The Loch Ness Monster: never before-seen picture emerges of Nessie

The Loch Ness monster has been spotted again after a new picture of what could be the mythical creature has been released. 

The image was taken in 2018, but has never been released before now. 

Chie Kelly, 51, captured the image of what looks to be two humps of the beast around 200m from the shore of Loch Ness while she was having lunch with her family on 13 August that year.

After the biggest search for Nessie in 50 years took place last weekend, she decided to go public with the image - as previously she feared "public ridicule". 

Kelly claimed the creature was moving at a "steady speed". 

Speaking to The Telegraph, she said: "I was just taking pictures with my Canon camera of Scott and our daughter Alisa, who was then five, when about 200 metres from the shore, moving right to left at a steady speed was this creature. 

“It was spinning and rolling at times. We never saw a head or neck. After a couple of minutes it just disappeared and we never saw it again.

“At first I wondered if it was an otter or a pair of otters or a seal, but we never saw a head and it never came up again for air. It was making this strange movement on the surface. We did not hear any sound. There were these strange shapes below the surface. I could not make out any colours - the water was dark."

Kelly showed the pictures to Steve Fletham, who has spent over 30 years trying to solve the mystery of Nessie, and he persuaded her to release the photos. 

He has been chasing down the mythical creature for most of his life, and says there have been many disappointments in that time.

But he described these photos as the "best things" he's seen from the surface of the water in 32 years.

He said: "Anybody that's ever looked at the evidence we have for the Loch Ness Monster would be justified in asking the question: 'How come all of the evidence is either blurred, out of focus, grainy, or too far away to have any possibility of identifying it?'

"Well, the beauty of these latest photographs that Chie Kelly has taken; is that it is 15 photographs, over two minutes. There is a sequence of pictures and there's a clear, focused image in the middle of it that I can't easily explain what it is.

"The jury's out as to what it's going to turn out to be. But it's very exciting, definitely exciting."

The myth of the Loch Ness Monster has inspired a long-lasting fascination with the beast inciting hundreds of eyewitness accounts. 

Numerous theories have evolved over the years, including that the creature may have been a plesiosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile, a giant eel or even a swimming circus elephant.

The Loch Ness Centre is located at the old Drumnadrochit Hotel, where it is said manageress Aldie Mackay first reported seeing a "water beast" in Loch Ness 90 years ago.