It has been announced that the Loch Ness lifeboat crew at Drumnadrochit are to get new headquarters after the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) ring-fenced funding for the project.

Plans are for the new building, housing a boathouse and crew quarters, to be built close to the existing base at Temple Pier.

The Loch Ness crew took over lifeboat duties on the water in April last year and have so far have launched 14 times.

Crew member Martin Douglas said the RNLI had guaranteed the money for the construction work.

He told the Press and Journal: "We have been assured that the money is there for our new building, which will very much improve our ability to train more efficiently and operate more effectively.

"It might be two years before it's open, but it's full steam ahead."

The RNLI is in talks with architects to design a facility that would best service the unique conditions required by the loch.

Mr Douglas said: "Because Loch Ness is an inshore loch, people assume the conditions here are benign.

"The loch is on a south-west fault line, which means there is a 50-mile funnel of unbroken wind, making conditions unpredictable."

Loch Ness is the second largest Scottish loch by surface area but due to its great depth is the largest by volume.

Plans for the new building are to include a hoist to lower the Atlantic 75 lifeboat into the water.

Loch Ness RNLI is the only inshore crew in Scotland and one of only three in the UK.