Loch Ness

This morning we worked down a tier of locks in Fort Augustus and entered Loch Ness. We mostly had very light winds and a lot of gentle rain. Even without the monster stories, Loch Ness has an impressive grandeur of its own. Despite their being so little wind today, we were interested to see there were lots of patches of disturbed water on the surface of the Loch without any apparant cause. Presumably these are the result of water moving up and down from the great depths due to fresh water inflow or thermal movements. Or maybe a shoal of monsters.

The picture shows a fairly typical scene today looking down the loch with the hills emerging from the mists.

This is Urquhart Castle on the edge of the Loch. There are lots of ruined castles in Scotland, but this one has been turned into a popular tourist attraction. It occupies a magnificent site with a commanding view down the loch. The castle is  hundreds of years old and was involved in many of the wars in Scotlands history. It was finally blown up and ruined in 1692

This evening we are in Dochgarroch just after the exit from Loch Ness. Usually we have found the locks and bridges stop working at 5pm or even before, but as we approached this lock just before 6, we found two cheerful and helpful lady lock- keepers who were happy to let us go through this evening. 

We tied up just below the lock in company with Indian Runner, Moonriver and Sequoia.