A boat working its way up Neptune's Staircase takes about ninety minutes to climb the eight locks, which gives you time to watch the whole thing from the towpath. The staircase sits at the heart of Banavie: eight locks and nine gates lifting the Caledonian Canal nineteen metres through a quarter-mile of masonry, with Ben Nevis filling the sky behind and the West Highland railway crossing the water at the foot of the flight. Boats, swing bridges, trains and the mountain all share the same compact view. It is free to walk, open at all hours, and the Scottish Canals people are happy for dogs to come along.
The Moorings Hotel sits right beside the locks, and its restaurant is the clearest place in Banavie to eat and drink with the water in front of you. The kitchen's menu has included haggis bon bons, chicken-liver parfait, steak pie, a baked beef-and-tomato lasagne, arrabbiata pasta, fish and chips, and sticky toffee pudding, alongside a selection of local beer. One recent visitor came away recommending the haggis bon bons; another simply noted the "great location ... with views over the locks."
For something lighter there is Candz Boutique, a small canalside stop at the staircase that has served gelato, hot drinks, toasties and waffles.
And there is a lot of walking. The Great Glen Way runs straight through the village, seventy-five miles of mostly low, waymarked path between Fort William and Inverness following Telford's canal. From Banavie a useful short option heads north beside the upper canal towards Gairlochy and back, an out-and-back with lock activity, open water and the mountain in view; osprey, golden eagle, red kite, pine marten and deer are all on the list of things you might see. Children have a play area beside the car park, and when the fixtures fall right you can watch Kilmallie Shinty Club at Canal Park, a few minutes over in Caol.
Thomas Telford was principal engineer on the canal, with William Jessop consulting. Work began in 1804 and the first full journey came on 23-24 October 1822. The original locks were turned by hand — thirty-six capstans, twenty rotations apiece, in strict sequence — and a passage that now takes ninety minutes once took half a day. Telford House, the bow-fronted building above the top lock, was put up around 1808 for the lock keeper and some thirty lock builders, who had first been living in turf huts. Passenger steamers grew popular after Queen Victoria came through in 1873, and a pier and railway branch let travellers skip the slow climb. The first Ben Nevis race started from the Banavie Hotel in 1899; a man from Torcastle won it in two hours, forty-one minutes and twelve seconds.
Banavie has its own small station, unstaffed, with a help point and five free parking spaces, four miles up the A830 from Fort William. The Shiel Buses 500 between Fort William and Mallaig stops here too. Boats still climb the staircase throughout the day, and people still gather on the towpath to watch one go up.