words by Williams

Used to be, when you trained as a journalist, you had to qualify with the National Council for the Training of Journalists’ proficiency certificate. Part of that process involved writing an extended piece as a special project. Mine was on the search for the Loch Ness monster.

I’d been fascinated by the subject ever since I saw a talk by Nessie hunter Tim Dinsdale at school. Dinsdale had a cine film of something swimming quickly in the loch, stirring up a V-shaped wake as it went.

That’s why, 40-odd years ago I took the train to Inverness, camped near Dores towards the top of the loch, but then walked all the way down to Foyers to be closer to the Nessie action 

My memory is a of a place buzzing with people. Didn’t celebrated naturalist Sir Peter Scott have an exhibition there by the loch? 

I managed to get an interview with a guy called Frank Searle, who purported to have ‘hundreds’ of pictures of a mysterious creature swimming in the loch. As long as I had my notebook open, Frank wouldn’t say a word, however. Then when a Japanese TV crew turned up and offered him a tenner, you couldn’t shut him up.

So, with a bit of my own and some of the Japanese interview, plus a few bits and pieces from Frank chatting to a bloke who turned out to be bureau chief for one of the big news agencies we had enough.

Frank didn’t stay much longer by the loch. Maybe it was something to do with him appearing in broadcaster Nicholas Witchell’s Nessie book in a section called ‘The Fakers’.

I did get enough information to write a passable piece which offered the opinion that people would spend a great deal of effort looking for something they hoped they’d never find. And I got a pass. So thank Frank for that.

Today, you get the impression everybody’s bid Nessie frenzy ‘good riddance’. Foyers Pier is a weedy shadow of what it was and the waterside is dominated by a hydroelectric power station.

I stood there yesterday evening wondering if any of it had happened at all.