Ness Side

Looking roughly north across Ness-side to Dunain Hill with its communications tower. A light dusting of frost on these lower hills. Shot is taken from near Holm roundabout where Inverness's southern bypass ring comes to an abrupt halt as it joins the Inverness to Dores road - you can follow General Wade's military road to Dores and then along the south bank of Loch Ness before going up into the hills and coming down into Fort Augustus. It's quite a pleasant scenic route. The main road to Fort Augustus follows the north bank of Loch Ness and is much busier. For several years now the council have been talking about extending the bypass south over the river and canal to join that main road (A82) which would make life a lot easier for many Invernessians as well as through traffic. Several plans have been put forward. If cost was not a factor I think most people would go for a bridge over both river and (Caledonian) canal hitting the A82 near Torvean. At present the two bridges over the canal at Tomnahurich on the A82 and at Muirton on the A862 are low level swing bridges and traffic has to stop whilst boats using the canal pass through. As they're both fairly busy roads there can be long tailbacks and delays. This is why many think a high-level bridge is needed on the new bypass to give clearance for boats passing below. Whatever solution we finish up with at least part of this ploughed field in the foreground is likely to end up under tarmac.