Loch Ness Monster officially sighted for first time in 2025; eye-witnesses at Fort Augustus describe ‘long, very graceful creature’
The first official sighting of Nessie in 2025 has been recorded, with eye-witnesses describing a ‘long’ and ‘very graceful’ creature in the waters of Loch Ness.
The sighting, which has just been added to the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register, was made on the evening of March 22 in the waters of the loch close to where the River Tarff enters it at Fort Augustus.
A couple from London where visiting Fort Augustus that evening when they sighted something in the water at 7pm.
Comments from the couple on the register said: "We were right at the point where the River Taff connects to Loch Ness, on the north bank. At first I noticed a very quiet splash sound as if something was cutting stealthily into the water and this drew my attention to the south side of the water. There I saw something moving through the water.
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“Between 130 and 160 feet away from us. It was paler than the jet-black water around it, but in the gloom it was impossible to determine a hue."
They continued: "It was large and alive and swimming in the water - it was what I can only describe as a ‘hump’ (as people often say) kind of like if a large seal or walrus was swimming in the water but for some reason it's head was hidden, like just it's back was exposed.
“Kind of graceful but very slow moving like two to three metres per second. It was too dark to pick out detail on it, but it wasn't uniform, there was texture there but hard to pinpoint what exactly.
“And as we watched I realised that there was a second mass in its wake, perhaps it was hidden by the wake at first, or it had risen up as it moved - it was roughly the same size and shape as the leading mass but perhaps lower in the water. There was maybe one-and-a-half to two metres’ gap between the humps from my line of sight. I think until I saw the second hump I was thinking it was a seal that was behaving strangely."
"It went in a roughly 20⁰ (east-southeast-ish) direction, towards the deeper water of the loch and slowly submerged as it went and disappeared. It moved very gracefully and silently. Later when we talked about it, my partner told me that from her vantage point it was clear that the two humps were on one creature, that it was one long creature."
Although the sighting was the first to make the official register, there have also been a number of other unofficial sightings of Nessie so far this year.
Two of these were recorded earlier in March by The Loch Ness Centre in Drumnadrochit, after visitors reported their own encounters.
One of these was near Dores beach and another was made on the water elsewhere.
Nessie has also been making the headlines elsewhere as well, with monster hunters recovering camera equipment that had been lost to the waters for more than 50 years.
A new Irn-Bru soft drink inspired by everyone’s favourite water kelpie, and stamps featuring her classic silhouette have also been produced this year.
