Great Glen Way Fort William - Clunes

We were visiting Fort William for a few days to attend some  of the Mountain Festival events as well as enjoying the great outdoors but the weather had played havoc with our during the day adventure plans. I had hoped to cycle to Mallaig and also climb a couple of hills. But the great Scottish weather forecast was for torrential rain, stormy winds, snow and the odd glimpse of blue sky. At least we knew this in advance so I did not even take the bike.

Neptune's staircase

During today's walk we experienced the full spectrum of the weather.
I had pencilled in walking this long distance path, the Great Glen Way, which runs from Fort William to Inverness, in stages for later in the year but we decided to do this low level section and get it started. Better being geared up and outside in the weather than sitting indoors looking out.
After a good breakfast it was time to walk. Our hotel was located right on the front near the town centre so we were quickly into the walk. The initial stage of the walk is through a retail park and housing and I do not really think it starts properly until you get to the beginning of the canal at Corpath. The last time I was here people were fishing for mackerel and trout, but not today.

Moorings above the staircase

The rain was now full on as we walked up to the road/railway crossing at Neptune's Staircase. The bridge is under some form of major repair work and does not look pretty at all. Once over the crossing it now feels like a proper country walk.
Neptune's staircase is a magnificent sight and is the work of Thomas Telford and is the longest staircase lock in Britain. It has eight sets of locks and it takes around 90 minutes for a boat to pass through the full set. The staircase has had its problems in the past, both financial and workmanship, but it is still operational to this day.
Sadly no boats were traversing the locks today but at the top level a few boats were moored up and some of them had people inside them, maybe wisely sheltering from the weather.

Grey canal section

This 6 mile canal section to Gairlochy is not the most interesting in some peoples eyes, allegedly with little variety, particularly in this type of weather. However I do not agree with this, the views to the other side of the canal have some nice mountain/hill scenery to keep one's attention away from the walk. From time to time you also get good views of the River Lochy on your right hand side and if the weather is good you will get good views of the Nevis range. There are also a couple of interesting points along the way to explore.
The Sheangain Aqueduct also known as the Torcastle aqueduct is the first of these. It has three parallel tunnels, two for water and one as a road.
The second is the Loy aqueduct, a similar construction, which covers the River Loy a tributary of the Lochy. The views can be excellent up towards Glen Loy, a place I want to explore in the future. Just as I reached this spot a storm blew through, only lasting about 5 minutes but it was pretty wild. When it was over I looked back at a mountain peak which was snow covered, bright blue sky, then the snow cover on top lifted up by the winds, magical scene but glad I wasn't up there.

Moy swing bridge

The final interesting piece of engineering is the Moy swing bridge which remains in use to this day to support access to Moy farm. There were other constructions like this on the canal but this is the only surviving version. This bridge is operated by hand even to this day and the keepers cottage with its eye windows to either side still survives also. The bridge is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Looking back to Moy bridge

A short way further on you come to Gairlochy. The path now goes left up a short road but before doing that I went onwards walking up to the point at the end of the canal and had tried to enjoy the view up Loch Lochy but a squall blew up, more hailstones.

Loch Lochy

After a short walk the track drops you down onto the banks of Loch Lochy. More variety here, both tree lined sections and loch views. We came across an old shell of a boat with a tree on top of it, interesting, what happened here?

Across the loch I can see that there is a large salmon fish farm in operation. Not good news for natural fish as these farms are reputed to infect the area with disease and parasites.
There are a few very informative boards along this stretch illustrating the activities of the commando units that trained here in the 2nd world war. I knew about the memorial at Spean Bridge but I was not aware of the rest.

Unbelievably we even had a spell of some blue skies which lasted about half an hour which was a wonderful relief and gave us some super views.
We came across a male mallard duck which had paired up with a pure white duck with an orange beak. Was it an albino? Later on I spotted four more of the white duck breed sitting in a pool in the trees, strange. Also there were four bird feeding stations, well stocked, a local dog walker?

The track now comes back on the road for the last stretch to Clunes. Not many cars on the road but the tree logging trucks came down this road at a fair speed so take care. There are some expensive looking large houses along this road, very nice if you like the isolation. We also caught a brief glimpse of a red deer stag in one of the fields but it saw us at the same time and quickly disappeared from view.

Typical wood stretch

We reached the hamlet of Clunes, the end of todays stretch. There is now a T junction, turning left you can go to Loch Arkaig, a place I want to fish sometime. The Way route now goes to the right and is a 7 mile trek to Laggan through isolated country, I would have liked to have completed that stretch but too much for Mrs B. We had arranged to be picked up and returned a lot quicker to the hotel.
But that is the starter for my next leg and now I am ready for a beer and hopefully better weather when I pick up this walk.

Blue skies Loch Lochy