 Hello, thank you for joining me. I'm standing on a bridge over the River Ness in the Scottish city of Inverness. Over there is the castle, the cathedral, and that building there is the Highland Hospice. The reason I mentioned the Highland Hospice is today is an episode of Miniature Railway Britain and the Miniature Railway we're going to, the Ness Highlands Miniature Railway, is owned by the Highland Hospice so all money they make goes to a good cause, the Highland Hospice. So that's looking up towards Loch Ness. We're going to follow the River Ness. The railway's kind of on that side but it's actually on an island but the island's closest to that side but in true Henry's Adventures fashion. I'm going this way. I'm going to walk up the Ness for a while now and I'll show you the islands, the River Ness Island. It's a park in the middle of the river and we'll walk through there to the Miniature Railway. I've now come a little bit further upstream up the River Ness. It's a bit quieter up there. They were doing road work so I thought I'll walk up a bit further for a few more. There's a few things I want to point out from here. As for the islands, see where those trees are there. That is one of the islands. It's not the one that holds the Miniature Railway now. I'm not entirely sure at this stage there's what appears to be a river here. I'm not sure if this is one of the islands or if this is just another river joining the River Ness. As for Miniature Railway Britain, the plan is to visit every Miniature Railway in the British Isles. Now it's been about 50 odd so far since launching this series. So far they have all been in England but of course the British Isles includes Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and I'm including Republic of Ireland and Channel Islands Island Man. This is the first one I've done outside of England in this series. So first Scottish one I've done. Interestingly, it's also the most northerly Miniature Railway in Britain that is open to the public. The reason I say that is because I believe there is one on Auckland but it used to be open to the public but it's now private. So we've got a few bit of a bridges adventure now. Here's the first of them. So we're going to cross this bridge and head out onto the Ness Islands. So here I am. I'm down on the shores of the River Ness. You can just see the bridge which started on the suspension bridge and the cathedral. The pan around here is a man fishing. Now this is a funny thing here. This looks a bit like an unfeatured bridge. It's actually like a sculpture and stroke piece of art. Not everyone likes it. Some people say it's bad, some others say it's really nice. It takes you above the river in front of us of the Ness Islands. So it's not the one the Miniature Railway is on. The Miniature Railway is more over that way. You can just see one of the bridges. Now there's a river coming in here. At the last, when I came onto that bridge, I still haven't quite worked out if that river is one of the islands or not. It might be just like a stream flowing round the back. But what I have discovered, something here is quite interesting. That is that river down there in the bushes. Have a look at this. The biggest bridge here is, you look down there to the River Ness. You can see there's another river flowing into the Ness. If we have a look here, this river actually goes over that river. So technically it's an aqueduct, but it's quite funny to find river over river. You can quite often get canals going over rivers and occasionally rivers go over railways where the railways cut through. But yeah, look at this. Water and water. I'm going to continue that way and soon we'll go onto the Ness Islands proper. We'll come upstream again slightly further and here we begin the series of Ness Islands. It seems like the island there you can't actually get to. Can get to this one as a suspension bridge in front of us. So the idea to link the Ness Islands was, well, they first opened, the bridges first opened in 1828. Previously, to get to the islands you had to go across by boat. You could swim or walk across at low when the flow was low. So there's a path there going up to the road. That's that mystery river, which I'm pretty sure I'm convinced now isn't part of the island. So at the moment I'm on the ground as in I'm not in the river. So here is the first of the suspension bridges. This isn't the original suspension bridge. Unfortunately the original suspension bridges were washed away in floods in 1849. It's very pleasant and you can still see, looking about that way, you can see down towards the cathedral. There's a lot of churches in the Ness Islands. I don't know if this is true. I once said there's more churches than pubs in Ness, which is, you know, I can believe there's another Ness Island. I'm not sure how many islands there are in Ness, but in Ness, but there seems to be quite a lot. Because the River Ness isn't the longest of rivers for such a wide river. It's quite a short river because it comes out lock Ness and then flows down to