Day Fifty Three

Monday 8 November – Invermoriston to Drumnadrochit

High drama in the night. Strong winds, trees down. Indeed, when I set out for my day's walk, the husband of my b&b hostess (Darroch View – highly recommended) was busy sawing his way through a tree on his drive so that he could free his car and get to work. Since I didn't leave by this drive, I was unable to offer any advice.

I was planning to be conventional and follow the Great Glen Way all day. There is really no alternative. The road occupies the banks of Loch Ness, and the GGW cherry-picks the paths and tracks higher (as I was to find out, sometimes much higher) up the hill. The Way leaves the main road by the Invermoriston Arms Hotel (very good supper last night, old fashioned food, old fashioned service). The steepish climb is by way of a minor road.

The violent weather had left a grey, drizzly legacy, but there was a bit of blue sky, and the sun appeared fitfully over the next half hour or so. Leaving the road, the GGW took to the forest again, on a good track. My main gripe with the Great Glen Way is that you don't get the usual dividend for the climbs. Because the up-and-down bits are so often among trees, you don't get the views you deserve for all that puff.

Unfair to suggest that there were no views at all – the trees thinned on my right after about half a mile to reveal a sombre panorama. Back over Invermoriston, there was a bit of brightness, but straight across Loch Ness, the hills fringing the glen itself were dark and undefined. Beyond them, the mountains had received a generous dusting of snow, just visible through the gloom. Almost immediately, a short diversion led to a viewpoint, complete with stone seat, well worth a linger on a better day. Naturally the path lost most of the height I had so effortfully gained, settling down to a gentle undulation above the road (this, too, had been blocked earlier in the day by a fallen tree, but traffic was now flowing).

A GGW sign pointed left to the “Stone Cave”. It wasn't really a cave, more a stone hut let into the hillside. Drystone walls supported a huge slab of rock as a roof, and stone benches lined the interior. It put me in mind of a stone-built bus shelter, but it was a considerable feat of building, and dry as a bone inside.

At Allt Sigh, the path descended almost to road level, crossing the eponymous burn. Allt Sigh means “burn of the bitch”, the bitch presumably being the she-wolf which, it was alleged on a board, was the last in Scotland, and killed nearby. There is a youth hostel just off the track, and a house offering b&b and snacks. I was tempted by coffee, but I personfully resisted, and plodded uphill again. For nearly a mile the path resumed its almost-level progress above the road, and then it went for broke.

An exhausting series of zigzags headed up the hill almost to the rim of the glen and almost to the top edge of the forestry plantation. Beyond a narrow strip of trees, I could glimpse the bare rock and thin vegetation of the untamed upland. The path itself gained interest from the climb, large shards of rock protruding from the hillside, and there were more views of the loch now that I was looking over rather than through the trees.

Across the loch, I could see the village of Foyers. This is on what used to be the busy side of the loch. The military roads ran here, so Foyers was on the main drag. Then, at the end of the 19^th Century, Foyers was chosen as the site of the country's first aluminium smelting plant, using hydroelectricity. The plant was superseded by the one at Kinlochleven (itself, as I had seen at first hand, now defunct) and ceased smelting in 1967, although , rather curiously, for a few years it made narrow boats for the canals. But although aluminium and boat production ended, the production of hydroelectricity expanded and flourished.

The Foyers power station engages in a curious and apparently very green process to manage the supply of electricity. During the night, when electricity is plentiful and cheap, water is pumped uphill from Loch Ness into a higher loch. In the day and evening, when demand for electricity is high, down flows the water and out flows the power. Ingenious, eh? Foyers is also on the tourist map because of its spectacular waterfalls.

At the higher level at which I had been walking, a few native pines have been allowed to survive – such a change from the boring conifers. Even the inevitable descent was interesting – this was not a forestry track pressed into service as the Great Glen Way; rather, it appeared to be a purpose-built path, a little soggy but good to walk on. Then I was out of the plantation and into a grassy field. Turning through a broad-leaf wood, I reached a road.

The ground from here to Glen Urquhart tends downwards, and there are not the forestry roads and tracks I'd got used to. The path-designers had run out of their old standby, and this road was obviously the best bet to get us to Drumnadrochit. It is a very quiet road, possible a lot busier in the summer with people visiting the pottery at the end of the road. As if to apologise for the three miles of tarmac, the GGW promoters have gone to an immense amount of trouble to build an off-road path whenever there was enough bank to hack it out of.

Away to the right, down by the loch, lies Urquhart Castle. Though extensively ruined, this was in its day one of the largest strongholds of medieval Scotland, and remains an impressive structure, splendidly situated on a headland overlooking Loch Ness. It is also near this castle that the majority of Nessie (Loch Ness Monster) sightings are alleged to occur. It is not known precisely when the castle was built, but records show the existence of a castle on this site from the early 13th century. It was certainly in existence in 1296, as it was captured by Edward I of England at this time. After that, there were the usual captures and recaptures.The bits that survived all the violent action often did not survive the attentions of local people who treated it as a builders' merchant. Today, the castle is protected from further damage by the National Trust for Scotland, who own the site, and Historic Scotland, who run it. I had visited the castle previously; its size, and the views of the loch from the ramparts, make it well worth a visit. But not today.

The road falls into Glen Urquhart in a series of very steep drops. The GGW is more gentle with us, taking us down in a much less steep series of linked paths and tracks, emerging back at the road just before one of the river bridges for which main-road traffic has to divert a mile away from the banks of Loch Ness. Glen Urquhart is about a mile wide, and contains a series of settlements along the main road.

Lewiston is a planned village, provided by a slightly more enlightened landowner to house the people he cleared off his other lands. They got small plots to go with their cottages, which is better than many received. A field away is the central part of Drumnadrochit, with houses and schools on either side of the road. But the real delights are yet to come.

As the road approaches the bridge over the River Enrick, before heading East back to the lochside, the “Industry” kicks in. This is Nessie Central, the headquarters of the monster-exploitation business. Shops, exhibitions, visitor centres... all devoted to worship of the myth – and making money from it, of course. In summer this is a tourist honeypot, but in November there is not much monster action. I held my nose in a superior fashion as I headed for my Nessie-themed hotel.