Loch Ness and the Great Glen
'The Water Horse' is a tale filled with imagination and wonder. But the story is set in a real place.
The Great Glen is an enormous valley that seems to cut across Scotland in a diagonal line. It runs from Inverness in the north east to Fort William in the south west. The Great Glen has three lochs, Loch Lochy, the furthest south, then Loch Oich, and then Loch Ness. Loch Ness is the northernmost of the three lochs.
During the last Ice Age a massive glacier filled the Great Glen fault line. About 10,000 years ago the Ice Age ended. As the glacier melted and withdrew, Loch Ness was formed. The sides are very rocky and steep but the bottom of the loch is flat.
Loch Ness is the largest of these three lochs. In fact, Loch Ness is the largest body of fresh water in the whole of Great Britain.
Loch Ness is nearly 24 miles long and between one and one and a half miles wide. At its deepest point the loch is 754 feet deep. If you dropped the Great Pyramid of Giza or the Houses of Parliament or the London Telecom Tower into Loch Ness, they would all vanish under the surface of the water.
Loch Ness contains more water than all the lakes and reservoirs of England and Wales combined.
Does it also hold the Water Horse?
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