Searching for the Loch Ness Monster 4K

It is a windy, cold day here at Loch Ness. This is the Loch Ness behind me and something I never thought I'd get to say. Today we're searching for the Loch Ness Monster. Now I'm sure at this point you've heard of the Loch Ness Monster, or at the very least the name that she was given, Nessie. A little bit of Scottish folklore about a monster with a very long neck that lives in this lake has been photographed. A lot of the photos have been dismissed as hoaxes, including one of the most famous photos that was taken back in 1934 called the Surgeon's Photo. But believe it or not, Nessie, at least a water creature, has been mentioned and cited here at Loch Ness dating back to 565. It's cold, but this is beautiful. We're not spending all this time and money trying to prove that there's a large unidentified species in Loch Ness. We know that. We've seen it and we know it's here. What we are trying to do now is identify the species. Here's a closer look at the marker that we were just walking up to. It's on Dorez Beach. This is probably one of the most popular places to come and get a good shot of Loch Ness, and hopefully, maybe, see the monster herself. It says, the monster Loch Ness is famous around the world for the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster. All kinds of little facts about it. I don't think we planned this trip really too well. I feel like we're here off-season. This is NessieHunter.co.uk, and basically, it's somebody who's pretty much always found here who sells these Nessie models since 1991, and it says that if by chance you come here to visit, usually, he's always here. You come out here to visit and he's not here, you can buy it in the restaurant that's right on the other side of the parking lot, but sadly, they are closed too. That's the restaurant that's closed today that you can buy the Nessie figurine from the Nessie Hunter whenever he's not there, but what do you do whenever they're both not there? This little wooden bridge goes out to what looks like it's an old boat dock, and I want to point something out when we go over here. Man, is it cold. Cold but gorgeous. Now, you can see the old docks there. Now, I always thought, whenever I was a kid and I first heard the story of Loch Ness Monster, I always thought it was kind of, what if Nessie really was just driftwood? I mean, a lot of people think it was driftwood. Oddly enough, I think the surgeon's photo, I think it was when it was proved to be a hoax, I think that was the one that they figured it was like a submarine or something. I don't know, but still pretty wild to think about. Now, what do you think it is about monsters like Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster that draws people in? I mean, people have been coming out here for years and pointing a camera at this body of water, whether it's pictures or video, kind of like we were doing, hoping to catch the elusive monster. Now, the fun thing about this, I said that a watery beast has been sighted, or at least talked about, all the way dating back to 565. Just last month, there was a Nessie sighting in this water. So you never know. It's the same colour as an elephant, I always say. And there was four humps, and about 25 to 30 feet long. We saw the head, it was a long, Irish-shaped head. The head and the neck came right above the water, but the neck would be about two feet long. And he says, there's not such a thing in the Loch, you know. And just with that words out of his mouth, this head appeared just exactly the same place. Those who doubted the evidence of still photographs had to think again in 1960, when this film was shot by former RAF pilot Tim Dinsdale. Date, April the 23rd, 1960, time 9am, and something very odd happening on Loch Ness. Dinsdale had been watching for seven days, camera at the ready. Did he film a boat, or perhaps a midget submarine on exercise? No, he says emphatically. It was definitely an animal, colour, reddish-brown, length up to 50 feet, and possibly a relative of the plesiosaur. Some scientists agree that this amphibian of the dinosaur family could have survived for millions of years in Loch Ness. Stranger things have happened. I really like standing with my back to the water and the camera pointed that way. I mean, how crazy would it be if Nessie just kind of came up and ate me, and then you found the camera, right? Now, a lot of people theorize, a lot of scientists, whatever you want to say. It's cold. My lips are starting to get a little, like, ugh. But a lot of people think that all of these sightings that people see are because they want to see them. It's like, I don't want to say mass hysteria, but it's more just like they want to see it. So they see driftwood, or they see a boater, they see somebody on a canoe, and they take it as the monster. You never know. But just the idea that something is out there, the truth is out there, is what keeps people going. I mean, it's fun. It's mysterious. It's dark. It's spooky. It's fun. It's the Loch Ness Monster. Now, here's a dilemma. Because we were here during off-season, I don't know what is open. Obviously Nessie Hunter is closed, but there are other novelty shops and souvenir shops that might be open. We're going to find out. There's a museum. There