right and now here I am working here so you're gonna stay this time yes excellent and what's what's what's Nessieland tell us a bit about what's in Nessieland Nessieland is uh it's a gift shop slash exhibition uh there's an exhibition which dates back 60 years and uh is virtually um covers a whole history and enigma of Nessie in photographs display boards information and a documentary film and what have you got behind you there you've got a couple of uh just got a couple of our Nessies that we sell in the shop very nice well and I mean have you ever met anyone who claims to have seen the monster I've spoken to people that seen stuff yeah right what have they seen um I've spoken to people that seen humps all right that's just uh just um surfaced and then just submerged right um that's yeah I mean people are still seeing stuff today right you know uh they're still seeing like weird activity that's going on in that lock and to be honest with you what would they have to gain by making this stuff up well exactly I mean this is what I say I mean and and for to those people who say who discount it altogether I don't know how they can um I'll just bring Charlotte back into this I mean sure she said some of the people that were up there were just kind of curious and maybe not absolutely certain that there was a monster but I don't think you can discount it altogether can you no and look there's an ongoing debate about it in the sense that there are those who say that the science of the lake doesn't necessarily support the type of monster that people are describing but then there are lots of different things that these sightings could be it doesn't have to be the sea beast from the mythology of it what I will say is the fascination with Bessie is a relatively recent phenomenon it's essentially from the 1930s you start to get people getting interested having sightings and really a lot of it was bleach for their readers and it seemed like a good one so it's it isn't necessarily this kind of thing that's been with us throughout history it's the famous picture is is is always the talk of many pubs isn't it is it real is it fake what was it was it a couple of tires somebody stuck in the water you know that dates back to that kind of time doesn't it it does this is fascinating so the daily mail sent one of their reporters up to try and find the monster he thought he'd found it turned out that he had either hoaxed the mail or been hoaxed himself they threw him under a bus and said he's a clown we don't want anything to do with him when they found this out and then he seemed to have got his mates to mock up this picture that the mail then splashed on their front page he said ha ha we've got you but then people say did his mate actually mock it up is the mate lying so that there's wheels within wheels on this they really are and and mark so you you're going to hang around what sort of when's your sort of peak season does it go all year round um yeah you do get people visiting Loch Ness all year and obviously peak season is now and um around august and then it's sort of sort of starts to quiet down a bit but um no people do visit the lock all year round from all over the world and they can find your shop relatively easily i presume your museum yeah yeah can't miss it it's uh right at right at the top of the village of drum and i'd rock it yeah it's uh on a terrace so yep next landing big letters beautiful are you still in the rock business are you giving it all that up no no sort of retired from that years ago so these days i'm uh i'm gonna uh i'm a published author oh good well very nice to see you thank you mark good to talk to you Nessie land paid a visit if you happen to be up there uh charlotte ivers thank you very much indeed