'Most exciting yet' Loch Ness Monster photos emerge after shy owner hid them

31 August 2023 , 11:12

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Chie Kelly snapped 'Nessie' five years ago but was reluctant to share her photos (Image: Peter Jolly)

The "most exciting" photographs ever taken of the Loch Ness Monster have surfaced after last weekend’s massive search for Nessie.

Chie Kelly captured the images five years ago - but feared public ridicule. The translator, 51, was taking photographs of the area at Dores when she and her businessman husband Scott, 68, saw a strange creature move right to left over a distance of about 100 metres on August 13, 2018 It then disappeared and never resurfaced.

She was inspired by the biggest search for Nessie in over 50 years at the weekend, in which hundreds of volunteers took part. It was then that she plucked up the courage to show her startling photographs to veteran Nessie hunter Steve Feltham.

Mrs Kelly was on holiday with her family from Ascot in Berkshire at the time of the sighting. The family have since moved to near Fortose on the Black Isle.

Photographer Chie said she saw the 'monster' was 'spinning and rolling' (Peter Jolly Northpix)

"My husband was originally from the Inverness area and Dores beach is a very special place to me as it where he used to take me when we first met," said Japanese-born Mrs Kelly. "We had lunch in the Dores Inn and then started walking around. I was just taking pictures with my Canon camera of Scott and our daughter Alisa, who was then five, when about 200 metres from the shore, moving right to left at a steady speed was this creature.

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"It was spinning and rolling at times. We never saw a head or neck. After a couple of minutes it just disappeared and we never saw it again. At first I wondered if it was an otter or a pair of otters or a seal, but we never saw a head and it never came up again for air. It was making this strange movement on the surface. We did not hear any sound. There were these strange shapes below the surface. I could not make out any colours - the water was dark.

"I could not accurately assess its length, but the two parts that were visible were less then two metres long together. I don’t know what it was but it was definitely a creature - an animal. At the time I did not want to face public ridicule by making the photographs public.

Chie plucked up the courage to show her photographs after last weekend’s massive search for the creature (Chie Kelly/Peter Jolly North)

"But I met Steve Feltham at the weekend and showed him the images and he said immediately that they were 'very interesting'. I have always believed there was something in Loch Ness. There is something unusual there, but I don’t know what it is. What I saw looked like a serpent. It was definitely a creature and it was moving.”

Mr Feltham added: "These are the most exciting surface pictures of Nessie I have seen. They are exactly the type of pictures I have been wanting to take for three decades. It is rare to see something so clear on the surface. They are vindication for all the people who believe there is something unexplained in Loch Ness. They are remarkable. I have studied them and still do not know what it is.

"We are lucky the Kellys have decided to go public at last. I have met the Kellys twice and they are absolutely genuine. I persuaded them that these pictures were so important they should make them public. They warrant further investigation. It is not driftwood - it is a moving creature and totally unexplained."

Nessie hunter Steve Feltham says the important' snaps warrant 'further investigation' (Peter Jolly Northpix)

It is 90 years since the Loch Ness Monster modern phenomenon began. On April 14, 1933, hotel manageress Mrs Aldie Mackay reported seeing a “whale-like fish” in the waters of Loch Ness.

In 2019, Prof Neil Gemmell, a geneticist from the University of Otago in New Zealand, trawled Loch Ness and found no evidence of plesiosaur DNA. However, he found lots of eel DNA, and posited that there may be giant eels in Loch Ness which might be behind the Nessie sightings. Unfortunately, DNA gives no indication of size.

Irish missionary St Columba is first said to have encountered a beast in the River Ness in 565AD. There have been five official sightings this year of the Loch Ness Monster. The official register has now logged 1160 sightings - including webcam images - from records and other evidence stretching back through the centuries.

Stephen White