A perfect day dawned at Fort Augustus, with streaks of low mist below a watery blue sky with a backdrop of purple heather, now in full bloom, to root us in the Scottish Highlands, the emblematic pyramid of Ben Tighe beckoning to westward. We slipped our mooring at the start of breakfast, continuing upward via Kytra and Cullochy Locks until we passed through Laggan Avenue, the only real cutting on the Caledonian Canal, a narrow tree-planted channel that had us all out on deck, captivated by the close proximity of Scottish nature. Then one last lift upwards at Laggan Locks before entering the highest point of the canal, Loch Oich, a long, narrow and shallow loch where a winding channel has been dredged, marked with buoys.
There followed our descent in a section of canal that contains the only surviving manually-operated road bridge at Moy, where the operator gave us a friendly wave. Crossing Loch Lochy we had a couple of presentations on history and photography respectively, before beginning our descent of Neptune’s Staircase, a flight of eight locks in succession, each one lowering the vessel by eight feet, until we arrived close to sea level at the Corpach Basin with just the sea lock on the canal’s Atlantic side ahead of us. Beside us the impressive bulk of Ben Nevis, often shrouded in mist but with today’s crystal-clear visibility it was possible to see the gentle southern path to the summit as well as the brooding northern rock-faces, the latter attracting ice-climbers to the area in the winter months making this an all-year destination for mountaineers.
Our afternoon visit was to Glenfinnan, the romantic location where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised the standard for the Jacobite cause for the first time on British mainland in 1745. Having already visited Culloden, we know how disastrously the story ended but between Glenfinnan and Culloden the following year there was a very real possibility of the Stuart dynasty being restored to their rightful throne, and the balance of power between Protestant and Catholic powers shifting decisively, with global consequences. Today, Glenfinnan is also visited by fans of Harry Potter, since it was over the Glenfinnan viaduct that the Hogwarts Express famously steamed. We were all lucky enough to see the Jacobite steam train, full of young Harry Potter fans, cross the viaduct mid-afternoon, some of us looking down on it from our mountain trail on the afternoon hike, others from the viewing point at the visitor centre. There was also a natural history boardwalk trough the wetlands at the edge of Loch Eil, looking at the alder, birch, and willow trees that grow happily with their feet in the water and a fine stand of the native Caledonian pines on the rocky hillside.