the sea. So it's only about six miles long or so. And then of course you have got the Caledonian Canal, which I also do endeavour to have a look at in this video. So the Caledonian Canal comes in from the sea and it takes it all through the three other locks in the Great Glen. This is the end of the Great Glen, which goes all the way through to Fort William. And down at Fort William on the Caledonian Canal you've got Neptune staircase. So you can, the idea was to take a ship all the way through Scotland without it going around the top. But the thing is ships have got a lot bigger now, so not many ships actually. The really big ships wouldn't fit through the Caledonian Canal. This is a very pleasant park here. Something special about being on an island I think, because you're kind of on an island and yeah, I walked over it, over the bridge, but a bit sort of disconnected from everyday life. So I always like being on an island. I'm going to continue walking. I'll show you the bridge to the next island and then the next island. And then eventually one of these islands we should find a miniature railway come. So I'm still on the first of those islands. To answer my question about was that what appears to be quite a small stream an island, well I can just see over there it peels off the nest. So yes, that was also an island. So this is the second island we've been on, not first. We're about to go over to the third. So as I said, this is like one of Inverness's parks. I think it's a very nice park, a bit wooded, open spaces every now and then. But I just really like how it's all on an island or series of islands. I think it's a really nice idea. And we're now going to an interesting venture. We're going to cross this rather exciting looking bridge through the trees and over the river. So we can see here we're connecting two islands. All that is, well it's fun, people canoeing in the net. Although I think I prefer railways, but still it's probably quite fun. And now we've come around here. So we're now onto the, well actually we're on a really small island here, I've just noticed, which you can't really get off this bridge because there's another bridge, so we've sort of fenced in. So we've just come over that bridge, come around this corner and we go over another bridge. There's the canoeists again, so that's looking downstream. Yes, so we have just come across this small island. We're now onto this island. I'm actually at the moment following a footpath called the Great Glen Way. So I probably could walk all the way through to Fort William, if I wanted to. But that's a rather long walk, a very nice walk. Something for another day though. So I'm going to continue on up here. And just through the trees, I can see my next bridge, which will take me I think back onto the mainland. But the railway we go on is on another island. So we'll see that when we get there. Okay, so I'm now about to leave that island to cross another. Quite impressive looking suspension bridge. Again, looking downstream. Can't really see the city centre anymore. If you walk to the northern tip of... Well, it's not the northern tip, is it? Because that's going sort of south-west. If you walk to the southwestern tip of that island, that's quite a pleasant spot to be. See a water all around you. It looks like a leisure park. It looks like there's a sports ground over there. And I can just see another bit of river going off. So that's kind of what takes us to the island, where we're going to. So here we are. We're now coming back onto the mainland. And I'm going to follow along here. And I'm not too far now away from the railway. That's the suspension bridge we've just been over. You can just see that tip of the island I was saying about. It's a pleasant place to walk to. I haven't walked down there before. So I'm not too worried about doing that today. And then this is... Just see a bit of water coming off there. There's various other things. Entertainment is crazy golf. So if you are coming here, you know, as a family, then there's a lot to do to entertain. Inverness is a really nice city to visit. It's been a city since year 2000. I think... I remember it being on the news. I remember I was at school and I went to my geography teacher and said, have you heard of these three new cities in the UK? And he said, yes, can you tell me them all? I said, yeah, Inverness, Brighton, Hove and all Hampton. And both of those other cities do also have a nice railway. So we'll have to go to them in the future at some point. So this is the body of water now, which separates us. So like I say, I'm back on the riverbank, the mainland. But this bridge just here will take me across. And I think this is the island where this miniaturial is. So, let's go and see. I'm excited about this. I should have been going for a miniaturial there. So, you know, here we go. So we're crossing now. So this isn't, you know, a main body of water. It's quite a sort of a slow backwater of water. It's really such a thing. So this is the island. We might as well walk over here and