Lots to see in Loch Ness
TWO days on the Isle of Luing, with an intriguing local-ish connection for me to come back to next week, and we set off on another clear day to Loch Ness and the Great Glen via Fort William and Fort Augustus at the Southern end of the mighty Loch Ness.
Fort William, which lies at the western end of the Great Glen, was the first of the forts to be built, constructed in stone around 1698 and was subsequently used as the base for the hunt of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Little remains of the fort today as the town’s railway station was built upon the original site.
Perhaps not the prettiest of towns, Fort William is now one of Scotland’s main tourist centres and the West Highland Museum contains some excellent examples of Jacobite memorabilia.
The areas surrounding Fort William however can only be described as stunning.
From the snow-topped towering mass of Ben Nevis to the classic – and the much filmed – great Glen Nevis, featured in both Rob Roy and Braveheart.
Today, little remains of the original Fort Augustus as the stone and some of the foundations were used in the construction of the Benedictine Abbey in 1876.
The Abbey buildings still exist, however its community of monks left in 1998.
Fort Augustus was built after the 1715 Jacobite uprising and was named after one of King George II’s sons, William Augustus. Ironically, it was that self same son who returned to the fort named after him 30 years later and proceeded to destroy the entire ancient clan system.
Two forts to his name and a further amazing structure named after his dad 11 miles from Inverness, Fort George, but WA was better known as the Duke of Cumberland and forever linked to the battle, perhaps better termed Massacre, of Culloden, when the tired and ill-equipped Jacobites, wet, weary and cold after their tortuous retreat from Derby, faced their nemesis across a boggy moor.
Loch Ness is truly a wonder and although Nessie is a marvellous myth, the loch is nearly 23 miles long, nearly two miles across at its widest point and 750 feet deep.
Its surface is 52 feet above sea level.
I spent much of my twenties around Loch Ness, a wildlife lovers’ paradise with wild cats, pine martens, golden eagles, all manner of deer and then little gems like Slavonian Grebes mooching about on hidden lochs away from the hubbub of their big sister.
It is connected at the southern end by the River Oich and a section of the Caledonian Canal to Loch Oich.
At the northern end there is the Bona Narrows which opens out into Loch Dochfour, which feeds the River Ness and a further section of canal to Inverness, ultimately leading to the North Sea via the Moray Firth.
It is one of a series of interconnected, murky bodies of water in Scotland, its water visibility is exceptionally low due to a high peat content in the surrounding soil.
Loch Ness is deep, but not actually the deepest loch in Scotland. That is Loch Morar. Amazingly, Loch Ness contains more fresh water than all the fresh water of English and Welsh lakes put together.
And before I go on, no, I don’t believe. However, he or she has reportedly been seen from the shore by the enigmatic Castle Urquhart, now under the National Trust and a must-visit.
In Inverness I knew the digs were good but, my word, Ardconnel Court Apartments are out of this world and if Carlsberg etc!
Our spacious and luxurious two-bedded apartment had two sets of French windows which led onto a large balcony looking onto Inverness Castle and the Cathedral down by the River.
Check it out for a special trip at www. ardconnelcourt.co.uk