A Lazy Day in Fort William

Well, at least it started that way...

It was a nice sunny morning so we walked a short way towards town and boarded the Souter's Lass for a cruise on Loch Linnhe. It was a pleasant cruise down the Loch and back, viewing the salmon and mussel farms and some seals on Black Rock along the way. We were also able to get some good views of Ben Nevis when the cloud cleared.

 Cruising Loch Linnhe on Souter's Lass

 Our B&B is the white building in the centre

The Grey Elephant, more properly known as Ben Nevis

Seals on Black Rock in Loch Linnhe

Souter's Lass on her next cruise

After our cruise, we decided to go for a bit of a drive. The plan was to go down to Corran to get the vehicle ferry across Loch Linnhe so we could circumnavigate it by road. Being close to lunchtime and wary of the difficulty if finding shops in the small villages, we decided to find food first. This kept us going down the road past teh ferry turn off. We had some lunch at Onich and then headed along side Loch Leven until we reached Kinlochleven. We found the place being used as a Checkpoint for the RBS Caledonian Challenge (something similar to the Oxfam Trailwalker) so we moved on to Glencoe. Here we found a monument for the Glencoe Massacre, another chapter in Scotland's bloody history. 

The monument to the Glencoe Massacre

From Glencoe, we kept heading south until we temporarily left the Highlands and arrived in Oban. On the outskirts of Oban we found Dunollie Castle. Although in ruins, this 12th Century castle was a most interesting place to visit. By now it was late in the afternoon so, with rain threatening, we made our return to Fort William. 

 The main street through Oban

Perched high on a hill are the remnants of Dunollie Castle

Although the rain did fall as we drove north, it cleared by the time we made it back. This gave us the opportunity to make use of the long days (it is quite light until 10.30 at night and never really gets dark) to visit the Caledonian Canal which connects Fort William to Inverness over on  the east coast. At the Fort William end is Neptune's Staircase which is a series of eight adjoining locks. The final part of our supposed lazy day was spent inspecting the ruins of Inverlochy Castle which is also in Fort William.

 Looking down Neptune's Staircase with Fort William in the distance

The ruins of Inverlochy Castle