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Fort William was built instead of the old inverlochy castle and on purpose to control the western way from and into the highlands.
I have been to Scotland for the 9th time in 2008 and it still proves to be impossible to avoid Fort William if going to the west highlands as Fort William lies at the western end of Gleann Mhor (the great glen). There is a lot of water in the great glenn, loch Lochy, loch Oich, loch Ness, the Moray firth and thus there are not many spots to cross the great glen on dry land. Fort William is one of them. The original fort had to be knocked down when the railway reached Fort William to make room for the station.
The caledonian canal which links the lochs from the west coast to the east coast meets Loch Linnhe at Fort William and boats have to be lowered from the higher level of Loch Lochy to the lower level of Loch Linnhe via Neptune's staircase, that is sevenfold locks, even two more than the locks at Fort Augustus.
At Fort William however there is the little West Highland Museum which I visited on several occasions and which is traditional (not modern) but very informative not only on the '45 but also on the region. As Fort William lies beside Ben Nevis there are e.g. photographs showing how a car has been driven up to Britain's highest war monument. Ben Nevis can easily be reached and climbed from here and there are roads to Glen Coe in the south, to Mallaig (via Glenfinnan) in the north and to Fort Augustus and Inverness in the east.
