General Wade's Military Road circled around the forest before turning north along the B862 that led to Foyers. Not wishing to take a long detour, hoping to stay as close to the Loch as possible, I paused to put on True's socks and my damp hiking shoes, then abandoned the single lane tarmac and cut through the forest, remaining parallel to the waterway.

After twenty minutes, I came to a newly paved winding access road that cut through the dense foliage, the sounds of Nature interrupted by the noise of heavy machinery. Following these sounds led me a quarter mile up the road to a massive construction site. A posted sign read:

GLEN DOE HYDROELECTRIC DAM
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

I remembered having read about the new power station, most of which was supposedly being built underground. It was going to be a large plant, its capacity between fifty and one hundred megawatts, with water, collected from seventeen kilometers of underground aqueducts, relocated in a new reservoir located more than six hundred meters above Loch Ness. The reservoir would be situated at the head of Glen Tarff, impounded by a massive dam, thirty-five meters high and one thousand meters long.

Whether Alban MacDonald liked it or not, technology was invading Loch Ness.

Milling about the outside of an imposing chain-link construction fence were more than a dozen protesters, their banners identifying them as the Scottish Wild Land Group.

An auburn-haired woman in her early forties introduced herself by thrusting a picket sign in my hand. "Glad ye could join us, brother, the TV reporters should be arrivin' anytime. I'm Gloria Snodgrass, assistant director o' the SWLG Steering Group, an' you are?"

"Confused. What's all this about?"

"It's aboot savin' oor Glen. The government ministers' decision tae go through wi' this hydroelectric plant will cause irreversible damage tae oor peat bogs and rivers, an' dae ye ken how much forest we're already losin'? The dam alone requires three new access roads, an' ye can add another twenty-two kilometers o' pipeline tae that order. An' that's no' countin' the seventy-five kilometers needed jist tae build the reservoir."

"I understand, but—"

"But nothin'. Grab yer sign an' come join us before the cameras get here."

"I can't. Sorry."

"Sorry? You'll be the one that's sorry when we lose oor upland areas. Hey—"

Waving her off, I circled the construction fence, hoping to get a glimpse inside. Building a large-scale hydroelectric scheme so close to Loch Ness must have required a detailed environmental assessment, but then how does one properly access the ecological impact on an undiscovered water creature?

With no foreman visible and no way in, I headed back down the road toward Loch Ness, not sure what to do with this potentially new piece of the puzzle.

Foyers, Loch Ness