Loch Ness: the how-to
I have had a lot of people contact me to ask about organising their own Loch Ness solo swims. I organised my boat myself, and here is the step by step and some FAQ if you are interested in giving your own swim a go!
A full swim report and Loch Ness solo debrief is [here], this is a more logistics focused blog.
Preface: if you have stumbled across this blog from somewhere and you are not already an experienced long distance swimmer, with significant cold expertise, who can already comfortably swim for 6+ hours in <13º, this blog is NOT for you.
This is not an article about swimming off a boat in the Caledonian canal with the kiddly-winks and a unicorn-shaped inflatable. The waters of the Caledonian Canal are cold, and cold water shock can kill in minutes. Anyone reading further should;
Either just be reading for fun, for some light bedtime reading, or because you’re my family and friends and interested (hi!!). Or;
Already have completed an ultramarathon (10km+) swim under whatever rules you intend to swim Loch Ness (skins or assisted)
And already have completed, or are intending to complete as part of your training, a 6+hr swim in sub-13ºC.
And have experience of cold water swimming (<10º)
And understand the risk, causes, signs and symptoms of Cold Water Shock
And understand the signs and symptoms of Hypothermia, the ‘Umbles’, and appropriate and safe treatments for someone with pre- or actual hypothermia.
With that out of the way, onto the fun bits!
First off, here’s what I did.
Will is VERY excited to be on the boat
I hired a boat for a week from Le Boat on Laggan docks. You can hire cruisers for 4-14+ days, and from 2-8 people, so there are plenty to choose from. You arrive to ‘check in’ to your boat, you’re given a full driving lesson and navigation lesson on board, and then the boat is yours to take wherever you like for the week! For me and my crew, that meant that we could use the boat as both my swim support, AND an AirBNB/Hotel replacement while we were waiting during the window. Although I didn’t look into land-hotel bookings in detail, the boat ended up being pretty similar in terms of cost for me and my crew of 4+dog.
The other huge benefit of hiring a boat was that I could have hot feeds for the entire way down the Loch. The boats all have galleys/kitchens, so my crew could whip up their own meals and cups of tea, and keep me well fed and hydrated with whatever I asked for.
FAQ 1: Do you need boat-handling experience to hire a boat?
No! Although we did have experienced sailors on board, the entire end-to-end hire process of the Le Boat rentals is specifically designed for beginners and novices in mind. The boats are exceptionally easy to drive, and there are experienced Lockkeepers at each lock along the canal to help you navigate them.
FAQ 2: Can I hire a boat just for the day I want to swim?
If you only want to swim Loch Lochy, then yes. If you want to make your way all the way over to Loch Ness, then no. The boats do not go quickly at top speed, so you need to allow a minimum of ~3hrs to get to the top of the Fort Augustus Locks, an hour and a half to traverse the locks (during their opening hours) and then 4 hours to drive the boat along Loch Ness (unless you’re gunning for a 2-way of course!). See more info down below: “Travel times up and down the canal”.
Hiring a Le Boat ticks off the need to have a boat alongside you during your swim. Boat? Check. The next things we need for a successful solo swim (if you’re looking to ratify with WOWSA/BLDSA/MSF/etc) is a pilot and an independent observer.
Even Benji had a go steering, but she was far more interested in steering towards shore than she was following a swimmer!
For my swim, as I was lucky enough to have 4 crew along with me, who all took turns in piloting the boat. There are minor currents that you need to be aware of on Loch Ness, but they are more predominantly driven by the wind direction; so you and your crew can make an informed choice on which direction to swim based on weather forecast data. The only other main current is from the meeting of the River Oich with Loch Ness at the Fort Augustus end- but that current will either be with you, or you’ll just have to punch through it with all of your finish-in-sight energy if you’re going N-S! You could of course hire a pilot from the local area, but you would have to check that they were happy to come on board your boat and pilot it rather than driving their own. Personally, I found absolutely no issues in just using a family member.
FAQ 3: Do you have to be a qualified pilot to pilot a swim?
No, you do not need to be a qualified pilot to either hire a boat, or to drive the boat alongside a swimmer. You just need to be sensible, safe, and aware of the dangers of having a propellor going with a swimmer in the water. This is a HIGH RISK activity, and should be treated as such. Propellor injuries in Channel/long distance swimming are incredibly rare, but propellor injuries in general are not rare. Be aware of where your swimmer is at all times, and know how to immediately cut-out the engine in an emergency.
FAQ 4: Does the boat go slow enough?!
I cannot say for certain whether the boat will go slow enough for everyone. Personally, I swam at 1:51 per 100m, and the boat had no issues going slow enough for me. At times that was as slow as 2:15-2:20 per 100m, and the boat was able to keep with me. The boats do also have a reverse gear, so it’s relatively easy for them to stop when you need a feed!
Right then. Boat? Check. Pilot? Check. Observer?
