Easy way to pick the lochs

THERE is more than one way to explore the Great Glen of Scotland, the majestic corridor of water and mountains between Inverness and Fort William that links the North Sea with the Western Isles. You can take the car with granny in the back and make the mandatory stop to look for Nessie. If you prefer a romantic escape you might walk, like Bonnie Prince Charlie did after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Or you can do it the right way - by boat.

I'd gone this route before by luxury hotel barge, and sitting on the deck with a good book after an Edwardian dinner with a steward serenading "more whisky, sir?" is not hard to take.

The only snag is, what with the roast beef, legs of lamb, Spey salmon, Brie, sherry trifle, champagne and red wine, not to mention the barge bus for excursions to stately homes and distilleries, it can be a waist-expanding experience. As they say on the Caribbean cruise ships, you board as a passenger and leave as cargo.

There is another way to take an unhurried voyage down the Great Glen and make it home without feeling you have to join Weight Watchers, and that is to take an activity holiday on the good barge Fingal of Caledonia.

I added a tasty appetiser by starting the trip at Glasgow, boarding ScotRail's train for a wonderfully scenic ride along the single-track West Highland Line to Fort William. This is the way to go, particularly as the train route from Inverness is just as spectacular. Leave the car at home.

Just as well the train put me in a good mood, because I was a little apprehensive about Fingal and its deck cargo of bikes, canoes, sailboats and windsurfers.

Would it mean sharing tight spaces with young and hearty outdoor types sporting Bergens and boots with soles like tank tracks?

It was not like that at all.

For a start my co-bargees were a comfortably middle-aged group who conspicuously abstained from vitamin bars; indeed one of them passed round a bottle of whisky at aperitif hour one night.

Mornings started at 8am with a good breakfast, although I was not happy to see only a butter-substitute on the table. Did we win the war to eat margarine? Later that day I cycled more miles than my backside cares to remember to find a coffee-shop where I purloined butter sachets to see me through the week. The village also had a paper shop.

"D'ye want yesterday's paper or today's paper?"

goes Highland paper shop lore. "Ah weel, if ye want today's paper ye ha'e to come back tomorrow."

Best source of information on these parts was Fingal's captain, Martin Balcombe, former head of sailing for Outward Bound Scotland and qualified canoe and mountain man. As a walker I appreciated that he had good maps for us of the roads and footpaths alongside the lochs, plus a phone on board in case we got lost. So, while everyone did their own thing, I walked (quite a few did, actually) on roads built 250 years ago by General Wade, the Redcoat who said the best road in Scotland was the one out of it, but he was a little biased for his road-builders had to dodge swinging claymores.

This is the land of many of Scotland's clans, from the Camerons to the Frasers, who fiercely resisted English domination and rallied to Bonnie Prince Charlie. Here are storied castles such as Invergarry where the fleeing prince sheltered after Culloden, although little disturbs the quiet waters of Loch Oich these days other than the quiet rippling of the blades of Fingal's canoeists and jumping brown trout.

We spent a night here, dreaming of what might have been, then Fingal lingered at the much-photographed Urquhart Castle and its spectacular site overlooking Loch Ness. Local lore tells of one laird of Urquhart who, upset at a rival blowing off a turret or two with cannon, took the man to court in 1517, while after another gunpowder spat with neighbours the castle had to be rebuilt at a cost of 150, which looks pretty insignificant these days but no doubt a sum to strain a sporran in the 16th century.

And so Fingal chugged up Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and Loch Ness for 60 fascinating miles, negotiating locks along the way, and we walked, biked, canoed, sailed and had a good night in the pub at Fort Augustus.

The cabins were cosy, the water hot, the scenery the best in Britain - who could forget Ben Nevis at sunset? - and the food wasn't bad.

Just don't forget to bring your own butter.

SIX-NIGHT cruises between Banavie (near Fort William) and Inverness on the Fingal of Caledonia (01397 772167;

www.caledonian-discovery.co.uk) cost from 349, including all meals, equipment and instruction.

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