Royal Marines In Loch Ness Assault Exercise
96The Scottish lochs and canals have been the location for a two week exercise for 539 Assault Squadron Royal Marines.
With temperatures plummeting below zero and the first snows of winter falling, the men of the Plymouth-based squadron have been operating on the waterways that snake through the Great Glen.
With the tourist season over the monster-hunting hoardes on Loch Ness have been replaced by the roar of hovercrafts and ORCs (Offshore Raiding Craft).
It's the first time in around a decade 539 ASRM has exercised on this scale in the Scottish lochs and waterways.
Built by Thomas Telford and completed in 1822 the waterway allows vessels to cut across Scotland, avoiding the rough seas at the very top of the UK.
With the defeat of Napolean the need for the Royal Navy to regularly use it never materialised, although during the First World War it became a vital route for the UK's fishing fleet and the movement of resources, safe from the German Navy.
Patrol boats such as the P2000 HMS Exploit can still happily squeeze through along with Royal Marines' LCU landing craft. One of the most dramatic features they have to negotiate is Neptune's Staircase, a flight of eight locks at Fort Augustus which lifts, or drops, boats 20 metres over 90 minutes.