| Loch Ness |
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The Great Glen was formed 3,800 million years ago when Scotland was still in the southern hemisphere and drifiting towards its current position. The sedimentary rocks which cradle the loch are among the oldest in the world, samples have been taken as far back as the clays that were there preceding the Ice Age. The subtle shifts in the two giant plates which form either side of the Great Glen are potentially the cause of mysterious wave patterns on the surface. This may be the reason behind many of the sightings of the monster, whose long and distinguished history stretches as far back as AD 565 when St Columba first recorded it. There’s a five-star Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition at Drumnadrochit documents the key theories, photographs, eyewitness accounts and explores the depths so that everyone can examine the evidence and reach their own conclusion. Its as exciting as Nessie and her hunters of Urqhart Castle, which dominates the loch from its position high on a rocky promontory. A Bronze Age fort originally occupied the site, and its colourful history is explored at its five-star Visitor Centre and Exhibition. Kiliwhimin, renamed Fort Augustus in the wake of the failed Jacobite uprising in 1715, is a quaint village. The fort itself was built by General Wade and named for the Duke of Cumberland who later sold it to the Lovat family in 1867. It then passed to the Benedictine order who subsequently set up the exisitng abbey buildings seen today. Loch Ness is flanked by steep, forested slopes with the Glen of Affric, Cannich and Strathfarrar leading the way through the ancient Caledonian woodlands that open out onto the high hills. Walkers and naturalist in search of red deer, pine marten, rare wading birds and butterfiles can walk the pathways on the lower slopes, while keen hikers can strike out above the tree line and head out into the high country. Running alongside the loch is Thomas Telford’s Caldedonian Canal. Completed in 1822, it is a landmark in waterway engineering, the weir at Loch Dochfour that was built as part of the project raised the level of Loch Ness by nine feet. |