have a look at the main nest again. So this railway should be, or is it just... I think I can see some track. Yeah, I can. We'll have a look at the track. Might see a train go past. I know they're having some building work done. They're rebuilding the main railway station. So we might as well do my usual thing and come back when the building work's finished. But we'll see. So that's that tip. You can just see a lady standing over there. Which is worth a walk to. Here's the main river Ness. And as if on cue, here's a miniaturial. We just need a train now. It's got quite an interesting layout, I believe. Because it's like what they call a dumb bell shape. It's folded in half. And I've seen pictures. It has a very impressive looking suspension bridge. It also has elephants by the track side. And there's more walls up here. Interestingly, colour down walls. This must be the inner loop here. And this is the outer loop. Somewhere the outer loop goes over a suspension bridge over the inner loop. But we'll see all of that when we travel on the train. So there's some more animals there amongst the daffodils. It's very nice that this time of year in the spring I can see a train out. So yeah, my excitement. Getting more and more excited. There's a train out. So it looks like we're going to be soon having a ride. I'm probably about one of the first passengers. And it's probably about that now. So, there's your suspension bridge. I think that probably was one of the river suspension bridges. And it's become a railway suspension bridge. This must be their temporary station up here. So we're going to have a look at that. And then on this side is the children's park. So they've got big American diesel out. So we might find a bit of diesel forage up here in the highlands. As soon as there's not that many local trains except the Codone and Sleeper. Yeah, that's the suspension bridge. That is such an impressive feature for a miniature railway. And there's the container. It says Ness Islands Railway Fairtube. Our 50 is this big diesel. So it says yeah, the next train is at 11. So that looks like that's what we're going to be travelling behind. Uncle Frank's diesel locomotive, number 98. Let's have a little look around here. See what else we can see. I think I can hear some building work up here. This must be the new station under construction. So the things are not quite ready to run yet. Let's just go and have a look at that. I'm very excited about this. You can see the building work just here. Where they're rebuilding their railway station. So that's sort of the railway. It's been here since 1983. And it's owner, when he retired, the railway, I think, was put up for sale. And it's now been sold or acquired to the highland hospital. So as I said, it all does go to a very good cause. So you can see the new station building under construction. So this is where you would normally get on the train. But they're just completely rebuilding it. So what I'm going to do now, I'm going to go back to that temporary station and buy a ticket and board the train for my trip on the Ness Islands Miniature Railway. Well, I've had a really enjoyable morning here at Ness Islands Miniature Railway. The train takes another load of people off on their ride. I'm going to continue with my walk. What I'm going to do now is I'm going to go from the Ness to the Caledonian Canal. So I'll keep the video going just so we've seen the Caledonian Canal, because I thought it'd be nice to have my family to walk all the way up to the swing bridge. They're collecting the harry, so we can finish with a standard gauge railway. If you were to come to this railway, it is a fairly flat, but longest walk from in the Ness Railway station. It's probably about a mile away. But, you know, there's lots of other nice things to see in the area. The park continues on up there. I'll see another lake and everything. So it's a really, really nice park to come to, to do come and visit. And as I said, they have their new railway station under construction. So next time we come and visit, perhaps we'll be catching a train from there. So I'm going to now, here's that last bit of river taking us back off the islands. It's been a great morning on the islands. I've enjoyed it. And as I said, we're heading over now to the Caledonian Canal. So that's an interesting section of waterfalls here and concrete blocks. And then, here, there's some, some more of the water. So let's go and find the Caledonian Canal. I've gone off on a slight detour of my planned route from the Ness Islands Park to the Caledonian Canal. I've come here. This is the new Inverness by-park. Now, quite the river Ness. And here's another section of river. There's a lot of work going on. There's this rather interesting looking building just here. Now, that, I've discovered, is going to be like a hydroelectric power. It's going to be like an Archimedes screw to generate some electricity from the waters of the River Ness. Now, what I'm going to do is I said I'm going to go to the Caledonian Canal where you can see those