Gareth Williams - A Monstrous Commotion: The Mysteries of Loch Ness

1930

27 August: Three young men fishing report a massive wake off Tor Point

1933

28 April: John and Aldie Mackay report a large animal like a whale near Abriachan Pier

22 July: Mr and Mrs George Spicer report a large prehistoric animal crossing the road north of Foyers

17 October: Philip Stalker writes an article about the Loch Ness Monster for the Scotsman, entitled The Plesiosaurus Theory

12 November: Hugh Gray photographs a 40-foot serpent off Foyers - the first photograph of the Monster

14 November: Lieutenant Commander Rupert Gould begins his two-week investigation at Loch Ness

19 December: Daily Mail expedition, led by Marmaduke Wetherell, arrives at Loch Ness; they discover a trail of footprints south of Foyers on 22 December

1934

3 January: Wetherells Monster footprints are identified by the Natural History Museum as the left hind foot of a hippopotamus

5 January: Arthur Grant encounters a large animal by the roadside near Abriachan

March: Publication of The Home of the Loch Ness Monster by Colonel W. H. Lane, suggesting that the Monster is a giant salamander

19 April: Robert K. Wilson takes the Surgeons Photograph, showing a curved neck and head, near Invermoriston

May: Publication of The Loch Ness Monster and Others, by Rupert Gould, arguing that the Monster was related to the sea serpent

July: Sir Edward Mountains Expedition to Loch Ness, with observers trained in still and cine-photography

1945

Publication of Loch Ness and Its Monster, by Father Aloysius Carruth

1951

14 July: Lachlan Stuart photographs a three-humped animal below Whitefield

1954

2 December: echo sounder on the trawler Rival III detects a massive sonar contact, 500 feet below the surface of Loch Ness

1955

29 July: Peter Macnab photographs a 50-foot, two-humped animal in Urquhart Bay

1957

Publication of More Than a Legend by Constance Whyte, suggesting that the Monster is a surviving plesiosaur

1959

22 March: Dr Denys Tucker, Curator of Fishes at the Natural History Museum, watches a humped animal in the Loch off Glendoe and later identifies it as a plesiosaur

1960

28 February: Torquil MacLeod observes a 50-foot animal at the waters edge below the Horseshoe Scree

14 March: Tim Dinsdale begins a lengthy correspondence with Peter Scott

23 April: Tim Dinsdale films a single-humped object off Foyers; the film is shown on BBC Televisions Panorama on 13 June

31 July: Denys Tucker is sacked by the Natural History Museum for refusing to retract his belief in the Loch Ness Monster

7 August: the yacht Finola encounters a large aquatic animal near Dores; Torquil MacLeod corroborates the sighting from the shore

19 October: Peter Scott convenes the Loch Ness Study Group of zoological experts to consider Dinsdales film and other evidence

1961

Publication of Loch Ness Monster by Tim Dinsdale, arguing that the Monster is a surviving plesiosaur

Publication of The Elusive Monster by Maurice Burton, suggesting that sightings of a Monster are explained by otters or vegetation mats

July: David James and Peter Scott found the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau (LNPIB)

23 November: The Field publishes Time to meet the Monster by David James MP

1962

July: Peter Baker leads the OxfordCambridge Expedition to Loch Ness, with surface observation and an underwater sonar sweep

24 August: F. W. (Ted) Holiday sees a huge slug-like animal off Foyers

October: the First David James Expedition (LNPIB) to Loch Ness

November: David Jamess panel of experts concludes that Loch Ness harbours a large animate object worthy of further study

1963

24 February: David James and Peter Scott appear in Associated Televisions Report on the Loch Ness Monster

June: the Second David James Expedition to Loch Ness; Peter Scott and others survey the Loch from gliders

1964

Summer: the Third David James Expedition to Loch Ness

15 October: David James loses his Brighton seat in the General Election

1965

September: Professor Roy Mackal, University of Chicago, visits Loch Ness and the Fourth David James Expedition, and is appointed Scientific Director of the LNPIB

1966

January: David James visits the Adventurers Club in Chicago to raise funds for the LNPIB

February: the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (JARIC) concludes that the object filmed by Tim Dinsdale in 1960 was not a boat and was probably animate

Publication of The Leviathans by Tim Dinsdale

9 December: BBC Television broadcasts Peter Scotts Look programme, On the track of unknown animals, from Loch Ness

1967

13 June: Dick Raynor, LNPIB volunteer, films a long wake off Dores Bay

1968

Publication of The Great Orm of Loch Ness by F. W. Holiday, arguing that the Monster is a giant invertebrate descended from the extinct species Tullimonstrum

Summer: the Seventh David James Expedition to Loch Ness

Sonar survey, by Professor Gordon Tucker and Dr Hugh Braithwaite of Birmingham University, identifies large sonar contacts moving fast at depth

1969

Summer: submarines are deployed to search for the Monster during the Eighth LNPIB Expedition to the Loch

Frank Searle, photographer and hoaxer, takes up residence on the shore of Loch Ness

1970

The LNPIB becomes the LNIB; the Ninth LNIB Expedition to Loch Ness takes place

Summer: Elizabeth Montgomery Campbell and David Solomon lead the first expedition to Loch Morar to hunt for Morag, another large aquatic creature

September: Robert Rines and the Academy of Applied Science make their first trip to Loch Ness with various attractants to lure the Monster