22 Apr 2015
VisitScotland Meet the Scot ambassador, Adrian Shine has been assisting global technology company Google in a mission to inspire everyone in the world to discover what lies beneath Loch Ness.
Mr Shine, who is leader of the Loch Ness Project and designer of the five-star Loch Ness Centre & Exhibition (www.lochness.com) in Drumnadrochit, spent a number of days with the Google Street View and Catlin Seaview Survey teams, as they performed an undercover operation to photograph above and below the waters that host the famous monster – Nessie.
Launched online on Tuesday 21 April, Nessie hunters worldwide will be able to use Google Street View to search the mysterious waters. Magically, when searching in the Loch Ness area, the usual yellow Google Pegman will change to a Nessie peg-monster, giving users the power to zoom into different areas of the lake.
The launch date coincides with the most famous photograph of the Loch Ness Monster - the 'Surgeon's Photograph' which was published in the Daily Mail on 21 April 1934.
On the day of release of the special Loch Ness Street View visuals, YouTube footage will be released including behind the scenes shots and a special short film including Adrian Shine which will illustrate just how interesting and breathtakingly beautiful the Loch and surrounding area is – even if you don't catch a glimpse of the elusive creature.
Loch Ness is famous throughout the world, not only for the mythical icon that is Nessie, but as an area of outstanding natural beauty. VisitScotland hopes this global initiative will heighten the profile of Loch Ness and Scotland inspiring people worldwide to discover this unique country.
'Meet the Scots' ambassador and Loch Ness expert Adrian Shine plays a major role in VisitScotland international and domestic marketing campaigns. He said:
“To search for the Yeti, you'd have to spend days trekking through the Himalayas; for Big Foot, you'd have to take a deep hike into the forests of North America, but if you want to look for our much loved Scottish monster, all you have to do is travel to Loch Ness and enjoy a beautiful stroll around its waters. Nessie is the most accessible cryptid in the world!
“The Google project was so cloaked in secrecy, when people asked about the ripples in the Loch during the special diving expeditions; for once I had no opinion! I'm so proud to have been part of this initiative and I hope people worldwide enjoy exploring Street View to have a look and then be inspired to travel to Scotland to discover this area of magical beauty and natural intrigue. If there are no dragons here, there should be”.
Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland said:
“The Street View project is hugely exciting and we are delighted the team at Google have been as inspired about our monster as the hundreds and thousands of visitors who travel to Loch Ness every year hoping to catch a glimpse.
“Nessie is an enduring icon of Scotland – a character, a legend, a myth – whatever you want to call her, visitors from across the globe have been intrigued by her for more than 80 years. However, even without catching sight of the monster, the landscapes in and around Loch Ness are simply breath-taking and I would encourage everyone to add a trip here to their bucket list.”
Research carried out 20 years ago estimated the Nessie phenomenon having an economic impact of £40 million to the Scottish economy. With inflation, this figure would have risen to £60 million by now, but again this is an estimate due to the sheer scale of the Nessie phenomenon.
Drumnadrochit is the largest village on Loch Ness and offers more or less every facility for tourists, including a tourist information centre with free car park, shops, bars, restaurants and the Loch Ness Centre & Exhibition (www.lochness.com) The village enjoys a vibrant seasonal tourist trade that attracts over 200,000 visitors a year and yet still manages to keep its village feel.
To discover more about the special Google Street View Loch Ness project, visit
