Great Glen
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The Great Glen, cutting diagonally across the Highlands from Inverness to Fort William, follows a major geological fault-line. This huge rift valley was formed when the northwestern and southeastern sides slid against each other along the fault for more than sixty miles, and were later smoothed by glaciers that only retreated around 8000 BC. The glen is impressive more for its sheer scale than its great beauty, but is an obvious and rewarding route between the east and west coast.
Of the Great Glen's four elongated lochs, the most famous is Loch Ness, home to the mythical monster; lochs Oich, Lochy and Linnhe (the last of these a sea loch) are less renowned though no less attractive. All four are linked by the Caledonian Canal, surveyed by James Watt in 1773 and completed in the early 1800s by Thomas Telford to enable ships to pass between the North Sea and the Atlantic without having to navigate Scotland's treacherous northern coast. Only 22 miles of it are bona fide canal - the remaining 38 exploit the glen's natural lochs and west-flowing rivers.
The traditional and most rewarding way to travel through the glen is by boat. A flotilla of kayaks, small yachts and pleasure vessels take advantage of the canal and its old wooden locks during the summer, among them Jacobite Cruises. Forest Enterprise (tel 01320/366322) has also established an excellent cycle path through the glen; a leaflet outlining the route is available at most tourist offices or direct from Forest Enterprise. Following a broadly similar route is a long-distance footpath, the seventy-mile Great Glen Way, which takes between five and seven days to walk in full, details of which can be had from tourist offices or Scottish Natural Heritage (tel 01463/712221). In addition, the Great Glen is reasonably well served by buses, with several daily services between Inverness and Fort William, and a couple of extra buses covering the section between Fort William and Invergarry during school terms.
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