Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Beautiful scenery |
| Disadvantages: |
Hotel left a bit to be desired |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Loch Ness is arguably the best known of the Scottish lochs, due to the lady who lives there, known as Nessie to her friends! Whether you choose to believe in the existence of the Loch Ness Monster or not is up to you but the beauty of the loch and the surrounding area are undeniable.
Loch Ness stretches from Inverness in the north to Fort Augustus in the south, a distance of 24 miles, and it reaches a depth of 754 feet at its deepest point. Is that deep enough to hide a monster?
Fort Augustus is a village built around the six locks, which enable boats to make the descent from the Caledonian Canal into Loch Ness. The fort (of Fort Augustus) was built after the Jacobite uprising in 1715 and named after the then Duke of Cumberland, Prince William Augustus. The site of the fort is now occupied by the 19th century St Benedictine’s Abbey now used as a school. The atmosphere in Fort Augustus is tranquil but busy at the same time. There are always one or two boats making their way down the flight of locks. This, by its very nature, is a slow process, but one which attracts quite a crowd of onlookers. The final stage of the descent involves the opening of a swing bridge to allow the passage of the craft into the loch itself.
Drumnadrochit is a town that stands to the west of the loch and houses the Loch Ness Monster Exhibition Centre. It is a small town but quite commercialised with a variety of Nessie exhibits and memorabilia. There is even a model of the lady herself in a pool next to the Exhibition Centre. You can take her photograph and tell everyone at home you saw the Loch Ness Monster. You can join a sonar scanning cruise of the loch from here too, if you want to try and spot the real thing.
Urquart Castle stands just outside Drumnadrochit on a piece of land jutting out into Loch Ness. There has been a castle here since Norman times, although it has been rebuilt on many occasions. It was blown up in 1692 to prevent occupation by the Jacobites.
Inverness is known as the capital of the highlands and is dominated by the 19th century castle now used as the Local Government offices. The building of St Andrews cathedral began here in 1866 and was finally completed in 1869. There are restored 17th and 18th century houses along Church Street.
There is a good shopping centre where you'll find the major stores and banks represented, together with lots of gift shops so you can get your whisky and hsortbread! There are walks along the riverbanks to Ness islands via bridges and wooded paths.
The main road, the A82, runs down the west side of the loch with a minor road running down the east side as far as Foyers and then heading inland to Fort Augustus. When we visited Loch Ness in 2000 we stayed at the Foyers Bay House hotel. It was in a lovely spot with many of the bedrooms having views over the loch. It was a nice enough place but not one of the best hotels we’ve ever stayed in. The owners seemed to be more interested in their status than in the comfort of their guests, but maybe we were just a bit unlucky, I don’t know.
There were walks from the grounds of the hotel up, through the woods, to the Falls of Foyers. It was a bit of a scramble in places but it was well worth the climb. We walked about halfway so that we were looking towards the falls from across the valley, but the path continued right up to the top of the falls and the views from up there must have been terrific. Maybe next time? The falls are really pretty and it’s so quiet up in the woods with the only noise being the distant rush of the water.
There are plenty of vantage points all the way round the loch to stop and watch just in case you get THE photo opportunity of a lifetime, but, even if you don’t, you’ll remember the beauty of Loch Ness forever.
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