The first ever reported sighting of The Loch Ness Monster in The Inverness Courier, Tuesday 2 May, 1933. Mrs Aldie Mackay’s name was not given in the report below.

Inverness Courier
Tuesday, 2 May, 1933

Strange Spectacle in Loch Ness

What was it?

(From A Correspondent)

Loch Ness has for generations been credited with being the home of a fearsome monster, or water kelpie. On Friday last, a well known business man, who lives near Inverness, & his wife, a university graduate, when motoring along the north shore not far from Abriachan Pier, were startled to see a tremendous upheaval on the loch, which previously had been calm as a mill pond. The lady was first to notice the disturbance which occurred fully three quarters of a mile from the shore & it was her sudden cries which directed her husband’s attention to the water.

There the creature disported itself, rolling & plunging for fully a minute, its body resembling that of a whale & the water cascading & surging like a simmering cauldron. Soon, however, it disappeared in a boiling mass of foam. Both onlookers confessed that there was something uncanny about the thing, for they realised that here was no ordinary denizen of the depths. Quite apart from its enormous size the beast, in taking the final plunge, sent out waves that were big enough to have been caused by a passing steamer. The watchers waited for almost half an hour in the hope that the monster (if such it was) would come to the surface again, but they had seen the last of it. Questioned about the length of the beast the lady stated that judging by the state of the water in the affected area it seemed to be many feet long.

It will be remembered that a few years ago a party of Inverness anglers reported that while crossing the loch in a rowing boat, they encountered an unusual creature, whose bulk, movements, & the amount of water it displaced, at once suggested that it was either a very large seal, a porpoise, or indeed the monster itself !

But the story which appeared in the press received scant attention & little credence. In fact, most of the people who aired their views on the matter did so in a manner that bespoke feelings of utmost scepticism.

It should be mentioned that, so far as is known, neither seal or porpoises have ever been known to enter Loch Ness. Indeed, in the case of the latter, it would be utterly impossible for them to do so, and as to seals, it is an a fact that though they have been on rare occasions been seen in the River Ness, their presence in Loch Ness has never once been definitely established.