Nessie camera pulled from loch gets Repair Shop treatment

An underwater camera left in Loch Ness for more than 50 years by Nessie hunters has been given The Repair Shop treatment.

A robot submarine - called Boaty McBoatface - came across the 1970s device while being put through tests in the loch last year.

It was left by Prof Roy Mackal of the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau, a group set up in the 1960s to uncover the existence of a monster.

Now it has been restored to working order by the BBC's The Repair Shop on the Road programme.

Following the repairs, the camera is to go on display at the Loch Ness Centre in Drumnadrochit in the Highlands.

No footage of Nessie was found on the camera, but one of the submarine's engineers was able to develop a few images of the loch's murky waters.

The device was found at about 426ft (130m) below the loch's surface.

Its mooring snagged on the propeller of the submarine during trials run by the UK's National Oceanography Centre.

The film was successfully developed after recovery, but the camera mechanism itself was no longer operational.

The camera trap consists of a clockwork Instamatic camera with an inbuilt flash cube, enabling four pictures to be taken when a bait line was pulled.

A tube-like glass container kept the contraption dry.

The Repair Shop on the Road sees craftspeople travel the UK to fix broken historical objects.

Loch Ness expert Adrian Shine said: "This camera is a remarkable survivor from a formative period in Loch Ness research.

"Prof Roy Mackal's work in the early 1970s represented one of the first serious attempts to apply systematic science and engineering to the mystery of the loch.

"Being able to trace this camera back to that expedition, and now see it restored to working condition, is extraordinary.

"It transforms the camera from a static relic into a living piece of investigative history."

Nagina Ishaq, general manager of the Loch Ness Centre, said the camera was a link to an ambitious project from the past.

She added: "To see it not only recovered from the depths of Loch Ness, but now carefully restored by the experts at The Repair Shop, is truly special.

"We're incredibly proud to be able to bring this artefact back to life and share it with visitors."

The legend of a monster dates back to the Middle Ages when Irish monk St Columba is said to have encountered a creature in the Ness, a river that flows from Loch Ness.

The modern myth of Nessie began centuries later.

In April 1933, hotel manageress Aldie Mackay told of seeing a whale-like creature and the loch's water "cascading and churning".

The Inverness Courier newspaper reported the sighting and the editor at the time, Evan Barron, suggested the beast be described as a "monster".

Sightings continue to be made in recent times, with the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register having received 1,165 reports since its launch in 1996.