Today should have been a relatively short walk of 11 miles, but when our taxi delivered us back to Lagan Locks to start our walk, we found that we were diverted to the other side of the canal because of timber works above Loch Oich. Fortunately we had arranged for our taxi driver to deliver the rucksacks to our hotel in Fort Augustus, so were traveling light. It was an easy walk in the hills above the Loch, and we were pleased to meet up with Patty, Sheila and Bethany – the three ladies we had met yesterday. When we descended to Invergarry we all decided to take shelter in the hotel for coffee and cake. Conversation was lively and we reluctantly dragged ourselves away, leaving the ladies behind as David was keen to reach our destination in time to see the Wimbledon final! (It was a great match, making us late for the meal we had pre-booked!)

A Backward Glance

We started our walk today at the site of a very gruesome bloody battle called the ‘Battle of the Shirts’ which took place nearly 500 years ago (July 15th 1544) at the head of Loch Lochy. It was so hot on that day they all removed their chainmail coats and plaids and stripped down to their long shirts to set about business with sword and axe. One team called Clan John with 500 players took on their rivals, Clan Hugh with 300 players. At the end of the match the final score was Clan John 8 survivors including their captain, Clan Hugh 5 survivors their captain not one of them. The winning side was based on survivors and history has declared Clan John the winner. That’s the trouble with history, it’s always told by the survivors. In reality Clan Hugh killed 492 and Clan John only 295, so let’s face it the score was heavily in favour of the more skilled and lesser killed Clan Hugh. Therefore Clan Hugh really won and should have gone through to the next round. Meanwhile at the same time in England William Shakespeare was writing his plays, in Poland Nicolaus Copernicus had just worked out the planetary movements around the sun, in Italy Michelangelo had finished painting the Sistine Chapel and in Germany Martin Luther had nailed his ‘95 Theses’ to a church door in Wittenberg. Scotland had some catching up to do back then. Walking the Caledonian Canal, Loch Lochy and Loch Oich was a mix of woodland, waterfalls and long wide paths hugging canal banks with mountains either side of us, obscured by grey sky and tall pines. Along the way we met up again with the three ladies encountered yesterday. Being in the company of four accomplished women for a while more than made up for the lack of sunshine: pleasant conversation painting interesting joined up lives and now forever even connected with our own. Got to our hotel in time to see Carlos topple Novak in five sets.