Jane and I and Minnie our dog really enjoyed this walk alongside the Caledonian Canal.
We left Mingulay House in Duror and 25 minutes later were driving through Fort William. On the way out of Fort William, at the roundabout we took the Mallaig road (A830). After a mile or so, we turned right (signposted Banavie), then right again in the large car park. Here it is recommended to park in the far corner as this gives easy access to the start of the walk. In our opinion this is a fairly easy canal-side walk it took us approx 1 hour and is a total distance of 4.5km / 2.75miles.

There are many ways to see and enjoy the Caledonian Canal. Walking alongside Neptune’s Staircase is a lovely way to take in this amazing engineering feat. The Caledonian Canal was built to plans produced by Thomas Telford. Construction started in 1803 and opened in 1822. However instead of the canal being 20 feet deep as stated on Telford’s plans the depth was only 14 feet. Many of the large ships of this time could not pass and therefore a second phase of construction occurred between 1844-1847.
Neptune’s Staircase is a flight of eight locks connecting 2 Canals. It will take a boat 90 minutes to travel up the 64 feet to the top.

Approximately 1km into the walk you reach Corpach, here there is the final sea-lock where the canal ends and Loch Linnhe begins. There are also some lock keepers houses and a picnic area, although the day we walked was a bit too cold for eating al fresco. The scenery on this walk is really beautiful, you can see across to Fort William and Ben Nevis. You do have to walk across a railway and a busy road, but this is sign posted well to remind walkers to take care.

Mingulay House is 10 minutes from Glencoe and ideally situated to visit some of Scotland’s most breathtaking scenery. Furthermore we are only 25 miles from where the end scenes of Skyfall were filmed.
Some of the best scenes at the end of the film are when Bond drives M (Judi Dench) in his Aston Martin DB5 to Skyfall; his family estate. This is filmed near the stunning peaks of Buachaille Etive Mor and Glencoe and this wild, dramatic Scottish scenery is only minutes drive from Mingulay House.

• Mingulay House

We are so proud that Mingulay House has just been awarded the prestigious TripAdvisor,

“Certificate of Excellence Award 2012”.

This award is given to accommodation providers that have received consistently high praise.  So thank you to all our guests who have taken time to give feedback.  We try hard to ensure that our guests have a comfortable and relaxing stay with a good sleep and fresh home cooked breakfast.  We will continue to strive to maintain this standard and work even harder to ensure that we get it right every time.

After many hours of deliberation.

We finally have our new sign in place.

19 miles south of Mingulay House and 7 miles north of Oban is Beinn Lora.  It’s just over 300 metres high and overlooks Benderloch and Tralee Beach. The walk is 3 miles long, and starts from the small car park in the village.  It takes about 2 hours (if you are of moderate fitness) and if you climb to the top you will be 1010 ft high.

Beinn Lora holds a hill race every year, this year it is on the 2^nd December 2012.  It is part of the Scottish Hill Racing.

Last year the Beinn Lora Hill Race was on Sunday the 27^th November 2011 and the winner was James Tullie, a Doctor I work with in A/E at the Lorn & Islands Hospital.  His record breaking winning time was 0:25:50 – fantastic.  The female champion is Nicola Meekin who holds the record time of 0:29:57 in 2010.

The distance in 5km and the climb is 340km.

A 20-25 minute drive from Mingulay House and you will arrive at the car park at the base of Beinn Lora.  There is a choice of trails available from the car park and all of the walks give views over the Firth of Lorne.  My friend & I took the blue markers & walked up Ben Lora yesterday.  We took Minnie our gorgeous dog and we all loved it. We did not make it right to the top; it was a bog and would have squelched right over my MBT’s!! – Next time I will wear walking boots!  We stopped at the boundary of the forest and had a wee rest at the picnic table.  The path gets steep quite quickly but the views are fantastic.  It was a clear day, and we could see south towards Oban, east towards Beinn Cruachan and north towards Glencoe.   Just lovely x

Recently we have had a pair of roe deer appearing at the back of the house most mornings just as the day is breaking.  We feel quite privileged, as these creatures are known to be shy of humans and quite solitary.

Roe deer (‘Capreolus capreolus’) are small deer, compared to Scotland’s other native deer, the Red Deer.  Roe Deer are reddish-brown in summer, while greyer in winter months. They are distinguishable facially by a black ‘moustache’ stripe and white chin.  There is also by a cream coloured rump patch, this patch expands in size to form a large disc when they are excited or alarmed.  Male roe deer are larger than females and have short antlers bearing no more than three points.

The common time of year to see Roe Deer is the autumn and spring, however, here at Mingulay House, we seem to have them visiting most of the year.  It is estimated that there are around 400,000 Roe Deer in Scotland.

Mating season for Roe Deer is July and August and we can often here the loud bark of Roe bucks.  During the mating season the bucks (males) chase the does (females) around a feature such as a tree or large rock.  These chases flatten the heather or forest vegetation into circles and are known as ‘Roe Deer Rings’.

As Mingulay House is on the doorstep of Glencoe, we also get to experience the wonderful Red deer (‘Cervus elaphus’).  These are beautiful, majestic animals and they can be seen roaming wild throughout Glencoe.   Red deer are the largest land mammal in Scotland, with the males weighing up to 190kg and the females 120kgs.