Google Maps slip-up transfers luxury Loch Ness B&B location to former mining town in Wales
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Tourists looking for a place to stay around the former mining town of Bridgend in Wales are puzzled when they use Google Maps and suddenly find a luxury five-star hotel called Loch Ness Lodge.
For Bridgend and part of the north side of Loch Ness share an unusual place name – Brackla. The anomaly was reported by Wales Online.
In Bridgend, Brackla is the name of a small housing estate, while on Loch Ness it is the name of the area once known as Brackla Croft where Loch Ness Lodge, a five star boutique B&B is situated.
In Scotland the name Brackla is derived from the Gaelic for "badgers sett" or perhaps "sunny hillside" – and there are badgers around Brackla, Loch Ness.
In the Welsh language Brackla is spelled Bracla, but there is no Welsh language derivation that we could find.
If people using Google Maps are searching around Brackla, Bridgend, they might notice the name Loch Ness Lodge, positioned just under Tremains Woods in Bridgend.
Anyone visiting the online site will quickly realise that Google has mapped wrongly the location of the nine bedroom, B&B overlooking Loch Ness.
The images on the site show the Scottish Highlands in all their glory, and as you click through them, there are shots of iconic Loch Ness itself with Loch Ness Lodge in the background.
Google Maps shows there is plenty of green space in Bridgend's Brackla, but no mountains or fresh water lakes are in the immediate vicinity.
Luckily, the error doesn't seem to have affected the business.
Loch Ness Lodge is one of four in the Loch Ness Hotels group run by local company Cobbs Hotels.
One of the directors is Willie Cameron, known as "Mr Loch Ness" for his knowledgeable promotion of the area worldwide.
He said: "I wasn't even aware there was a Brackla in Wales, but we will have a welcome in our hillsides for any visitors diverted north."
He said Loch Ness Lodge does B&B only, but only 200 yards away is another Cobbs Hotel, the Loch Ness Clansman, where lodge guests can have lunch or dinner.
And just to muddy the waters, there is another Brackla in the Highlands near the village of Cawdor between Inverness and Nairn. It is the home of Brackla Distillery where Royal Brackla single malt is made.
