Loch Ness

On our way to Loch Ness, we stopped off at Glen Affric, one of Britain's largest ancient forests. Some of the trees have covered this area since they first took root thousands of years ago. 

In addition to many ancient trees, there are large stands of Douglas Firs that were planted in the 1800s by Lord Tweedmouth, a rich brewer and member of Parliament. He had a dream of transforming his estate into a majestic parkland. 

While in Glen Affric, we did a "wee hike" to see Plodda Falls. 

We then headed to Fort Augustus to learn about the building of the Caledonian Canal. The original purpose of the canal was to provide a passage way across Scotland that allowed ships to avoid going around the north tip of Scotland. 

Greg, ever the engineer, working on figuring out all the mechanisms of the lock gates.

We then took a cruise on Loch Ness and heard more about the history of the "Loch Ness monster." The first reported sighting of the monster was reported in 565 AD by Columba, the Irish priest who established a monastery on Iona. Over the years, there have been other "sightings." Loch Ness is 23 miles long and 734 feet deep, so searching the loch for the monster is a huge job. Tales of Loch Ness monster continue to excite explorers all over the world. In fact, just this last weekend, there was one of the biggest search parties ever organized to look for evidence of the monster. People from all over the world came to Loch Ness and used high tech search equipment including sonar to scour the lake for any evidence of the Loch Ness Monster. 

The results of the search haven't been made official yet, but even if they didn't find anything, the Loch Ness Monster will live on in the imagination for the Scottish people!