Fort Augustus
The village at the southern end of Loch Ness, cut in two by the Caledonian Canal and its flight of locks, named after a fort built after 1715.
At the southern tip of Loch Ness, the village of Fort Augustus is cut in two by the Caledonian Canal, and its flight of locks, stepping boats down to the loch, is the heart of the place.
On a summer's day it is a fine spot to sit and watch the boats go by.
The village was once called Cille Chumein, after St Cummein, who built a church here. After the Jacobite rising of 1715 the government built a fort and named it after Prince William Augustus, the son of George the Second, who as the Duke of Cumberland later crushed the Highlands after Culloden. Almost nothing of the fort survives; parts were built into a Benedictine abbey in 1876, whose monks left in 1998.
Today the village is busy with walkers on the Great Glen Way, boats heading out onto Loch Ness, and visitors browsing its shops.
A village, open at any hour; the locks are busiest in the boating season.
- Where
- The south end of Loch Ness.
- The canal
- A flight of locks to Loch Ness.
- Named for
- Prince William Augustus.
On the A82 at the southern end of Loch Ness, where the Caledonian Canal enters the loch.
Places to stay near the village, and when each is next free.
The Lovat Hotel- A hotel
- In Fort Augustus
- Under a mile from Fort Augustus
Glen Affric Estate- Sleeps 14
- In Fort William
- 15 miles from Fort Augustus
Eagle Brae- To stay
- In Struy
- 18 miles from Fort Augustus
Aquila at Eagle Brae- Sleeps 6
- In Struy
- 18 miles from Fort Augustus
Scotland, in print.
Every photograph commissioned, every word written by somebody who went. Printed twice a year, made in Scotland.
For further reading, before you go.