AN amateur scientist says he has finally given the elusive Loch Ness Monster a voice, thanks to the intricacies of the digital age.

Gordon Holmes, from Shipley, has held a long term fascination for the creature, affectionately known as 'Nessie' and has recorded sonar and video images of what he believes to be the creature during two decades of hunting.

Now, using software he has found over the internet, it has been possible to put sound to the images he has captured of Nessie.

Despite admitting, following eDNA testing of the water in September last year by New Zealand university Professor Neil Gemmell, that Nessie may be just a giant eel - eerie in itself – Mr Holmes remains dedicated to the legend that has been around since a written reference was made by Saint Columba on August 22 in 565 AD.

He said that giving sound to an image through the software proved what he had photographed was a real object, whether a giant eel or not.

Mr Holmes explained: "Back in May 2007, I was fortunate to capture on video two strange-looking creatures ploughing through the waves of Loch Ness. The footage lasted for 2.5 minutes before the creatures were visually out of range. A few years ago, a US Software Expert called Bill Appleton (chief executive of DreamFactory) froze, zoomed in and then analysed my original footage. He came to the conclusion the two creatures were large eels.

"Then in 2019 a team of scientists headed by Professor Neil Gemmell came to a similar conclusion that the most plausible explanation of the Loch Ness Monster was a large eel."

Recently Mr Holmes was watching a TV programme on Aztec rock carvings when it occurred to him it would be possible to obtain sound from a still video image he had taken of Nessie, whether an eel or not.

He decided to search for any software which was already out there and came across an App called PhonoPaper, created by a Russian software developer Alexander Zolotov and obtained permission to use it.

"Although not specifically designed for the task, it did offer a solution. So after investigating this App for two days, it turned out to be a possible solution for sound sensing and recording possible images of Nessie," he said.

The result is a 30-second series of sounds at different pitches as the software scans the video image.

"While I appreciate the sound is not actually a voice in that sense, the software moving across the image produced variable sound tones, it also showed that the Nessie image represented something solid with texture and real. It wasn't simply Scotch mist," he said.

He said a shadow, for example, would produce sound of the same pitch throughout because it wasn't a solid mass.

He added: "It does sound a bit like something from a sci-fi movie but it proves there is depth and substance to the image. It is very exciting because it means you can put a unique sound to any object or image."