IN SEARCH OF NESSIE

Steve Feltham has spent most of his life living on the shores of Loch Ness, hoping to see the creature said to be lurking within it. It’s been a long wait… what does he think is down there?

by JOANNA MOORHEAD

Keeping a look out Steve has lived on the banks of Loch Ness – binoculars at the ready – for 32 years

In June 1991, Steve Feltham, then aged 28, sold his house in Dorset, left his job, and travelled 600 miles north to Loch Ness in a mobile library van he’d recently bought. His aim: to find the mysterious monster that many believe lives beneath the vast loch’s surface. ‘Some of my friends said I was mad,’ he says. ‘But I said to them, isn’t mad getting to the age of 65 and realising there’s more to life than working nine to five? Why wait till you retire to do what you want with your time?’

It’s 32 years since Steve parked his van beside Loch Ness and trained his grandfather’s binoculars on its water, and today he’s still there aged 60, living in the same mobile van, using those same binoculars in the hope of catching a glimpse of the ‘monster’, first photographed 90 years ago this month – though most people now believe the image wasn’t Nessie.

No matter, says Steve, who reckons around 95% of all sightings are a false alarm: it’s finding the evidence that there really is something there that matters. Looking for the monster has been his life’s work and passion and purpose, all rolled into one; and he doesn’t regret it for a second, he says. ‘I’m sure there are people who imagine I’m a tragic, wifeless freak living like a hermit, but I’m living in one of the most beautiful places in the world – and I’m 200 yards from a pub.’