Unplanned Detour #2: Neptune's Staircase

I can't recall if I mentioned this earlier, but I played navigator for our Epic Road Trip of Awesomeness. Hence, I had a big ole book of road maps. And as I was look at various routes we could take, I noticed a little "place of interest" icon marking off Neptune's Staircase. I had no idea what it was, but I figured if we ended up going that way, we should check it out. Well, we ended up going that way. And this mysterious "Neptune's Staircase" was only about five minutes out of the way. So we went. And this is what we found near the carpark.



A short walk from the car put us at the staircase itself. Ta da!



That right there is one of 8 locks in a big staircase lock on the Caledonian Canal. Also the longest staircase lock in the United Kingdom. Originally hand-powered, but now hydraulic-powered. Aerial photographs of all the locks are kind of neat, but sadly this did not turn out to be some kind of awesome waterfall like I was kind of hoping. Oh well. It was a nice warm day and I got to take a walk. And say I saw Neptune's Staircase.



Then we got back in the car to hit up a Scottish Whisky distillery. Off to Ben Nevis!