gorse bushes right over there. It's just the other side of that. I'm going to go, I could walk a long way between the river and the canal. I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to get to the canal and then head back towards Clackenahari. So there's the Inverness by-park bridge in the background. Inverness. And I believe at the top of these steps we should find the Caledonian Canal. So, let's go and see what we can see. Here we go. Here's some water. So, that's the way I'm going towards Clackenahari. Oh, this is a really spectacular view. So, that's looking up the Great Glen and River Ness. So, that looks towards Loch Ness. So, if the Loch Ness monster exists even if they... it's never going to happen but just say they drain the whole of Loch Ness which has the largest amount of water in any Scottish lock. Loch Loma's got the larger surface area but Loch Ness has the largest volume of water. Just say they decided to drain Loch Ness. The monster's got two routes to escape at least to this way. Not to mention he could also go out to Fort Williams. So, I don't know if they'll ever find that one out but Loch Ness is definitely a video for another day. I suppose one day I should do one on the whole Caledonian Canal. I've seen Neptune staircase from the Jacobite over at Fort William. That's really impressive. But right now, we're going that way. We're going to find the swing bridge at Clackenahari. That's where I'll show you in today's video. I've just been walking along the Caledonian Canal now for about a quarter of a mile and as I mentioned back there there's this new Inverness bypass. Well, I didn't know. Well, obviously I knew it was going to have to cross the canal. But what I'm quite impressed about is that it's got a swing bridge. This isn't the swing bridge at Clackenahari that I'm walking towards. So this has to be the newest swing bridge in the UK. It's quite rare now that a swing bridge would be necessary because normally they would take the road over the canal or whatever it needs to be at a greater expense. But here they've actually gone for building a swing bridge. So I think that's quite impressive. I'm going to have to cross the road now and then I'll be able to show you the oldest road swing bridge. So we're going to see sort of old road swing bridge, new road swing bridge. I'm going to get out of there. Right, let's just get across the road. Yeah, there's a... Oh, I see it, yeah. So there's the... Oh, okay. Right, I should have gone under the underpass because what I'm going to do is go climb the fence because strangely there's no gate here. Perhaps I don't want to encourage people to cross the road, which is sensible but I wanted to see some bridge. So, up around L.L. crossing the barriers will go down and the bridge will swing to let the boat through. If we have a look down here we can see the older counterpart just up here and that building there I suppose is like a road and canal signal box. It's like the control centre for the two bridges. So yeah, if you're going to do this it's the way it's supposed to come through that modern underpass. And then probably this building ahead of us that's probably the canal keepers cottage. So here I get the bus which I have done a few times from Fort William over to Inverness if you come across here and the bus will take you over this swing bridge here but they've now put this road in so it will obviously relieve some congestion in Inverness which isn't too bad for congestion or not though I've seen anyway. So it's a fairly growing city in Inverness. They are building new houses around the edge. It's a very pleasant city to live though and to come and visit up here from time to time. And I've ever since I was a child I've come up here now. I've always really enjoyed visiting Inverness but I've never got rounds. I tend to come here and do the railways from Inverness whether it be the car or line or I've done the far north in the past. I've never actually had a chance to walk around this part in Inverness. So we're just coming now up to the older swing bridge. That looks to me like I said to be probably the original keepers cottage for the canal and this one also has barriers which you know don't want someone driving into the canal if they open it and I've probably now got a mile or so to go from here to like in Henry. So there's the old canal keepers cottage there. Now is it going to be a straight cross it's done no tunnels to look for. So that is the road the older road to Inverness. I can actually do it if it opens now so I can get across the road. I probably have got a choice now I could walk up either side of the canal I think I'll stay on this side and we're going to continue now until I get all the way about a mile away so it's quite my hurry. So I've been walking now for about a mile I've come to this staircase of locks it's a staircase in because you've got from one down to another down to another as opposed to having a section of even if it's a short section of normal canal in between. So it's not quite as big as the Neptune