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The Loch Ness Exhibition

History of the Exhibition

It all began in 1882, just as stories of a "huge fish" were circulating in the village of Drumnadrochit. Here, the old Drumnadrochit Inn which stood on the loch-side road was being rebuilt in the sumptuous Victorian style by the estate owners, the Grants of Seafield. This new Drumnadrochit Hotel was to play an ever increasing part in a mystery that has captivated, or at least intrigued, three generations and most of the world.

In 1916 a local gamekeeper came into the hotel "with his face as white as paper". His encounter, in a small boat on Loch Ness was, like other accounts, not something people cared to talk about in those days. But all that changed as a result of what the hotel manageress, Mrs. Mackay saw on a spring day in 1933. Not that she wished to publicise her experience; she was afraid of being thought "self advertising" but the story leaked out, and the rest, as they say "is history".

The "Drum" was then a fishing hotel with a regular clientele, often staying for a couple of weeks with gillies provided to take them out onto the loch. However, by 1960, things were changing and the facilities were expanded to accommodate the increasing numbers of visitors arriving by coach. This was when organised research on the loch really began. The "Drum" became the gathering point for two generations of monster hunters including Sir Peter Scott of the Loch Ness Investigation. Another arrival at that time was the hotel’s new owners, the Bremner family and the beginning of a new vision. Well before the vogue for Highland visitor attractions, Ronnie Bremner and Exhibition Designer Tony Harmsworth opened a small Loch Ness Exhibition in the hotel’s old stables in 1980. The "Drum" became the "Loch Ness Centre".

A link was soon forged with the active researchers of the day, The Loch Ness Project. Led by the naturalist Adrian Shine, the Project was the direct descendent of the Loch Ness Investigation of the 1960's and with the Project, came the archives and expedition records of everything that had gone before. The support for the loch’s exploration provided by the public exhibition, guaranteed that it would become a true research centre for everything of significance that has happened since.

The Loch Ness Exhibition has provided the researchers accommodation, a lochside field station, harbour and laboratories for two decades of original research. In an educational role, the Centre's laboratories and classrooms now host collaborating scientists, university field trips and school visits, while support is provided for individual studies from undergraduate to PhDs. In the last decade some 64 separate studies have been completed, ranging over every aspect of the loch. Often the answers lead to more questions. A website includes school work-packs for downloading all over the world.

The individual visitor can participate in some of the research too. The Project's research vessel "Deepscan" is available on most days to give the visitor a flavour of what makes Loch Ness so special. "Deepscan", incidentally, is named after the massive sonar sweep the Project made in 1987. This was the largest expedition ever to probe the loch and it was organised and supported from the Centre. This was no mean task with 120 expedition members let alone 326 accredited media representatives to be accommodated.

In 1984 a serious fire swept through the old hotel building. It was the end of an era but it led to something very new as the exhibition expanded and moved into the lower floor. Yet this was only a beginning. The most ambitious project yet was planned for the millennium. The grand Victorian building still looks the same as it always did; on the outside! But, inside and behind it, an architectural challenge has been met with radical use of the space left by the fire. In the "underwater" room for example a clear void extends up through the entire height of the building. Even the old wine cellar has been put to novel use! Behind the original building, large extensions house further displays, including "the sonar patrol" with its laser show and the actual 12m long search vessel from the 1980’s.

In fact almost everything in the exhibition is real. In return for the support received from the public admissions, the Project and other researchers place, and it must be admitted, sometimes store, their equipment in the exhibition; the ROSETTA sediment coring machine for example. This unlocked the 10,000-year time capsule of mud from the deepest part of the loch. It was actually built only yards from where it now stands. The tiny submarine "Machan" is still in working order, though it was last used twenty-five years ago in rather more adventurous times! When the exhibition presentation enters the "Ice Age Lost World" 230m down, you may be sure the underwater footage of its creatures, was really filmed there, at a depth greater than the height of the London Telecom Tower.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, explorer & Ronnie Bremner, owner and co-founder
of The Loch Ness Exhibition Centre

All this may help to explain why The Loch Ness Exhibition is not what you might expect. The partnership between exhibition, field research and most importantly, our visitors, ensures that the exploration continues and that anything you find here will be exciting, objective and, above all, truthful. As you will see, truth is often stranger than fiction ...

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