Tag Archives: Great Glen Way

The Great Glen Way – Drumnadrochit to Inverness

Hiking, Scotland, Travel, , , ,

August 20 – Today is our penultimate hiking day. It was pouring down rain when we woke up, but within the hour, the sun broke through. We have had such great weather on this trip.

At breakfast this morning we met Philip and Roger, who are bagging the Munros – climbing to the summit of each of the 282 Scottish mountains over 3000 feet tall. Today, Roger is bagging his 282nd Munro! Congratulations Roger! 🥳

Philip and Roger

We had to walk a mile along a busy highway, which was no fun but still provided some pastoral views.

Then we started to climb again, for much longer than I like to climb. Today is our highest elevation day.

See Urquhart Castle in the distance?
We climbed all morning
Finally, Loch Ness from above!

Then we were out on the moors, with purple heather all around:

When the mist is in the gloamin’, and all the clouds are holdin’ still.
Take my hand and let’s go roamin’ through the heather on the hill. – from Brigadoon
There was a café in the middle of nowhere
Then, back onto the moors
Straightest path ever

As we just don’t walk 20 miles a day, our tour operator split the day for us. We reached our rendezvous spot out in the middle of nowhere, where a taxi was supposed to pick us up, but the taxi driver could not find us. An amusing hour on the phone ensued, (what landmarks do you see? Trees.) until he eventually showed up to take us to our guesthouse in Inverness. We are staying in the Fraser Room (no relation to Jamie.) Tomorrow is our final day!

August 21 – Another beautiful, sunny morning. We enjoyed our last hiker’s breakfast, got into our taxi – this driver knew exactly where to take us – and got back on the trail.

Back into sparse woods
We followed a stone wall for a long time
Last mossy moss
The River Ness, which flows from the Loch into the city
Our first view of Inverness
The Great Glen House, ecologically sustainable building
We walked through the suburbs
Watched boys practicing football
The end of the Caledonian Canal
A bridge over River Ness
We walked through several parks
A wooden Nessie
The city war memorial
…with several more MacLennans
We’ve arrived!

A plaque marked the official end of the Great Glen Way. Unlike the previous hike, there were no other walkers to celebrate with. As we struggled to take a selfie to commemorate the day, a couple at the restaurant across the street stood up and applauded us. We did it!

The Great Glen Way – Invermoriston to Drumnadrachit

Hiking, Scotland, Travel, , , , ,

August 18 – After another fine smoked salmon and egg breakfast, we set out onto a trail that immediately went uphill, and kept going uphill much longer than I wanted it to. See the town down below?

The day is gray.

We got to the woods, and they looked really, really dark. The tall pine trees blot out any light. Careful, Jim!

Jim found a pine cone heart on the path
Little stone cave
Finally, the Loch!
Heather lined both sides of the trail
Then, the sun came out!
Now it’s a lovely day

Because there was no lodging at the end point of our walk, our tour operator arranged for a taxi to pick us up and take us back to last night’s guesthouse. I like it when we can stay more than one night in the same place.

Tomorrow’s hike is all road walk into Drumnadrochit (Drum-na-DROCHHH-it), so, with the help of the taxi driver, we planned an alternate adventure. Can’t wait!

August 19 – Our taxi driver picked us up at the guesthouse and took us two miles past the town of Drumnadrochit to Urquhart (IRK-hart) Castle, the second most visited castle in Scotland.

Urquhart Castle

The castle was built around 1250, and passed through many hands before being blown up by the occupying English in 1690 to prevent the Jacobites from using it. It has been falling to ruin ever since. That does not stop a half a million tourists a year from coming to see it.

There were signs indicating that archeologists surmise that one area must have been the kitchen and another the stables, but you really had to use your imagination.

The tower
This must have been the prison!

The trebuchet below was built in 1997 for an American documentary that was filmed here. There is no indication that trebuchets were ever actually used to hurl big stones in a battle here.

Wildlife in the gift shop
The tourists!

Then we visited the Loch Ness Centre to see all the ways folks have been looking for the monster.

Diving bell
Yellow submarine

They haven’t found him yet. A few weeks ago there was an article about a local Nessie sighting. It turned out to be a swimming alpaca.

