Loch Ness
Loch
Ness
is Scotland's largest loch in terms of volume
- in fact it contains more water than all the lakes and reservoirs in England
and Wales.
It
is more than 180 metres (600 feet) deep for much of its 37 km/23 mile length
and is home to the famous Loch Ness Monster, also known as Nessie.
The Caledonian Canal and
River Oich enter the loch at the south west end (at
Fort Augustus). At the north east end is another small loch, Dochfour, and
from this the canal continues to the Beauly Firth and the River Ness into the
Moray Firth.
Despite it's size there is only one island, Cherry Island,
on the loch. In fact this is a Crannog
which used to be a lot bigger than it currently is. This is due to when the Caledonian Canal
was being constructed the level of the loch was raised by eight feet. There was
once a small castle on the island.
There are boat trips that take you around the loch. These
can be reached from Tomnahurich Bridge on Glenurquhart Road, which is 1.5 miles
from Inverness city centre.
Between Loch Ness and the foothills of
the Monadhliath Mountains is an area known as Stratherrick.
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