Creatures, Myths & Legends

Football floodlights were once used to hunt Nessie

By T.K. Randall
July 17, 2022

Image: Loch Ness Shoreline
Credit: Ben Buxton / CC BY-SA 3.0 (adapted) While only a few amateur Nessie hunters continue to scour the loch for signs of the elusive creature today, several decades ago hunting for the Loch Ness Monster was a big deal - so big, in fact, that there was even a reward being offered to anyone who could capture the creature alive.

Now according to archives unearthed by a football club in the neighboring city of Inverness, the hunt was taken so seriously in the 1930s that new floodlights installed at the Telford Street Park stadium - the first of their kind in Scotland - were taken away after just a few matches to be used in the search.

According to reports, a sighting of the creature at the time had seemingly convinced local officials to relinquish control of the lights over to those organizing the hunt.Remarkably, the stadium never actually got the lights back again and it remains unclear what happened to them or how effective they were at illuminating the waters of the loch.

The stadium did not get replacement lights, in fact, until almost 30 years later.

"The Nessie floodlight story is just one of the fascinating memories that our project is unearthing," said Gordon Fyfe of the Inverness Caledonian Thistle Community Trust.

Source: BBC News

Tags: Loch Ness Monster