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WATCH: Nurse takes over as new registrar of Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register





Paige Daley is the new registrar of the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register. Picture: James Mackenzie.
Paige Daley is the new registrar of the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register. Picture: James Mackenzie.

By day she is a community nurse in England but by night she is a devoted Nessie hunter.

Paige Daley is the new registrar of the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register, having inherited the role from her father, Gary Campbell, who has carried out the task for 28 years.

Having grown up with the story of Nessie, the 29-year-old is already introducing a new generation to the enduring mystery of something unexplained lurking in the world-famous loch.

"It is a huge responsibility," she said.

But despite having 18,000 followers on her TikTok Loch Ness Monster Fan Club channel, Paige acknowledged she is still awaiting her first sighting of Nessie.

Argyll-born Gary Campbell first began the Loch Ness Sightings Register following his own sighting of something unusual in March 1996.

With the help of his wife, Kathy, he has been been logging sightings ever since – from blurry photographs to strange movements in the water captured on video.

As well as photographs, the register includes sketches, verbal accounts and images spotted on a webcam by Nessie spotters worldwide.

He has also updated the register, which now has 1155 recorded sightings, with historical encounters including previously unreported ones.

Gary Campbell has been keeper of the Official Loch Ness Monster Register since 1996.
Gary Campbell has been keeper of the Official Loch Ness Monster Register since 1996.

For the past 11 years, Mr Campbell has been director of economic development and commercial services at University of the Highlands and Islands Inverness but takes up a new role as chief executive of the Crofting Commission in January.

Paige, who is a former Inverness Royal Academy pupil, now lives in Colchester with her husband who is in the Army.

"The register has been there the whole of my life and I have been involved from a young age," she said.

"I am now bringing it on to the next generation."

Paige Daley is still awaiting her first Nessie "sighting". Picture: James Mackenzie.
Paige Daley is still awaiting her first Nessie "sighting". Picture: James Mackenzie.

As she takes on the duties of registrar, she is determined to keep the momentum going and to maintain the standards set by her father who has not accepted all reports as a sighting.

"We are going to keep the standards high," she said.

"People try their level best with hoaxes.

"We will weigh up whether what people are seeing is something unexplained – or whether there is an explanation.

"We will keep the same criteria."

Although she currently lives hundreds of miles away, she says the webcams around Loch Ness enable her to keep to a watch and she is also a regular visitor back home.

Earlier this year, she led an expedition on the loch which she said uncovered an underground cave system which could be a perfect lair for the monster.

While the mystery of Loch Ness continues to fascinate and perplex people worldwide, Paige says she is a "believer" 100 per cent.

"I have no doubt there is something in Loch Ness," she said.

Although her mother and father have seen something, Paige has yet to claim a sighting but remains hopeful it could be in the next year or two.

Reflecting on what makes the loch special, she said: "Loch Ness is such a vast amazing place. It's so beautiful.

"When people come here, they are taken aback by the size and the view.

"To think that something mysterious is there and they could catch a glimpse of it, makes it something really magical."


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