Apparently, 2026 is the year of Nessie.

The Loch Ness Monster, Scotland’s most famous alleged resident and the ultimate queen of hide-and-seek, has reportedly racked up 15 on-site sightings so far this year. That’s more than double the six recorded in all of 2025. Across the decades, the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register has logged 1,180 sightings, plus 17 webcam images.

Seventeen webcam images! In this economy, even mythical creatures are building a digital footprint.

Of course, skeptics remain skeptical. There is still no conclusive scientific evidence that Nessie exists. But longtime believers aren’t backing down, including Steve Feltham, the full-time Nessie hunter who lives by the loch.

And honestly? I find the whole thing rather psychologically fascinating.

Nessie represents something we humans seem to need. The possibility that the world still contains a little mystery. We have mapped the planet, photographed the heavens, tracked our sleep, counted our steps, and turned practically every aspect of existence into data. We can’t even eat a cookie without some app calculating its nutritional consequences.

But somewhere in Scotland, there is a monster, or the possibility of one, that refuses to be definitively explained.

Maybe Nessie is real. Maybe the sightings are mistaken identities, optical illusions, or wishful thinking. Maybe someone saw a particularly ambitious log.

But what interests me is why we keep looking.

Psychologically speaking, uncertainty can be uncomfortable. We want answers, closure, and something definitive to put in the file. Yet we are also drawn to the unexplained because it leaves room for curiosity, wonder, and possibility.

And perhaps that’s what Nessie means as a whole. She is a reminder that not everything has to be settled, categorized, or reduced to a spreadsheet before we can find it fascinating.

There is also something admirable about a creature that has maintained a centuries-long public relations campaign without a single confirmed interview, book deal, or Instagram account.

Meanwhile, some of us can’t go five minutes without checking whether anyone has liked our posts.

So here’s to Nessie, who may or may not exist but has managed to keep the world guessing for generations.

Sometimes the mystery is the point.

And if she does exist, I hope she knows she doesn’t owe anyone a photograph, an explanation, or a committee-approved proof of life.

She’s been hiding in a Scottish loch for all these years. Let the woman have some privacy.