By Elizabeth Hunter
An historic Loch Ness Monster hunting camera is now as good as new after being restored by ‘The Repair Shop’ team – despite spending 50 years underwater.
The team, from BBC TV show ‘The Repair Shop,’ travelled to the Scottish Highlands to painstakingly repair the broken camera mechanism.
The camera is believed to be one of the earliest purpose-built attempts to photograph the Loch Ness Monster.
It was deployed in 1970 – 130m below the surface – by Professor Roy Mackal of the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau, and unexpectedly discovered last year by a robotic vehicle named ‘Boaty McBoatface‘.
Despite spending 56 years underwater the film was developed – which sadly showed no signs of Nessie – but the camera mechanism was no longer operational.
Following its transfer into the care of the Loch Ness Centre, the historic device has now been taken on by experts from The Repair Shop, who carried out the delicate restoration work needed to return the camera to full working condition for the first time in decades.
The camera trap features a clockwork Instamatic camera fitted with an inbuilt flash cube, designed to capture images when a bait line was disturbed.
Of the six cameras deployed in the loch by Professor Mackal in 1970, three were lost during a gale later that same year, making this surviving example exceptionally rare.
Adrian Shine, Loch Ness expert and founder of the Loch Ness Project, who helped trace the camera back to Professor Mackal’s original expedition, said: “This camera is a remarkable survivor from a formative period in Loch Ness research.
“Professor 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, added: “This camera is one of many remarkable links to one of the most ambitious and imaginative chapters in the search for the monster that we have in the centre.
“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.”
Now restored to its former glory, the camera will go on public display at the Loch Ness Centre in Drumnadrochit, close to where it was originally discovered.
The restored artefact forms part of the Centre’s wider exploration of the science, folklore and ingenuity behind decades of research into the world’s most famous loch.
