Highland Activities
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Things to do in the north and northwest Highlands
o Go for a drive up glorious Glen Affric, one of the very loveliest of Highland glens.
o Choose the West Highland choo-choo, one of the world's great train journeys.
o Take a trip from Shiel Bridge to the splendidly isolated village of Glenelg.
o Travel the stunning route to Applecross and enjoy some wonderful seafood in the cosy Applecross Inn.
o Go for a walk along the beach at Sandwood Bay and watch the sun set with a loved one.
o Take a boat trip into the gaping mouth of Loch Coruisk
Tours of Inverness
An open-top double-decker Bus Tour around Inverness and Culloden is run by Guide Friday. Tours leave from Bridge Street near the tourist office at 1000 and then every 45 minutes till 1645, from May to October. Tickets can be bought at their booth in the train station, Tel. 224000; open Mon-Fri 0900-1730, Sat 0830-1745, or on board the bus. A full day ticket: adult £7.50, concession £6 , children £2.50. The city only tour costs £5.50/£4/£2.50.
The Inverness Terror Tour leaves from outside the tourist office at 1900 nightly and tells the tale of the town's horrific past, complete with witches, ghosts, torture and murders.
Orkney Islands Day Tours leave from Inverness every day throughout the summer. The tour departs daily 1 Jun-2 Sep from Inverness bus station at 0730; returns 2100. Booking essential; £44 per person, under 16 half price. Details from the tourist office, or contact John O'Groats Ferries, Ferry Office, John O'Groats, Caithness. Tel. 01955-611353, Fax. 611301, www.jogferry.co.uk
Battle of Culloden
The second Jacobite rebellion of 1745 was ill-fated from the start. Bonnie Prince Charlie's expedition south lacked sufficient support and was turned back at Derby. After their long and dispiriting retreat north, the half-starved, under-strength army - exhausted after an abortive night attack on Hanoverian forces at Nairn - faced overwhelmingly superior forces under the command of the ambitious Duke of Cumberland at Culloden.
The open, flat ground of Culloden Moor was hopelessly unsuitable for the Highlanders' style of fighting, which relied on steep hills and plenty of cover to provide the element of surprise for their brave but undisciplined attacks. In only 40 minutes the Prince's army was blown away by the English artillery, and the Jacobite charge, when it finally came, was ragged and ineffective. Cumberland's troops then went on to commit the worst series of atrocities ever carried out by a British Army.1,200 men were slain, many as they lay wounded on the battlefield. Prince Charlie, meanwhile, fled west where loyal Highlanders protected him until he made his final escape to France.
But the real savagery was to come. Cumberland resolved to make an example of the Highlands. Not only were the clans disarmed and the wearing of Highland dress forbidden, but the Government troops began an orgy of brutal reprisals across the region. Within a century the clan system had ended and the Highland way of life changed forever.
The big blue
There are various dolphin-spotting cruises around the Moray Firth, but there is a code of conduct for boat operators. Before you choose a cruise, make sure the company is part of the Accreditation Scheme. One such company, based in Inverness, is Moray Firth Dolphin Cruises, Tel. 717900, morayfirth.cruises@virgin.net Trips are £10 (£8 concession), last 1€ hours and leave from Shore Street Quay (beyond the roundabout at the far end of Chapel St). Buses run from the tourist information centre 15 minutes before sailings.
Also in Inverness are McAuley Charters, Harbour offices, Longman Drive, Tel. 717337. Dolphin-spotting cruises also leave from Cromarty and Buckie. Buckie is also the home of the Moray Firth Wildlife Centre, which houses a dolphin exhibition, where you can find out evrything you ever wanted to know about them.
Loch Ness Monster tours
There are various monster-spotting tours of Loch Ness which leave from the tourist office. Guide Friday are based at the train station, Tel. 224000. They run half-day coach trips right round the loch, at 1030 and 1430, lasting 3 hours. Tickets: adult £14.50, concession £11.50, children £6.50, available from booking office at the train station or the tourist office.
Coach tours, boat cruises and combined coach and cruise trips round the loch are offered by Jacobite Cruises (Tel. 233999, jacobite@cali.co.uk) Half day cruises cost £10, half day coach and cruise trips cost £14.50 (including entry to the Loch Ness Monster Exhibition and Urquhart Castle). Trips run from April-October and leave from Tomnahurich Bridge on Glenurquhart Road, 1€ miles south of the town centre. Free buses leave from the TIC 20 minutes before sailing, if tickets are bought here. Otherwise, to get there take Inverness Traction buses Nos 3, 3A, 4 and 4A every 15 minutes from Church Street.
The Great Glen
The Great Glen, which splits the Scottish mainland from Fort William in the south to Inverness in the north, is one of the world's major geological fault lines. The Glen was formed millions of years ago when the northern part of the Caledonian mountains 'slid' more than 60 miles south, leaving behind a massive glen with four freshwater lochs - Loch Linnhe, Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and Loch Ness.
The most famous of these is Loch Ness, which attracts hordes of visitors eager to catch a glimpse of its elusive monster.The renowned engineer, Thomas Telford, succeeded in connecting all these lochs when he built the impressive Caledonian Canal. The canal took 22 years to complete, and when it was opened in 1822 was the first in Britain to take ships from one coast to the other. It remains the only canal in the country capable of carrying ships of up to 500 tons.The best way to appreciate the glen is by boat, through the 38 miles of natural lochs and rivers and the 22 miles of canal, and every summer pleasure craft of all shapes and sizes ply its length. The main A82 runs from Inverness south to Fort William. The southern section, from Fort Augustus, follows the original line of the road constructed in 1727 by General Wade to link the military garrisons at Fort William and Fort Augustus (hence their names).
