Cumbrian man claims Lake District's Bownessie brushed past him as he swam

The hotelier had thought he and colleague Andrew Tighe were alone on the lake when, out of the blue, he suddenly realised something powerful was going past him.

Early morning conditions couldn’t have been calmer – with waters mirror-like – as the managing director of Windermere’s Langdale Chase Hotel continued his training for an English Channel swim, accompanied by Mr Tighe in a rowing boat.

“We were going across the deeps, the deepest part of the lake,” he recalls.

“It was really calm. Then, all of a sudden, I felt something go past the back of my legs. It felt like a cruiser had gone past.

“Suddenly, this wave then lifted me up. I stopped and asked ‘what the hell was that? Get me out of here’.”

Mr Tighe, the Langdale’s general manager, feared for his friend as the follow-up ‘bow wave’ rose.

He said: “Looking back at that morning it is all a bit surreal. I was most concerned about Thomas. I didn’t know what it was.”

The whole experience, between 6.45am and 7am on July 29, 2009, lasted about 30 seconds.

After the drama unfolded, the lake went back to being completely flat – with the men confused as to what had just happened.

At first, Mr Noblett, 48, thought a submarine had passed him – with the Ministry of Defence perhaps doing some kind of secret testing. He described the feeling as “awful”.

It was only after another colleague at the hotel overheard them talking afterwards, that the realisation that it could be something else struck.

“We didn’t know what it could be. We were chatting about it in the kitchen and our chef said there was a report of something being sighted in the lake,” said Mr Tighe, 35.

Their experience, along with other sightings, have left the pair convinced there is something in the waters.

“One hundred per cent. There is something in there,” Mr Tighe said.

His colleague added: “We were non-believers beforehand. We didn’t give it a thought before. I was more concerned that a pike would bite me.”

Speculation as to whether Cumbria could have its own Loch Ness monster-type creature in Windermere has grown in the past week after a photograph emerged of what looks to be a four-humped creature in the water. ...

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