After a pleasant stopover in the town of Oban, we set sail across the sea loch of Loch Linnhe, entering the Caledonian Canal at the Corpach Lock, leaving salt water behind. The rest of our journey will follow the Canal through the Great Glen, headed northeast up to our final destination of Inverness two days from now. Thomas Telford engineered the Caledonian Canal, creating an inland route that avoided the long route around the north coast. The route follows the Great Glen’s natural fault line with its series of lochs, including 22 miles of manmade canal and 38 miles of open lakes, with a total of 29 locks to pass through.
As we crossed Loch Linnhe, David gave an informative talk on the arrival and spread of Celtic Christianity across northern Britain, providing a deeper background on St. Columba and Iona, the island we visited yesterday. Eric followed David with a presentation on using smart phones for taking and sharing pictures, increasing our photography skills once again.
Lord of the Glens made her way into the Canal and up to Corpach, our berth for the night. Ben Nevis loomed overhead, the tallest mountain in the UK at 4,406 feet in elevation. After lunch we set off to Glenfinnan Monument, where Bonnie Prince Charles raised his standard in 1745 to begin his campaign to reclaim the crown for the Stewart dynasty. This was the beginning of the third Jacobite uprising, which ended in defeat at the 1746 Battle of Culloden. Glenfinnan’s visitor centre gave us our first overview of this unsuccessful uprising and its devastating impact on Highland culture in the following years.
A group of hikers set off from the Monument with Robin and Eric to venture over the hill to the Glenfinnan rail station. The trail provided an excellent view of the Glenfinnan viaduct, made famous in the Harry Potter movies. We had a prime spot to watch the steam train puffing its way over the long curve of the viaduct. Those who stayed at the visitor centre also had the chance to watch the train from a viewpoint before joining the walkers by bus at the train station, and we all headed back to Lord of the Glens. Robin ended our day’s activities with a Recap on the monkey puzzle tree now found across Scotland, a South American native brought over in Victorian times to decorate gardens and historic sites.
