Steve Feltham: the man who gave his life to 'Nessie'

Steve Feltham has a view from his home that would persuade plenty of people to move to the Highlands, although his reasons for settling beside Dores Beach involved rather more than admiring Loch Ness. From a converted former mobile library parked beside the Dores Inn, he has spent more than three decades watching the water and investigating what people report seeing there. His interest began on a family holiday at the age of seven, when he met members of the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau, and instead of fading as he grew older, that childhood fascination eventually became something he wanted to build his life around.

In 1991, he sold his house, left his job installing burglar alarms and ended his relationship before heading north in the converted library. Initially it allowed him to move around the loch, but after the vehicle failed its MOT, Dores became his permanent base, giving him the outlook he still watches today. Making small clay Nessies, usually mounted on stones gathered from the shore, provided a way to support himself while pursuing the search, and over the years visitors have brought him their photographs and stories as well as buying something to take home. He has remained at it long enough for Guinness World Records to recognise his as the longest continuous vigil seeking the Loch Ness Monster.

You might expect someone who has committed so much to the search to welcome every unexplained ripple, but much of Feltham’s work involves explaining why a photograph shows a boat, bird or piece of debris rather than evidence of an unknown animal. Even something he saw himself during his first year, moving against the waves like a torpedo, remains an encounter he could neither photograph nor conclusively identify. His ideas have changed with the years, allowing the possibility of a large fish, perhaps a Wels catfish, to seem more plausible than the plesiosaur he imagined as a boy. He is still looking for an explanation without requiring it to match the one that first brought him here.

That makes him rather more interesting to me than the familiar picture of a monster hunter determined to believe whatever appears before him. Standing beside a home that began as transport for an adventure, you are looking at the life that adventure became, with all the ordinary business of earning a living taking place alongside an extraordinary commitment to finding an answer. It is somebody’s home rather than a conventional visitor attraction, even if Feltham himself has become a distinctive part of Dores Beach. Whether or not he solves the mystery, I can admire someone who chose to pursue his curiosity so wholeheartedly and has remained willing to reconsider what he might discover.

To learn more, book one of our North Coast Explorer private tours.