Then we walked into Drumnadrochit for a scrumptious meal, and to provision for tomorrow’s hike.

A piper
A floral reproduction of Urquhart Castle

We are staying at Drumbuie Farm, which raises the famous Highland cattle – beef cows of a gorgeous color that look like they need a haircut.

Highland cow cupcakes at the market
A Highland bull
and a Highland cow

Tomorrow is our penultimate hiking day!

The Great Glen Way – Fort Augustus to Invermoriston

Hiking, Scotland, Travel, , , ,

August 17 – a chilly but sunny forecast for today. The temp was in the 40s this morning, so I wore my sweatshirt and fleece jacket. We headed into the woods, and stayed there most of the morning, occasionally glimpsing Loch Ness through the trees.

Then we got to a clearing, and there it was!

No monster sightings today. We read that the last Nessie sighting was in 1985, so we don’t hold out much hope for one, but we’ll keep looking!

We amused ourselves at a traffic reflector in the middle of the woods:

Pretty soon we came to Invermoriston, which has one hotel, a collection of guesthouses, and no other services. They have a very welcoming sign:

They have an old bridge, one of over a thousand built by Thomas Telford in the early 1800s to improve communication and transportation in the Highlands.

They have a waterfall:

They have standing stones:

They have a memorial to the fallen of the great wars. The WWI memorial contained two soldiers that share Jim’s surname! We look for the names of our forebears in every town, but these are the first we’ve found. Like so many names in America, Jim’s was changed many generations ago from MacLennan to McClenon. We count it as a match.

The memorial contains two MacLennans

There is also St. Columba’s well. St. Columba was an Irish evangelist who came to Scotland in the year 563 to convert the Picts to Christianity. In 565, when a sea monster in Loch Ness (first Nessie sighting ever!) attacked his traveling companions, he banished it to the bottom of the Loch. So, this well used to have toxic water that made people break out in boils and die, but after St. Columba blessed it, the water was pure and cured people of their ills. The well is blocked off so you can’t get to the water.

St.Columba’s well

So, now we are in another lovely guesthouse. We are full of lasagna and planning tomorrow’s hike. Good night!

The Great Glen Way – Laggan Locks to Fort Augustus

Hiking, Scotland, Travel, , ,

August 15 – The forecast today was for rain, so we got an early start for the 11 miles to Fort Augustus, which is the midpoint of this hike. We walked past the Eagle Barge, the only restaurant in Laggan. When we saw it online we didn’t realize it was actually a barge.

The Eagle Barge
Into the woods

Today we are walking beside Loch Oich. I hope you’re keeping track of all these lochs.

We pass by the old Invergarry station:

There’ll be no trains running from here!
A chimney without a house
Walking through the old train tunnel
I hope no bicycles fall on me!

We watched the barge below pass through the lock, then discharge its passengers. They were retirees from Sweden, taking a three day cruise up the Caledonian Canal.

We stopped to see the famous Bridge of Oich, built in 1854 after the old stone bridge crumbled. It used a double cantilevered design so that even if the bridge broke in the middle, the sides would not fall down. We hikers learn stuff!

Bridge of Oich
Boats waiting to go through the lock
The lock keeper’s cottage
Close to Fort Augustus
Here we are!
Can you guess who this is?
Our first view of Loch Ness

And, although it was a little misty from time to time, it never rained on us. Another good day.

August 16 – We are taking a rest day today, at the midpoint of our hike. The village of Fort Augustus (population 600) is a one block cluster of restaurants and guesthouses catering to tourists who want to see Loch Ness and any monsters dwelling therein.

Delightfulness – one of many Nessy gift shops

There are no remains of the actual fort, built by the British after the 1715 Jacobite uprising and named for Prince William Augustus, who was instrumental in the slaughter of the Scots.

After the completion of the Caledonian Canal, Queen Victoria took a ride down it in a paddle steamer in 1873. She wrote in her journal, “The Caledonian Canal is a very wonderful thing, but rather tedious.” Her journey started a tourist trend, and steaming down the canal was dubbed ‘the Royal route.’ Shops and cafes popped up to give the tourists something to do while their boats negotiated the locks.

Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee fountain
So many locks!

Happy to report another culinary first for us today. Jim had the gammon steak, which turned out to be ham, and I had the ‘neeps and tatties’ – turnips and potatoes. I found the turnips altogether palatable when mashed together with potatoes and carrots. On their own: no thanks.

Gammon steak
Neeps and tatties

We visited the Caledonian Canal information center, which consisted of the signboard below in a cafe. The black dot in the middle is our location. The white body to the northeast is all Loch Ness. It’s a big one.

We sat down for an ice cream and watched the crowds waiting for their Loch Ness boat tours or queuing up to get into the restaurants. I still can’t get used to folks in down jackets and woolly hats and scarves in the middle of August.

We bought a cold supper and carried it back to our room so we wouldn’t have to make the long trip uphill twice in one day. On the path up to our guesthouse is a respite for the weary traveler:

Our dinner included a selection of local brewery offerings:

Nessie Monster Mash
Dark Ness

A lovely day.

The Great Glen Way – Gairlochy to Laggan Locks

Hiking, Scotland, Travel, ,

August 14 – Following a lovely breakfast of salmon and scrambled eggs, we returned to the trail. We are still following alongside the Caledonian Canal, which has locks between the lochs. Today we leave the shore and move up into the hills along – wait for it – Loch Lochy. I am shaking my old gray locks at that one…

Another sunny morning!
Loch Lochy seen through the trees

We contemplate our mortality:

Scottish signs do not mince words

There is logging in this area, and the construction of a hydroelectric project that necessitated rerouting of the trail.

Not the prettiest path today

We see two kayaks through a break in the trees:

We continue to climb – can you still see the kayak in the pic below?

Jim talks to Joshua, a traveler from Manchester who moved to Scotland and bought a hotel

Here is the brand new trail, paid for by the hydroelectric company.

A little waterfall

The day started to turn gray. We sat down to eat our lunch and were immediately beset by midges. We put on our head nets and brought our sandwiches under the nets so we could eat.

Walking down to Laggan Locks

As we resumed our walk it started to rain – the first rain we’ve seen in weeks, so no complaints. We found our way down to Laggan locks, and called our guesthouse hosts who came right down to pick us up.

Lorraine and Laura are from England, and have owned their guesthouse for five years. They love what they do, and made us feel so welcome; fixing us dinner and even running our laundry through the washer and dryer. We had a wonderful evening.

The Great Glen Way – Fort William to Gairlochy

Hiking, Scotland, Travel, , , , ,

August 13 – This morning we bid adieu to Fort William, and set off to follow the Great Glen Way, which runs northeast for 78 miles to Inverness.

The beginning of the trail

The trail starts at the ruins of old Fort William, built in 1690:

The fort protected Loch Linnhe and the River Nevis

We looked down on the ruins of Inverlochy Castle in the distance.

Old Inverlochy Castle

We walked for a while through the suburbs of Fort William, until we reached the Caledonian Canal. The canal takes advantage of the geological fault that runs across the country up to Inverness. It was built in 1803, and has 29 locks. The first eight locks are called Neptune’s Staircase.

Neptune’s Staircase

We continued to walk for the rest of the day on the canal towpath – perfectly flat. How nice to have no mountains to worry about!

We watched big boats
And small boats
And tiny boats
Lots of bikes, and a retired racehorse named Clive

We only met one other walking couple today. Quite a change from the busy West Highland Way!

Pretty thistles
Cows on the hillside

Before we knew it, we arrived at the bottom lock at Gairlochy, our end point for the day. There is no place to stay here, so our guesthouse host Cameron picked us up and drove us to Spean Bridge, four miles from the trail, where we will be returned after breakfast.

We had dinner at a local restaurant. I was happy to see chicken on the menu – we’ve been eating mostly fish or beef. Chicken Balmoral turned out to be a chicken breast stuffed with – you guessed it – haggis! Very tasty, in a spicy pepper sauce with plenty of veg.

The Scottish food we’ve tried so far has been much spicier overall than we expected; a pleasant surprise. Glad to find so many surprises here.