are boats that you can rent and go out into the water, but I think it might be a little too cold. At least for Jessica. For me, I have no problem. But we're going to roam around and see whatever we can find about the Loch Ness Monster. Pretty much everywhere you go here, you'll find a gift shop like this one. Now, I'm standing on the back side of it because there's actually something I want to show you. Now, right next to this, there's a tour bus. There's all kinds of different tours that you can take here, whether it's a tour bus or a boat tour. But you might not find Nessie in the actual lake, but we're actually in search of different Nessie statues throughout the town. Like this one here. But definitely a little photo opportunities. I love that the Loch Ness Center looks like it's in an old castle. They have tours and they also have boat tours, which I don't think we're going to be doing any today. So we're going to go inside and see what we can see. Maybe they have a little bit of a gift shop, but I saw the yellow submarine. It's like a nice little walk through the garden here. See? I told you there was a yellow submarine. So I don't know. They might be closed. But there are cars in the parking lot, so at least we can walk in and take a look at everything. Now I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Usually whenever we go on these grim adventures, or grim tours as we like to call them, usually we don't do the tours. We don't do the ghost tours because, believe it or not, you can actually find a lot of that stuff online and it's so much fun as a family to go out and explore them yourselves. And you get to save a little bit of money. This one here, however, supposedly the audio section, it is narrated by David Tennant, one of my all-time favorite doctors from the TV show Doctor Who. So I got really excited about that. Plus, they do boat tours and then private boat tours and they're a little pricey. And we're going to book them. We were going to take you guys out on a private boat tour into Loch Ness, sonar and everything, but they don't allow filming or pictures inside the museum. Well, let me take you back. Certain parts of the website say that there's no pictures or video allowed, and other times it says that you are allowed, and we couldn't get a straight answer so we decided not to spend the 300 pounds. Ouch. Right? Now we're not going to take the tour. We're going to go out and explore the town, but if you do come here and visit, you're more than welcome to. The legend lives on. Explore how the real stories of Loch Ness and its monster are more fascinating and engaging than any myth. And don't get me wrong, we have a lot of respect for the Loch Ness Center. This is a little museum that they have going on here, but from what we saw on the website, it seems like it's more about the expedition and the science behind it all. And quite honestly, I'm more interested in the legend. And in order to find the legend and experience the legend, you've got to get out there, closer to the water. We're in the town. Just explore. Walk history. That's what we're doing. Now this is cool. Nessie Land. A monster adventure on the shores of Loch Ness. The Loch Ness Lodge Hotel. So apparently, not only do they have Loch Ness Monster gift shops, but they have Loch Ness Monster Hotels. Themed places where you can stay. I don't know about themed. They definitely are beautiful. I mean, look at this. I feel like I'm walking in an old town. Just imagine, coming out here during the season, wanting to see the Loch Ness Monster and you stay at a place like this. I would do it. Full disclosure, in order for us to come up here, it's really pricey. So we actually are at a hotel closer to Glasgow. About three hour drive to get here. Spend the day. We filmed two videos. We did this one. We also did one on Aleister Crowley. And then we're driving three hours back to our hotel tonight. Then on to the next one. But we had to come up and see Nessie. Now we're talking. Got some Nessie figures out here, Nessie statues. And they are larger than life. So there's actually three. There's one there to your right, one in the center, and one over here to the left, overlooking the road. Oh man, I love it. Oh, what's that? Wait, I'm sorry. About the center of your screen in the very back, covered with bushes and trees. It says Nessie Land Loch Ness Monster Mini Golf. I really don't think that there's anything there. It looks like it's well past, you know, season. Looks like it's been closed for quite some time. But we might have to go inside and talk to the owner. See if there's anything back there. Maybe we can get inside there with the camera. Oh, this is fun. See I like days like this. I mean, if we came here during season, more than likely we would take some sort of tour. I know I don't like doing tours, but you have to pay like a tour price, I do believe, to get into the castle. Take a tour on the boat. But because we were here off season and most things are closed, we just kind of left to our own devices and trying to find some interesting stuff. Looks like there's a porch over here. I'm guessing it is all blocked off. Let's see if there's no getting in any of it. Looks like the fence extends up on the hill, which is a little strange. Whenever you think