The Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register lists 1,180 reported sightings in total, 15 of them dated 2026, when we checked in October 2026. None has produced proof of an animal. The famous ones are the 1933 Drumnadrochit Hotel sighting and the 1934 photograph, which was a hoax. You can watch the loch on live webcams.
People report seeing the Loch Ness Monster every year, and most reports end up on one list: the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register. When we checked in October 2026 it counted 1,180 sightings in total, with 15 reports dated 2026 and six from 2025. None has produced proof of a large animal, and the register itself only records what people say they saw. The two sightings that made Nessie famous both happened near Drumnadrochit in 1933, and the best-known photograph, from 1934, was a hoax.
This page sticks to sightings and searches with a named source. For the question of whether Nessie exists at all, see our Loch Ness Monster page.
The register began with one man’s sighting. Gary Campbell saw something unusual on the loch in March 1996, wanted to report it, and found that nobody kept a list, so he started one, according to the Inverness Courier in April 2023. It has since passed to a new registrar, who told the Courier in 2024 that “the standard for sightings remains the same as previous years.”
The register’s total runs from St Columba’s story onwards, so it mixes old accounts with recent ones. It also keeps a separate list of webcam images, 17 of them since 2021. Anyone can send in a report through the site.
A listing means a report has been recorded and accepted. It does not establish what caused it. The register’s own pages include sections on “What’s not a sighting” and on fakes and hoaxes, which are worth reading before you send yours in.
| Year | Reports on the register | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 10 | Inverness Courier, June 2024 |
| 2025 | 6 | The register, checked October 2026 |
| 2026 (to 21 August) | 15 | The register, checked October 2026 |
The register’s 2026 list, as it stood in October 2026, runs from 12 January to 21 August. Reports often go up weeks after the event, so later 2026 sightings may still be added. A selection:
| Date | Where | What was reported |
|---|---|---|
| 12 January 2026 | Near the Clansman Hotel | A black head followed by a long tail, with no boats about |
| 21 April 2026 | Near Loch Dochfour, from a bus | A whitish-grey fin about 18 inches high |
| 18 May 2026 | From a tour bus by the loch | A large dark object breaking the surface far from shore |
| 23 June 2026 | Near Urquhart Castle, from a Jacobite cruise | A green mass beside the boat that the skipper could not explain |
| 21 July 2026 | Urquhart Castle shoreline | A flat-topped head, two humps and a wake |
| 25 July 2026 | About 2 miles west of Glenmoriston | A local sailor saw a large head above the water |
| 6 August 2026 | Viewpoint at Urquhart Castle | A dark, mound-like shape, filmed from about half a mile |
| 21 August 2026 | Not stated | A black, head-like object seen for about 20 seconds |
Source: the register’s sightings page, checked October 2026. These are the witnesses’ own descriptions.
Two patterns stand out. Most reports come from visitors rather than locals. And many come from the places where the most people are looking: three of the 15 mention Urquhart Castle, and three were made from cruise boats.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| April 1933 | Aldie Mackay, manageress of the Drumnadrochit Hotel, and her husband see a “whale-like” disturbance near Abriachan. The Inverness Courier reports it on 2 May 1933 |
| 22 July 1933 | George Spicer reports seeing a creature on land; the Courier prints his account on 4 August |
| April 1934 | The “Surgeon’s Photograph” is published. It was a toy submarine with a putty head, exposed as a hoax in 1994 |
| October 1987 | Operation Deepscan sweeps the loch with sonar; a few contacts are never explained |
| 2003 | A BBC-sponsored search with 600 sonar beams finds nothing large |
| 2018 | The University of Otago eDNA survey finds lots of eel DNA and no reptile DNA (results announced 5 September 2019) |
| 26 and 27 August 2023 | The Loch Ness Quest, billed by its organisers as the biggest search in 50 years, finds nothing conclusive |
| 28 to 31 May 2026 | The 2026 Quest maps Urquhart Bay with an underwater vehicle |
The 1933 report matters most to this village. The hotel where Aldie Mackay worked is now the Loch Ness Experience, which retells the story in its eight-room tour and runs the Quest.
Operation Deepscan is the search people still argue about. In October 1987 a line of boats with echo sounders moved down the loch together, a “sonar curtain” organised by Adrian Shine of the Loch Ness Project. The few contacts it could not explain have been put down to fish, seals, debris or thermal effects in the water. The Loch Ness Experience’s cruise boat is named Deepscan after it.
The 2023 Quest drew volunteers to the shore for a weekend watch, with thermal drones and a hydrophone (an underwater microphone) on the water. The 2026 Quest added a survey of Urquhart Bay by Deep Sea Vision’s underwater vehicle, which looked again at a sunken Nessie prop from a 1970 Sherlock Holmes film. That prop was first found in 2016, so the survey was a re-visit rather than a discovery.
If you can’t get to the loch, you can watch it.
| Webcam | Run by | View |
|---|---|---|
| Visit Inverness Loch Ness live cameras | Visit Inverness Loch Ness | Four cameras at local businesses: the Loch Ness Clansman Hotel (boats in and out of the harbour), Airanloch B&B at Lochend, Shoreland Lodges and Pinewood Steading (towards the Beauly Firth, not the loch) |
| Nessie on the Net livecam | Nessie on the Net | Over Loch Ness towards Urquhart Castle; online 24 hours, black at night |
Checked October 2026.
The register counts webcam images separately from sightings. If you spot something on a stream, it asks you to tell the camera’s operator first, since the image belongs to them. They decide whether to pass it on.
The register’s 2026 list suggests where to stand: by Urquhart Castle, or on a boat in the middle of the loch. From Drumnadrochit you can do both in a day.
If you do see something, note the time, place and weather, film it if you can, and send it to the register.
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The Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register counted 1,180 sightings when we checked in October 2026. That total includes old reports going back to St Columba's story, traditionally dated 565, as well as modern ones. The register records what people say they saw; a listing is not proof that anything unusual was in the water.
The register listed 15 reports for 2026 in October 2026, the earliest dated 12 January and the latest 21 August. That is up from six for 2025. Several came from people on cruise boats or watching from Urquhart Castle. Reports are often added weeks after the date of the sighting, so the count can still rise.
Yes. Visit Inverness Loch Ness runs four live cameras at local businesses, including one at the Loch Ness Clansman Hotel and one at Lochend, where the canal meets the loch. The long-running Nessie on the Net site streams a camera looking over the loch towards Urquhart Castle. Its picture goes black at night.
Use the report form on the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register website. If you spot something on a webcam, the register asks you to tell the webcam's operator first, because the image is theirs; if they think it is worth recording, they pass it on. Note the time, place and weather, and keep any photos or video.
Reports come from all along the loch, from Lochend in the north to Fort Augustus in the south-west. Urquhart Castle and Urquhart Bay, next to Drumnadrochit, turn up often, partly because so many people stand at the castle or pass it on cruise boats. Three of the 15 reports for 2026 mention the castle.
No evidence has ever been found of a large unknown animal in Loch Ness.
The Loch Ness Experience, formerly the Loch Ness Centre, is the Nessie exhibition in the old Drumnadrochit Hotel.
Loch Ness cruises leave from four places: Urquhart Bay in Drumnadrochit, Clansman Harbour 4.4 miles north, Dochgarroch Lock near Inverness, and Fort Augustus at the south end.
Urquhart Castle is a ruined castle on a rock above Loch Ness, about 2 miles from Drumnadrochit, run by Historic Environment Scotland.