For 25 years Steve Feltham, 53, from Dorset, has kept watch hoping to spot the Loch Ness Monster

IT’S a story that reads like a modern-day parable.

In the 25 years Steve Feltham has been sitting on the banks of Loch Ness he has only glimpsed one possible sighting of the legendary monster.

He lives in a converted mobile library van, with no running water or electricity and scrapes a living from selling models of the elusive creature he’s hunting.

And yet Steve, 53, is happy. In between the long hours spent on the beach with his binoculars, he meets incredibly interesting people (he once woke up to find the Chinese state circus doing a photoshoot on his doorstep) and enjoys living in a place so peaceful that his trips back to Dorset feel ‘so busy and full of traffic that after a week I’m clawing at the walls to get back to the mountains’.

He’s been recognised by Guinness World Records for the ‘longest continuous vigil hunting for the Loch Ness Monster’.

“I must be the only person in the world recognised for not actually doing anything,” he laughed. “Actually, 25 years – it was easy. All you need is a pair of binoculars and a lot of patience.

“The number of years isn’t really that important. I always say it’s not the length of time, it’s about the width of time, the amount of adventures that come along to make a year memorable.”

And there have been a lot of adventures for Steve.

“You never know what’s going to happen,” he said. “One morning the Chinese state circus were building a human pyramid. Another morning there was a tea company filming an advert with this huge plastic pyramid. When they realised who I was, they decided they wanted me in it, so I spent the morning floating around the loch in this plastic pyramid.”

As we talk on the phone, Steve is staring out onto the vast body of water which holds the key to the mystery he has dedicated his life to unlocking.

When he first moved to Scotland he travelled from place to place, but found himself increasingly drawn to the village of Dores, and, when his van finally failed its MOT for the last time 10 years ago, he set up home here permanently.

Aged 27 and working in the family business fitting security alarms in Bournemouth, it was Steve’s customers who persuaded him that life is too short to ignore your dreams.

He had been hooked on the myth of the Loch Ness monster since a family holiday to Scotland aged seven.

“I would speak to our retired customers and they always said the same thing – ‘when I was your age I wish I had done whatever’. And I thought if I get to 70, what will I regret? And I knew it would be not putting everything I have into my passion.”

He sold his house, left a stable relationship and told his friends and parents he was moving to Scotland.

“I think my parents thought I would stick it a few years at most, get it out of my system and come back, but I proved that theory wrong. My close friends saw it coming before I did. They were surprised it took me so long to take the plunge.”

There is no set career path for monster hunters, so for Steve it was a case of following his instincts.

And just a year into his quest, he got lucky.

“I’ve never seen anything that I was 100 per cent sure was the monster. But there was one disturbance when I hadn’t been here that long. It was like a torpedo coming through the water, something much bigger than a fish. It lasted less than 10 seconds, there wasn’t enough time to photograph it.

“I thought, next time I’ll be ready with my camera.”

In 24 years, ‘next time’ hasn’t happened yet – but Steve’s patience and faith in the existence of the mysterious creature has not wavered.

He makes models of the Loch Ness monster to sell to tourists, who, thanks to his fame as the world’s only full-time Nessie hunter, seek him out. This covers his council tax and meagre outgoings – there’s no electricity and his laptop and lights are powered by a solar panel.

He visits his home town of Wimborne once every two years, but has never considered giving up on his hunt.

“This has turned into my dream life,” said Steve. “I often pinch myself in disbelief. I am a free and happy man, and, in this world, that’s a rare thing.

“It’s an important message, I think. I am proof that no matter how obscure your passion, if you lock onto it and follow it, you can make yourself an absolutely joyous life.”

SO what is the Loch Ness monster?

When he first arrived in Scotland, Steve was looking for a dinosaur – popular myth claims the creature is a Plesiosaur – but now he is convinced it is more likely to be a giant fish.

“There’s a number of fish it could be but there are a lot of Nessie hunters and hardly any agree on what it is. Whatever pops up, I’ll photograph it.”

Last year, 2015, was a record year for sightings, according to the website www.lochnesssightings.com Five unexplained sightings of something mysterious in the water were logged. And there’s no sign the public’s interest in the creature is waning, as there have already been three sightings this year.

Gary Campbell, who founded the site, claims there have been more than 1,000 sightings since 565AD.