Visiting Nessie

Mom and Sara brave Loch Ness

What visit to the highlands would be complete without a visit to Loch Ness?  Visiting a lake from the shore is never quite satisfying, so we arranged for a cruise on the Loch.  It was a quite blustery morning and our outbound trip was straight into the wind.  We braved the open upper deck and were rewarded with great views of the loch and Great Glen, as well as a fair share of spray in our faces and knots in our hair.

Urquahart Castle

The first leg of the cruise ended at the ruins of Urquahart Castle.  The Castle was built in the 13th century, but this was reportedly preceded by a Pict settlement which was said to exist when St. Columba visited in the 6th century AD.  In 1692 the castle was destroyed by its inhabitants to keep the stronghold from falling into Jacobite hands.  Despite the hundreds of barrels of gunpowder they exploded and the centuries since, a fair amount of the structure is still standing and afforded great views of Loch Ness.

Notably this area of the Loch is also the location of most Nessie sightings.  We were lucky enough to catch her in and out of the water for a few moments.

Nessie sighting 1

Nessie sighting 2

Roadside cairn garden

Our return cruise was much calmer as we had the wind to our backs.  Upon our return to shore, we drove the remaining length of Loch Ness, and passed a few other lochs including Loch Lochy (yes that's Lake Lakey).  On a lesser used side road, we encountered a massive collection of rock cairns that have been erected by visitors on a ridge over looking a small loch.  We added our own stack to this collection and topped it with some of the sea glass we collected on the beach at the Firth of Forth.

As we approached the coast Sara spied Eilean Donan from a distance.  This castle has been the background on one of her monitors for months.  It is located on a bit of land that is separated from the shore at high tide.  We stopped and snapped a few [dozen] pictures and explored the grounds, before heading off for our destination.  A few minutes later the Isle of Skye bridge came in view and we crossed onto the largest of the Inner Hebrides.  We will now get to set down roots for four nights in our amazing rental house, Tigh Roisin, and make forays to explore Skye's beauty.  I'll leave that for future posts, but even from our rental we have amazing views of the water and the heather covered moors!

Eilean Donan Castle at low tide

~Shawn