Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Prince, was shot by Cumberland's men in Glen Moriston, allowing the Prince to escape. Op-
posite, the bed of Loch Ness reaches its steepest, dropping 199m in 110m.
Looking down Neptune's Staircase towards Fort William and Loch Linnhe .
Conspicuous on the east side is an aerial before Foyers. Burns recorded in verse the Fall
of Foyers with its 9m and 27m drops on the River Foyers. In 1895 it was used to drive the
first large hydroelectric power station in Britain for the British Aluminium Company, now
converted to a 300MW pumped storage scheme, using Loch Mhor, 179m above Loch Ness.
A vitrified fort at Strone Point was used as the site for the Grants' Urquhart Castle. At one
time it was one of the largest castles in Scotland, commanding the junction of Glen Urquhart
with Glen Albyn. Mostly post-1509, it has additions by John Grant of Freuchie, who received
it as a gift from James IV. A royal castle in the days of William the Lion, it was fought over in
the Scottish Wars of Independence in the 13th century, Edward I capturing it and then losing
it to Robert the Bruce. It was sacked in 1689 and, in 1692, blown up by William of Orange's
troops to keep it out of Jacobite hands.
It is hard to think of Loch Ness without also thinking of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster.
Traditionally shown as a huge serpent with a series of coils looping out of the water, recent
drawings suggest a more spherical body with a long neck and small head, perhaps also with
four flippers. Recorded sightings go back to a kelpie seen by St Columba in 565. St Adam-
nan, monk of St Columba and Bishop of Iona, and the monks of Fort Augustus Abbey, the
successors of St Columba, also recorded sightings.
Until 1935, General Wade's Military Road up the east side of the glen was the route
through but the opening of the A82 brought tourists with many more sightings and photo-
graphs. The Japanese have even searched the depths of the loch with a mini submarine. As
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