staircase at the other end of the canal at Banner v near Fort William but it's quite an interesting thing to see I'm kind of in line now with the city centre I don't think I'm going to pick it out to see the castle through there so that will give you an idea of where I am I'm going to continue down the staircase towards Clayton and Harry I can just see let's go over this side we'll go over this side I can see the Kessok bridge in the background which goes over to the Black Island on this side so you can see down the staircase see up the staircase doesn't appear to be boats at the moment in the background over there it's Kessok bridge so I'm going to continue now through what's now become a more urban part of the Caledonian canal to Clayton and Harry quite close to the end now but I just found something I didn't expect to see look at this it's looking a bit worse where now but it appears someone has made a rather large model of the Titanic so that's a really unexpected surprise that was anyway I'm going to continue on it's not far now Clayton and Harry is just around the corner so I'm almost at the end of the Caledonian canal I was on the other side so rebuilding the top half on this side I've just come across this lock but it's open this is the then ultimate lock I'll let the fine Dutchman to go through this rather impressive sailing ship I don't know a lot about ships I must be honest but that's quite a nice thing to see I think now I'm hoping they're going to go because it would be a nice way a nice addition to the video so I've had trains obviously in the video railways because that was the main purpose of the video now I've got some ships I'm almost tempted to get a bus back into the nest whether I will or not I don't know so as the fine Dutchman goes on our way up the Caledonian canal I continue in the opposite direction as I said this is the penultimate lock so we don't know how far to go now it's called Work's Lock I don't know if the other Dutch has read that I've had a control room but the thing I've been talking about ever since we got on the Caledonian canal was the swing bridge at Clackner-Harris and that is just here this is the line that goes up to the far north that dinghole and the Kyle of Lockhouse line branch is off so here we are Clackner-Harris swing bridge I'm going to wait and see a train here very nice place I've been over it a few times I've never actually been here to see a train pass over there is North Keswick on the Black Isle that's the Keswick bridge so let's just hang around we'll see a train and then that'll be time for me to head back to Inverness that was really good seeing the Royal Scotsman crossing the Caledonian canal seeing as we're here it seems we might as well walk to the end I'm going to go across the railway line now I saw the Royal Scotsman yesterday when I went to Kyle of Lockhouse at Strathcaren on the way back we passed it and we had a very nice guard and he said if you want to get out and film it we're not going for another seven minutes so have a look at that link on screen now you can see that video now we can have a look at the swing bridge here don't normally like to hang around on rail so just shows you a walk over there you go swing bridge interestingly there's a lattice footbridge I'll go get up here so you might go and have a look at that afterwards very nearly at the end as I said before looking across to the Black Isle you can now from this side see the signal box back in the harry which obviously controls the swing bridge so I've really enjoyed today it's been a bit of an unusual miniature railway British video first miniature railway British video outside of England there are various other miniature railways in Scotland so at some point probably not on this trip but some point in the future we will we'll go and visit those miniature railways because as I said I just enjoy any miniature railway and this one was very interesting and we've been able to make quite a nice walk out of it along the Caledonian canal and the River Ness and as I said all the money does go to the Highland Hospice so you know if you do go on that miniature railway your money's going to a very good course even if you're not really that in if you don't like a miniature railway as much as I do just go for a ride anyway because you're doing your money go to a good course also Mars will say when I started the video where I pointed out the Highland Hospice which money goes to they've got a nice cafe and I have been in there for lunch in the past so I've been in Venice the railways are not running and Mars will go and have lunch in their cafe so I hope you've enjoyed this video thank you very much for watching and like I said if you're in in Vanessa do come and visit the railway and it is also a really nice city this is a really nice walk it's also worth getting the train up to Carloflokos and up to Dingwall and beyond up the far north line so from almost at the end of the Caledonian canal thank you very much for watching please do feel free to like, subscribe and comment goodbye