The Longest Day

For our journey from Drumnadrochit to Invergarry we were also joined by Mike Zehetmayr, so there were 7 of setting out on what would prove to be a challenging day.

The weather forecast would probably be as reliable as ever but it was quite nice as we set out from Drumnadrochit (Scottish Gaelic Druim na Drochaid meaning ‘Ridge of the Bridge’ as the original settlement grew up around a bridge over the River Enrick).

The day’s walking then started as it meant to go on – within 2km we had climbed 200m – the consolation for this effort was some beautiful scenery and a huge rainbow.

Thereafter we started on a well defined route through the Creag nan Eun forest which runs along the shore of Loch Ness towards Invermoriston. Following the path and attempting to keep to the lower of the two paths we came to a dead end.

Rather than backtrack, and add unnecessary mileage to our day, we saw a hint of a path that would see us scrambling, often on all fours, up a steep mossy bank and through sopping wet ferns to reach the correct path up above us. The second photo shows Stef escaping from the forest with Paul right behind. This little deviation was named a Magical Mystery Tour – general consensus, looking back, was that this was a bit of fun, although obviously not so much at the time. Our reward though was to start seeing glimpses of the famous Loch Ness through the trees.

The views – mountain streams, heather, far away hills and the Loch itself were simply stunning. At 56 km² (22 sq mi), Loch Ness is the second-largest Scottish loch by surface area after Loch Lomond, but due to its great depth, it is the largest by volume in the British Isles. Its deepest point is 230 metres (126 fathoms; 755 feet), making it the second deepest loch in Scotland after Loch Morar. It contains more water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined.

Enjoying the scenery we carried on walking and then started the descent down to our half way point.

Halfway point was Invermoriston which contains the Thomas Telford bridge, built in 1813, which crosses the spectacular River Moriston falls. This bridge used to form part of the main road between Drumnadrochit and Fort Augustus but was replaced in the 1930s with the new bridge used today.

We continued along the path through the woods of Druim an Garbh Leachtrach (‘Rough slope of the ridge“) until we reached the start of the Caledonian Canal and Fort Augustus (called Kiliwhimin until the Jacobite Uprising of 1715 when it was renamed).

We walked along the, thankfully flat, canal path as far as the swing bridge at the Bridge of Oich where we said goodbye to Tom, Stef and Mehdi. We really appreciate them taking the time off work to fly up and walk these two days with us in support of Haven House.

We then walked the last few (it felt like a lot more) kms through Fassie Wood, Drynachan Wood and Nursery wood before a very steep descent into Invergarry and the finish of the days journey.

Today was, literally the Longest Day – we walked 48.3km, some 59,500 steps and climbed 1,177m (higher than the highest mountain in Wales) – the whole event took over 10 hours.