Detour ahead

---

On Wednesday, we walked up a footpath to a brae near Plockton. The village is puffed as a jewel of the Highlands. It's pleasant enough and offers activities for messing about on the water. There are a couple of good restaurants. Otherwise, it's mostly small hotels and B&Bs, with a lot of cars in the summer.

Thursday was our first day of unalloyed good weather: white clouds stacked in a blue sky. We ate breakfast outside beside Loch Long, then drove to the ruins of Urquart Castle to see great Loch Ness on a clear day.

Parking in Invermoriston, we bought an OS map in the post office and set off to walk part of the 73-mile Great Glen Way, which here offers views down over Loch Ness. Shortly after we crossed the village's ancient stone bridge, we came to a sign announcing that the access to the Way was closed because of dangerously overhanging trees. The diversion took us an extra mile or so out of Invermoriston in the cold shadow of pine trees. There was no other sign to direct us, but we found a stony path that enabled us to scramble steeply till we met the track. Before we could have any view of the loch, it was necessary to walk back the same distance towards the village, on a sunless path.

Back in Invermoriston, in the afternoon sunlight, the pines on the hillside were like frozen fountains of green water.

---