Abriachan, Inverness-shire, Scotland
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Abriachan is a very small almost village between Inverness and Drumnadrochit, situated in a hanging valley high in the hills above Loch Ness. There is not very much for Hitch hikers here. The name, Abriachan, is gaelic and means either the place where the deer comes to drink or the brown hills where the burns meet depending on who you ask. The hillsides are covered with old ruins, now abandoned. More families from Abriachan lost people in The Great War than there are people there now.The greatest tourist attracion was a complex of caves with incredible stalagmites and stalagtites, however they blew them away to make way for the road up from Loch Ness-side. However, if you go in winter, and there is snow on the ground, and you manage to make it up The Hill, there is a small road off to the right just after the main road goes down for the first time, just across a small bridge. Follow the wee road, across a second precarious bridge. There is a track to the right, head down it, past the house with the conservitory, through the gate, past the long house on its own, and there you will find GREAT sledging (especially plastic bag sledging-fertiliser bags if you can get them). Other good places to visit in Abriachan include Red Rock (old still workings and rare raptors live here), Loch Laide (pronounced latch - meant to be a kelpie pool), Loch na Cullin (good trout fishing) and the old cart route over to Inverness