of mini golf, you would think that it's usually kind of flat with some sort of castles or creatures or something like that. But not here. There's a playground back there now. Unless they had the mini golf all inside the building. I don't know. Let's go inside and see. Maybe the owners can tell us some things. Maybe they'll let us inside. I stopped inside to ask about the mini golf in the back. And they have this exhibit with a giant Nessie on the inside and they were getting ready to close up. So he said, you know, if you want to go, go inside, get some video, take a look at it. And oh my word, this is amazing. Oh, all right. I feel like I just stumbled upon a dream. There's a baby Nessie over here. There's that yellow submarine right there. I like that it's set up like a cab. But don't get me wrong. I love museums. I really do. But I love one, especially whenever they're more roadside attraction-y. Like this is glorious. I feel like I'm underground. Also, we're in a cave. Well, this is a bummer. We made it all the way here to Urquhart Castle, the castle ruins that overlook Loch Ness and sadly, they are closed. At least there's Halloween decorations on the door. Kind of makes up for it. We knew that we were pressed for time. If we would have got here on time, each of us could have got in for 14 pounds and 50 pence. But we missed it. It is off season, like I said. We are pressed for time. We're here doing another video and we figured, let's go see what we can see at Loch Ness. So what did we miss it by, two hours? Something like that, something like that. But even though we can't get down to the castle ruins, we can overlook the edge down onto the ruins right over here. Now there's signs that say, danger, do not climb. But if you walk over to the fence, look at that nice little graded view of Loch Ness. And right there's the castle. You can still see the foundation of the castle, which is really nice. And I imagine just from looking at that, that it was actually really big. Look at that. Thank goodness for a gimbal, really long arms and six foot two. We got our shot of the castle, high above the grate. It was really cold and really windy. So much so that when we first got here, we turned the camera on. We really second guessed whether or not we were going to be able to do this video today. That's how crazy it was. But we did it. I feel like we saw a lot. We purposely left out all the gift shops because you can come here, there's a gift shop on every corner. Found some very interesting things. I really wish that the Nessie Land mini golf was still active. That'd have been kind of fun. What did you think of everything? Like Loch Ness, right? I would love to see it in warmer weather. However, this is the off season and the crowds were still heavy. So during warmer weather when it's on season, I just don't think I could do that personally. But I would love to see Nessie Land though, like the mini golf and things like that and the castle here. I would prefer to probably come here instead. I think that it must be something to do with like YouTube. A lot of people that we've noticed on YouTube don't really like crowds. Even though they kind of exist in crowds, it's like hiding behind cameras and stuff. Now what I found very interesting, I'm going to leave this as like the final thought. We ran into somebody today who asked where I was from because of the way I was talking and I said, you know, we're all the way here from Los Angeles, California. And he grew up here and he said, man, I'd love to visit that place someday. I can't wait to go. And I told him we should. And then as we're walking away, it dawned on me that Loch Ness is a place that I've always wanted to go. And I'm coming from a land that this person always wanted to visit. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, you know, everyone has a bucket list. These places are out there, they're waiting for you, no matter what it is, whether it's a legendary place like this, or if you want to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, if you just want to go to the deserts in America, go. Find a way. But also prepare for crowds. There's almost always really heavy crowds. And I actually don't mind that so much, but when you're going to some place like Loch Ness, when there's not a really huge area to be to see it on the beach, I mean, it does extend a bit. And that's why I'm not really looking forward to the crowds because it's not as big of an area in the tourist section as you would think. I was laughing because we were talking earlier, we were driving around the lake, the lake is massive and it takes quite a bit, that we are always surprised of how big the crowds are. Yeah. You know, even if you think the place is out in the middle of nowhere and it's off season, nobody would go out in the rain or five feet of snow. There's people. Usually a lot of people. And that's not bad. You know, tourism helps pay for a lot of things that cities need, you know. The world is amazing. Go out and explore it. With that being said, we'll see you there. Thank you for joining us on another Groom Adventure. This time to Loch Ness. I feel like we saw the monster. Maybe not in the water, but we saw plenty of Loch Ness monsters. Excuse me. You do have green hair. Happy Halloween, guys.