Fort William, first day

Before heading off to Fort William today, I visited the Oban distillery, which was the best distillery tour I've done. However I can only compare it to two or three others, so that's not saying a whole lot. It had a satisfying blend of the old and the new, because the premesis hasn't changed since the 1700s when it was built. A lot of their equipment was new, and a lot had been in service for many years. And the whole building had significantly more character than the sterile stainless steel of Midleton's. It was overall very informative and seemed to place genuine emphasis on teaching you about whisky and how it's made, rather than just giving you some pretty things to look at and herding you through quickly so the next tour group could come through. As the distillery is still in use, though, there was no photography allowed. I plan to visit some more distilleries in future, so I hope they are all at least as good as this.
So then I headed off to Fort William, situated at the end of Loch Linhe. As such it was an important strategic location for Oliver Cromwell for controlling the Highlands, so he built a fort here, little of which remains, though the town that grew around it is obviously thriving. It's a nice enough town, smeared across the steep sides of the loch like so much peanut butter, but it means the streets stretch out back and forth like tapeworms in the world's largest set of intestines. Since a lot of them are one way it means that it you want to go backwards you have to drive all the way to the end and back again. But the pretty scenery makes up for it.

Ben Nevis

It's also a great base for seeing Glen Nevis and Britain's highest mountain, Ben Nevis. I arrived at Fort William between about 12 and 1 in the afternoon, and so I decided to spend the afternoon checking these out.
Now, I do love walking, and I particularly love climbing monuments, but unfortunately on this trip I'm ill equipped to climb any major mountains - the occasional small hill or valley, but something like Ben Nevis would just be a pain in the ... feet. So I went to the visitor's centre and did a two hour walk approaching the mountain and coming back. It was breathtaking, but I did sorta regret not going to the summit. Well, maybe next time I'm in the area.