The independent observer is the key person who assures and signs on the dotted line to say that you have swum the whole distance, and you’ve followed the rules that you said you would follow. It is key that the observer is appropriately independent from your swim- meaning that (aside from wanting you to succeed of course) they don’t have any vested interest in the success of your swim. This normally excludes spouses, family members, dependents and swim coaches; but doesn’t exclude people from a local swim club, other long-distance swimmers, swim coaches in general, or people doing you a favour. If I was to try and organise a swim like Loch Ness again, I would look to reach out to the BLDSA to see if anyone in their membership list is local and would observe a swim, or reach out to local swimming or dipping groups. You should expect to pay an observer’s expenses at an absolute minimum (for a stranger), and potentially pay for their time. Make sure to plan how the observer is going to get back to whichever end you picked them up from- will you put them in a taxi? Drive the boat back to the other end of the Loch and drop them off? Pop them on a bus? Have it planned out.
Boat, check. Pilot, check. Observer, check.
We’re just about ready to swim! So now, let’s go through all the little odds-and-ends logistics.
Food
There are not many places to get food up and down the Caley Canal, especially if you don’t have a car alongside your boat (which you very easily can do!). I would recommend that you;
Do a big online shop and get it delivered to the marina when you pick up your boat. You’re going to be there for an ~hour getting all of your stuff onto the boat, and then having your handover and driving lesson, and THEN spend ~30 mins traversing the first lock, and then if your online shop still hasn’t turned up, you can moor up above the lock.
Do top-up shops in Fort Augustus, there is a good little mini supermarket there within close walking distance of the good mooring points.
Travel time up and down the canal
Taking my turn on the 4hr drive to the start line
The boats travel slower than you expect. They are not motor boats, they are cruisers. Le Boat provides you with navigation maps that helpfully have the cruise time between landmarks in hours for their boats; this speed is about 5.5mph, or 9kph. This means that it will take you 4 hours to get from one end of Loch Ness to the other, at top speed.
Bear this in mind before and after your swim!
Amy and Will navigating the Fort Augustus lock flight.
Traversing the locks takes an unpredictable amount of time, and only occurs during opening hours- roughly 8-8:30am and 5-5:30pm with a lunch break.
If you are the only boat travelling up or down the canal, and/or there is a boat waiting above/below you, and/or you are the last boat into a full lock; the traverse time for one lock is about 20 mins.
Lockkeepers do radio and communicate up and down the canal, so a lockkeeper will be aware from a previous lock if there is a group of multiple boats heading towards them. So you may be the first to arrive at a lock, and be asked to wait for boats traveling along the canal before you. Between this and lunch breaks, sometimes we have waited at single locks for ~30-40mins.
The staircase of locks at Fort Augustus is a different beast again entirely. A flight of 5 interconnected locks, they take 1hr 30 to traverse in one direction. There is no set rule on whether the first flight of the day goes “up” or “down”; and there is absolutely no way to hurry the process. We avoided this by making sure that we did any lock traversing the day before we needed to be either up or down the flight. So the day before we wanted to be on Loch Ness, we made sure we were at the top of the flight of locks at 8:15am, showing to the lock-keeper that we were awake, raring to go, and wanting to lock down. The day after Loch Ness when we knew we wanted to travel back along the canal towards Laggan, we made sure we were up again at 8:15, letting the lock-keeper know that we wanted to lock up.
Becky at the bottom of the Fort Augustus locks
FAQ 4: “Not a question, I don’t know how to traverse a lock!”
That’s ok! You get walked through it during your driving lesson, and the lock-keepers are all very used to tourists on the canal. They are always around to help out and to show you the ropes, and I think you’ll find it easier than you think!
Places to stay
Above Laggan lock
Peaceful above Fort Augustus
The pontoons above Laggan locks are lovely, quiet, have electricity, and the Eagle Barge is absolutely delightful for dinner.
Loch Oich- we loved the little pontoon just off the Well of Seven Heads. Breakfast from the café was a treat too!
Fort Augustus; for peace and quiet, and for electricity, we preferred the moorings at the top of the flight of locks. The moorings at the bottom of the locks are absolutely fine: they are close to the beach, easy to access, there are hot showers. But they are a little bit more exposed to wind off the Loch, and there was no electricity (when we stayed in July 2025). But you will definitely be staying at the bottom of the flight either the night before your swim, or the night after, or both!
As I swam N-S (Lochend Beach to Fort Augustus, the opposite way around to ‘normal’); we stayed at the moorings at Dochgarroch the night before. There aren’t any restaurants or eateries up that end, so make sure you have everything you want to eat post-swim if you’re swimming S-N!
In summary, I cannot give this approach any higher recommendation other than this:
If I was to swim Loch Ness again, I would do everything exactly the same as I did before. I would hire a boat, stay in the same places, have control over my swim, and have the floating base for me and my crew.
If you would like to look into a Le Boat for your Loch Ness swim, you can use this link [here] and code AMY25 for 50EURO off any 2026 booking!