There are regular daily bus services between Inverness and Fort William, with additional buses between Invergarry and Fort Augustus. Another way to travel through the Great Glen is along the excellent cycle route, which follows the canal towpaths, forest trails and quiet minor roads to avoid the busy main road. The route is outlined in the Forestry Commission leaflet, available from most Tourist Information Centres.
The Great Monster Hunt
In a country full of myths and legends, the Loch Ness MonsterLoch Ness Monster is the greatest of them all. As elusive as a straight answer from a politician, Nessie has single-handedly sold more tins of tartan-wrapped shortbread to foreign visitors than Edinburgh Castle.
Tales of Nessie go way back to the sixth century, when St Columba is said to have calmed the beast after she had attacked one of his monks. But the monster craze only really took off with the completion of the A82 road along the loch's western shore in 1933. Since then there have been numerous sightings, some backed up with photographic evidence, though the most impressive of these - the famous black-and-white movie footage of Nessie's humps moving through the water, and the classic photograph of her head and neck - have been exposed as fakes.
In recent decades determined monster hunters have enlisted the help of new technology, such as sonar surveys, but have failed to come up with conclusive evidence. Enter Cyber Nessie, the latest attempt to end the years of rumours, hoaxes and speculation. Nessie's very own website - www.lochness.scotland.net/ camera.htm - is a 24-hour real-time video watch of Loch Ness, and has already produced a couple of claimed sightings. But nothing could compare with the excitement of seeing the monster in the flesh.
Getting shirty
One the bloodiest battles in Scottish clan history was the Battle of the Shirts, fought in 1544. It was so named because it was fought on a hot day and the combatants took off their shirts before proceeding to butcher each other. One side - the Frasers - were almost wiped out and their opponents - a combined force of MacDonalds, MacDonnells and Camerons - suffered less heavy losses and claimed victory. In total over 1,000 were killed and a plaque beside the canal locks describes the terrible events.
Tours from Fort William
Top of the Pops as far as tours are concerned has to be the Jacobite Steam Train which runs from Fort William to Mallaig during the summer months. Further details from West Coast Railway Company, Tel. 01524 732100, www.westcoastrailway.co.uk
There are several cruises which leave from the Town Pier, giving you the chance to spot local marine wildlife, including seals, otters and seabirds. One of the operators is Seal Island Cruises (Tel. 705589), who run trips of 1€ hours from April to September.
Riding the rails
Running from Glasgow to Mallaig via Fort William, the West Highland Railway is only 164 miles long but is widely acknowledged as one of the most scenic railway journeys in the world. The great thing about this journey is its variety, taking you from the distinctive red tenements of Glasgow and the former shipbuilding areas of the River Clyde, to the windy wilderness of Rannoch Moor and the chilly splendour of the hills. It's about an hour after leaving Glasgow that you get your first taste of highland scenery when the train hugs the eastern bank of sinewy Loch Long. Then it's on past the 'bonnie banks' of Loch Lomond, Britain's largest body of inland water. It's impossible not to pass this serene loch without thinking of the famous ballad about two Jacobite soldiers captured after the '45 rebellion. The soldier taking 'the low road' is due to be executed, his companion taking the 'high road' is due to be released.
After Ardlui, at the top of Loch Lomond, the countryside gets more rugged. Wherever you look you see something of interest: a waterfall gushing down a hillside, a buzzard surfing on the breeze - perhaps a herd of Highland Cattle wallowing in a river. The West Highland Way, the long distance footpath from Glasgow to Fort William, is close to the line now and at stations such as Crianlarich, Upper Tyndrum and Bridge of Orchy you can often spot footsore walkers with muddy boots - who get on the train looking slightly guilty and collapse on their seats with sighs of relief. The landscape gets wilder and bleaker as the railway crosses the lonely, peaty wastes of Rannoch Moor and on to Corrour, which featured in the film version of Irvine Welsh's cult book Trainspotting. Then you descend to the lusher country around Tulloch, before pulling in to Fort William.
This is a popular visitor centre as it's close to Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain, and beautiful Glen Nevis, which has featured in films such as Braveheart and Rob Roy. Now comes the most spectacular part of the journey, for the West Highland Line leaves the best 'till last. Leaving Fort William, the train crosses Thomas Telford's Caledonian Canal - where you can see an impressive series of eight locks known as 'Neptune's Staircase' - hugs the shore of Loch Eil, then crosses the magnificent Glenfinnan Viaduct, a masterpiece in concrete. You soon get superb views of the evocative Glenfinnan Monument that commemorates the start of the 1745 rebellion, before pulling in to Glenfinnan Station.
The train now takes you through a landscape of craggy hills and glacial lochs etched with birch and pine trees. You pass Loch nan Uamh, from where Bonnie Prince Charlie fled for France after his defeat at Culloden, then draw in to Arisaig, the birthplace of the man who inspired RL Stevenson's Long John Silver. Next is beautiful Loch Morar, Britain's deepest inland loch and home - so legend has it - to a mysterious monster. Soon you get great views across the water to the craggy islands of Eigg and Rhum, before finally pulling in to the port of Mallaig.