Loch Linnhe & the Caledonian Canal, Scotland
After a leisurely breakfast, the Lord of the Glens departed from Oban, and
our course was set north-eastwards towards Loch Linnhe and Fort William.
We slipped past Dunollie Castle on its high rock, keeping watch over Oban Bay, and past the lush green limestone Island of Lismore (its Gaelic name meaning ‘the great garden’). Castle Stalker, once a stronghold of the Stewarts and featured in Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Kidnapped’, appeared to our east, followed by glimpses of Glencoe with its dark towering mountains. The ferry at An Corran shuttled across Loch Linnhe as we sailed by, taking a handful of travellers to the remote Ardnamurchan peninsula. This narrowest point of the sea-loch is guarded by a lighthouse built by RL Stevenson’s uncles in 1860, and Konia entertained us with a talk on the history of lighthouses in Scotland and the role of the Stevenson family.
Soon the busy Highland hub of Fort William came into view, and then the small community of Corpach, where the Caledonian Canal meets the sea. Here everyone came out on deck to watch as we manoeuvred into the first lock. The Lord of the Glens was converted specifically to fit the dimensions of these locks. Then the rail bridge and road bridge swung open to allow us to ascend the flight of eight locks known as ‘Neptune’s Staircase’, and to marvel at the engineering achievement of Thomas Telford so long ago in the 1820s.
