Loch Ness Expeditions 1962-64
Quite a few years ago now I met a man called Tom
McMahon. He was retired and in his 60s
.If he is still alive,and I sincerely hope he is,he will be at least 80 now.
Why is he important? Tom was on the first three LNIB expeditions at Loch Ness.
It occurred to me that if I didn’t record this his version of this piece of
history would be lost.
Tom and I got talking and he told me about Loch Ness
so I asked him to write down anything he could remember from that time.He
couldn’t remember everyone’s names but
he did remember quite a lot.
The story started with the guy who was the film
person for the expedition, a priest called Clem who was a friend of Tom’s
father. They lived in Slough at that time. Tom’s father was invited to go to
Loch Ness but couldn’t go ,so Tom then aged about 19/20 years went in his place.It
was October 1962.
Tom travelled up in David James’s land drover with
two other young men.David James MP had organized this first expedition.It was
sponsored by Norman Collins of ATV, a friend of David James.Another friend John
Profumo was Minister For War and helped to get a loan of army search lights.
They stayed in a hotel and were there for two weeks.
Tom said he thought there were 24 of them all together.There were two sites to
watch from,one at Cobbs Landing and one on Drumnadrochit beach.Tom was mainly
on night watches ,shining search lights on the Loch to attract Nessie.He missed
some of the hunt after injuring his hand and having to go to Raigmore Hospital
in Inverness.One of the other people there was Sir Archibald James,David’s
father,who would keep them entertained with stories of big game hunting on the
long watches.Also he remembered Lional Leslie the sculptor,a vet David Hall,Professor
Porteous and a girl called Emma who went on to be a costume designer for films.
One night they heard a splash and turning the lights
in that direction were shocked to see two eyes shining back at them. They got
the row boat out and rowed to investigate (rather brave of them I thought).They
found a glass bottle bobbing on the waves from the boat reflecting the lights
back to shore. They had a laugh about it later but at the time they were all
hyped up to meet Nessie.
On October 11th ,seven of the party saw 2
humps in the water. It was too far for the camera range and they couldn’t get a
clear picture. A few days later something large was seen diving but again too
far away for the camera’s range.Cameras were primitive compared to today and this
one had a 6 inch lens (15cms) which was inadequate for the task. They learned
from this and took a bigger one the next year.
In 1963 there were a lot
more people and there were campsites along the Loch,the main one being at
Drumnadrochit.Tom thought there could have 75 people involved.There were 10 watching
stations around the Loch. Tom shared a camper van with Professor Peter Blake a biologist
from Cambridge. ( Peter sadly died very young in his 40s) , a Welsh man who
owned a quarry and set off explosions to mimic the 1930’s road building .They
hoped it would bring the creature to the surface.He remembered Sir Peter
Ogilvie Wedderburn Bart,a New Zealand racing driver,a BEA air hostess and the
artist Sylvia McCartney. Also Sir Pater Scott visited ,landing his gilder in a
field near by.The cockleshell hero Blondie Hassler sailed up the Loch to see
them .
The Cuba Crisis was on at that time and there was
much talk of nuclear war .They were tense times. He said there was much pacing
about and discussion about it by the older members .Two films of what looked
like an upturned boat were taken but even with a bigger lens they were unclear.
He went again
in 1964 and stayed in a caravan at Drumnadrochit. They had cameras
nearby at Urquhart castle. His main memory was of a Major Haig playing the
bagpipes.
The feeling at the time was it was a great
adventure, even though it was boring just sitting watching .I wonder how many
of those at the time realized they would be part of the history of Loch
Ness.For those who were too young to remember or be around at the time,this is
written down for you. There was an amazing mixture of people interested in
Nessie hunting and the recent search (2023) with lots of volunteers shows that
interest is still there.
t
