At Loch Ness Hostel

On Thursday, my hostel group was out for the day, so I headed out for a walk myself. I walked from Alltsigh (where the hostel is) southwest-ward, along the roadside, hoping to find a path up to the Great Glen Way footpath so that I wouldn't have to walk on the road. I didn't find one before arriving at Invermoriston (about 3 miles down the road), the village in Glen Moriston at the junction of the road from Inverness, the road to Fort William, and the road to Kyle of Lochalsh. The village consists of a shop/post office, a hotel with restaurant/bar, a craft shop (that didn't appear to be open yet), a coffee shop/tea room (opening in a week), a village hall, a school, and some houses.

I bought some chocolate at the shop to supplement my packed lunch, then walked in the direction of the waterfall. Along the way I stopped at Columba's Well, as it was marked - it's a not-so-spring-like (i.e. some still water surrounded by a hole in rock) spring that legend says was poisonous until St. Columba made a stop there in the late 500's and blessed it, giving the water curing properties. I guess if you're a Columba fan then it would be a highlight.

The waterfall was actually pretty neat - no Niagra, but quite fast moving water none-the-less. The bank above the river was high and dropped off sharply.

To go back to the hostel, I joined the Great Glen Way where it came out in Invermoriston. It took a seemly circuituitous route up a hill, but did provide a good view point before heading back down the hill, nearer to the road. I walked along, drinking an Irn-Bru to give me the strength to get up the hill (I'd lost my water bottle from my backpack when I'd take a bit of a fall into a hole along the riverbank), then had my lunch on the hill-top with my back turned to the rain blown by the wind. Later on, the sun broke through the clouds as the rain stopped.

I found a path down about a mile from the hostel (it had appeared to be a gated driveway from the road), and a map indicates there must be one closer to the hostel, so I shall endeavour to find that one next time (I think I'm back here in a week to cover another Rent-a-Hostel).

Finally, here's a few photos of the Loch Ness Hostel. It's a bit old, but it's got a great location right on the lochside.

Ok, so I'm getting server errors from Google when I try to upload today (from two seperate computers), so for the photos I was going to put up and more, please see my web album. It's disorganized at the moment, and shows my fascination with trees growing in unusual ways, but I'll fix it up and label it sometime soon. And add to this post with photos.