Thursday.Staying locally we went to Corpach / Banavie about 3 miles from Fort William on the Mallaig road. Which is at the head of Loch Eil and the end of the Caledonian Canal.
It is at this location that we visited 'Neptune's Staircase' a flight of 8 locks and it is from here that the Canal exits into the Sea Lochs and onto the open seas. This Was one of Thomas Telfords masterpieces.[ in conjunction with William Jessop ] he insightfuly managed to join the line of Lochs which run diagonally across Scotland from east to west. Inverness to Fort William these include Loch Ness , Loch Oich, Loch Dochfour and Loch Lochy some 60 miles . Finishing with the Canal several feet above sea level and it is down the flight of locks that the vessels descend. [or ascend] .
But this is no ordinary Canal because as you can see this is for ocean going Ships not narrow boats .
The sheer size is breathtaking especially when you consider it was dug by hand in c1806 . the whole project took twenty five years to complete. And remarkably was funded by the government [in reality the Tax payers]
This Very evening [Thursday] on Scottish Television was
'Julia Bradbury, Canal Walks No 8 The Caledoian Canal '
So now you know why we know so much about it
From here we journeyed a little further along the Malliag road [again] and stopped to view the highland monument. erected to commemorate the raising of the standard by Bonnie Prince Charlie which led to the Jacobite rebellion in 1745.
The view down the loch and the precession of light on the mountains is inspiring
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