Great Glen

The Great Glen cuts a straight 100-kilometre slash across the Highlands from Inverness on the Moray Firth to Fort William at Loch Linnhe. It follows the Great Glen Fault, a deep crack that splits the mountains into the Grampians to the south-east and the North-west Highlands to the north-west. Along this fracture lie seven lochs and two rivers, all linked by the Caledonian Canal and the A82 road. The glen has long been a vital route. The A82 and the canal now carry traffic, but in 1896 a railway was built from Fort William to Loch Ness; it closed in 1947. In 2002 the Great Glen Way opened, a long-distance trail for walkers, cyclists and canoeists that runs from Fort William to Inverness. Fort William, Fort Augustus and Fort George mark the glen’s importance in controlling the clans during the Jacobite risings of the 18th century. Visitors find a chain of wide lochs—Dochfour, Ness, Oich, Lochy and Linnhe—joined by the rivers Ness, Oich and Lochy. The Caledonian Canal uses these waters to cross the country. At the northern end the River Ness meets the Beauly Firth, while at the southern end Loch Linnhe opens to the sea. The Kessock Bridge over the Beauly Firth includes seismic buffers because minor earthquakes occasionally occur along the fault.