HER monstrous legend has spanned the ages inspiring thousands of believers to launch a futile quest for proof.

Yet while the scientists, the tourists, the quacks and the hoaxers have come and gone, one man’s crusade to reveal the “truth” about the Loch Ness Monster has endured for half a lifetime.

This month Steve Feltham will mark 25 years as a professional Nessie hunter, perched on the banks of the loch seeking a glimpse of the elusive beast said to lurk beneath the waves.

From his caravan on the beach in front of the Dores Inn, he spends his days with a camera in hand hoping to snap a picture which will prove once and for all that the monster is real.

And in all that time he says he has never had any doubt that his mission will be a success.

He said: “When I first came here 25 years ago I had no idea I would be here so long, but here I am. I wouldn’t change it for anything, though.

“I had no idea of the adventures which would come along to distract me while I’ve been here, and it’s been a complete joy.”

In 1991, after being inspired by the legend of the loch when he came to the area on holiday in the 1970s, he gave up his job fitting security cameras and sold his home in Dorset to move to Inverness-shire to become a full-time monster hunter.

Mr Feltham bought an old mobile library for £1,500 and converted it into his home. It allowed him to travel the loch, following up rumours of sightings, before he eventually settled down at his current spot – at the edge of the water – when his home was no longer mobile.

Now the longest-serving member of a select band, the 53-year-old is a well-known face on the loch and someone tourists who think they may have spotted the beast turn to for advice.

He said: “I was always fascinated by the story of the Loch Ness Monster after seeing a group of monster hunters here when I came up on holiday as a child. I was hooked.

“Then when I was 28 I thought ‘why am I following the normal path of the rat race, getting married, buying a house and working all my life until I retire when I could do something I want to do?’ So I packed it all in and came up here to do something I’ve always wanted to do and live the life I wanted. This is my passion and exactly what I want to do with my life.”

To make ends meet, Mr Feltham makes and sells wooden models of Nessie, crafted on a table beside his watching post, which bus-loads of tourists regularly snap up.

The banks of the loch can be “like the Champs Elysée” during high season, he said, which brings in enough money to survive on during the leaner months.

But despite his solo quest for truth, Mr Feltham says he has never felt the pang of loneliness.

“When I was 20 I did not think it was possible to live life as a monster hunter, but that’s what I am,” he said reflectively.

“Few people get to follow their dreams, but it’s possible if you try. I have no plans to give up. The amount of joy I have got from living this life and having the adventures I have had can’t be found anywhere else, and I would be a fool to walk away from that.”

However, despite years of searching, his quarry remains elusive. The one time he is sure he spotted Nessie in all her glory, he didn’t have his camera with him.

He said: “Two years after I got here I saw something shooting through the waves like a torpedo. There was something under the water and it just cut through them like a flash.

“It must have been powerful to do that and there’s nothing that we know of that lives in the lake which could do that except for Nessie.

“I didn’t have my camera so couldn’t get a shot. But I’ll be ready next time.”