We kicked off our morning with a cruise on the Caledonian Canal, departing from Corpach for Fort Augustus. Construction of this canal began in 1802 and finished in 1822. It was engineered by Thomas Telford with the goal of providing small fishing boats with a more sheltered alternative route than the country's north coast offered. Twenty-two miles of the sixty-mile-long canal are manmade.
Shortly after breakfast we entered Neptune's Staircase, which consists of eight locks and takes roughly 90 minutes to complete. Later we passed the ruins of Invergarry Castle before entering the two Lagan Locks that lowered the ship to Loch Lochy, before reaching the next manmade portion of the canal.
After lunch, guests had the opportunity to walk through the lock at Kytra for a two-mile stroll on the towpath to Fort Augustus. At Fort Augustus there was an additional guided 3.5-mile hike along the canal and through the scenic countryside to visit the historic Kilchuimen Cemetery, where John Anderson is buried. Anderson was a close friend of poet Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, and was the subject of one of his famous poems: "John Anderson My Jo."
