The River Ness is a great Grade 1/2 river which runs all year round. It flows out of the world-famous Loch Ness, through Loch Dochfour and down into the City of Inverness.
It’s perfect for kayaking or open-boating and, while it’s especially good for novice or intermediate paddlers, it has something for everyone to enjoy.
As with many Scottish rivers, it’s best run of Sundays as that’s the day fishermen spend time at home and the salmon take a break. If you do decide to run the river mid-week, then please keep an eye open for our fishing friends; especially as you approach Inverness itself (Torvean Weir/Ness Islands)…
Get-in: by the Dochgaroch locks on the Caledonian Canal
Take-out: by the ‘Ness Wave’ opposite the UHI Offices at the Infirmary car park
Directions: click here for a map
Most people decide to get in at the pontoons by the lock gates. For those who are more adventurous, you may like to try seal launching off the wooden pier!
From the get-in, make your way up the canal towards Loch Dochfour (Loch Ness); this can be a bit of a slog if the wind is coming down the loch so you’re probably best keeping canal-right to make use of the road embankment’s shelter.
Once you’ve drawn level with the sluice gates on the far side of the canal (there’s a big white house behind them – you can’t miss it), stop paddling. Line yourself up with the two white fence posts on the far bank of the river and you’ve at a perfect angle to shoot Dochgarroch Weir down the main chute.
The main chute is almost always runable and rarely do you need to get out to inspect. In the past, the best route has been dead centre, however recent shifting in the face of the weir (summer 2008) has left a rock just below the surface which likes to capsize anybody running a straight centre line (myself included!).
So, best now to run slight left or right of centre (left for beginners, right for those who like more of a challenge). At the bottom of the weir is a big wave which is pretty easy to punch right though so long at you keep paddling.
It’s pretty shallow here, so if you do want to stop and play, it’s probably best to practice your support strokes in advance; a capsize will be hard to roll up from given the shallow water! But don’t worry if you do flip, there’s a big eddy on river-right just passed the chute in which to net any swimmers…
From here, head on down the river…it’s mainly a pleasant paddle for the next mile, with a few small wave trains to keep things moving and eddy lines for practicing break-ins/outs (in high water it’ll be mostly washed-out). After you pass a fishing hut on river-right, the river bends to the left and you’re confronted with a tumble-down weir cutting diagonally left/right across the river. This is ‘Fast Eddie’…
If you’re not happy doing the rapid, you can normally take the chicken chute hard river-left; but Fast Eddie’s not that tricky really, so in my opinion it’s best to give it a go!
As you approach the Fast Eddie, you’ll notice two eddies – one river-left and one river-right – with the main wave train heading through the middle. The river-left eddy is a good place to position a chase boat if required, whereas the river-right eddy re-circulates quickly under an overhanging tree and back into the top of the wave train…best avoid this one if you’re a novice…
If you shoot the rapid, make sure to bear left so you’re not pushed into the old mill laid. If you want to stay and play, Fast Eddie is a great spot for practicing high-crosses and also the odd tailie (intentional or not!)…
As you leave Eddie behind, it’s not long until you’ll see another diagonal weir. This time running river-right to left. This is called Dragon’s Tail…
For the less confident in the group, Dragon’s Tail can easily be avoided by paddling slightly right of the main current; but for those who like to mess about, it provides a great opportunity to practice tailies! Try breaking-out in the small eddy immediately river-left as you run the rapid; but watch out for the strong current and whirlpools which form at all levels…they’re not really dangerous, but can flip you!
After Dragon’s Tail the river opens up into a lovely flat, deep section; perfect for practicing rolling, support stroke or rafting games. As you approach a green fishing hut on river-right (and two massive white houses a little further on), you’ll probably begin to hear the sound of rushing water once again…roll on Surf’s Up!
In reality, I probably don’t need to explain what this feature is, as it probably enjoys one of the most accurate rapid names I’ve come across! It’s just a lovely big wave with good surfing potential…
There’s an eddy river-right just above the wave and another just below where a wee burn enters the Ness, again from river-right. These provide good ‘holding pens’ for groups while people play on the wave…or if you want to run the rapid one at a time…
The wave itself runs right across the chute and is active in most levels. Normally, it’s not possible to paddle in from the side of the wave, so you’ll have to float down backwards and paddle hard. It’s pretty deep here, so any flips (intended or otherwise) should be easy to recover from.
In very high water, you may just about be able to paddle into the side of the Surf’s Up from just below the weir, river-left…but I recon you’d need to be the duracell bunny to have any real chance of catching it!
From Surf’s Up, continue down the river for about 1/4 of a mile…you’ll see the Caledonian Canal appearing again on river-left and glimpses of Inverness will start to poke through the trees. Before long, you’ll see a series of sluice gates on river-right and another weir cutting diagonally across the river. This is Torvean Weir…
This is probably the most technical rapid on the Ness (grade 2+) and many beginners won’t want to run it. That being the case, in medium to high levels, there is a chicken chute just to the left of the sluice gates.
For those wanting to run the rapid itself, carry on about two-thirds of the way along the weir and you’ll come to a chute which breaks through its wall. This is the only channel that you can run (correct at March 2009); although this weir is shifting all the time so other options may open-up over time (or indeed this chute may itself close/become un-runable).
If you simply want to run the chute, there’s a wee wave on river-left which folds-back on itself and will capsize the unwary; so the line is normally very slightly right of centre. Hold this line all the way down so as to avoid two large rocks either side of the out-flow of the chute.
For those wanting to play about, there are options to break out at various points on the chute and often a small wave forms in the centre at the medium flows. Be careful, though, as the weir does contain a lot of debris and there are a fair few shallow rocks about…still, it’s all part of the fun!
After Torvean, come the Ness Islands. The normal route is to take the river-left channel (under the suspension bridge), then bare-right down a wee tongue of white water and onwards from there. In higher water, however, you can go river-right as you approach the islands and boof off one of the small weirs between the various islands. This is by far my preferred option, but from experience, the ‘small’ stoppers below these weirs are much sticker than they first appear!!
After the islands, you can opt to take-out at the pebble bank by the Fishermen’s’ Car Park on river-left, or if you still have some energy, head down to the ‘Ness Wave’ on river-left just before the next suspension bridge.
This is a cracking wave with a lot of potential for fun…if you can catch it that is! If you don’t manage to catch the wave by floating backwards on to it, you can often come in again from the side; however if you’re washed-off, make sure to paddle back to the bank before the overhanging bush otherwise you’ll have to get out, walk back up the bank and put in again as the current is too strong to paddle round the bush…
Oh, another wee thought…the Ness Wave is also a good park&play feature too for those long summer evenings…
So there you have it, the River Ness…
