Rick Steves'
Best of Scotland
Tour Day 7: Loch Ness and Glencoe
Urquhart Castle
This was the day we were looking forward to the most, and it did not disappoint! We left Inverness in the morning to head for Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle. Urquhart Castle is in ruins, but it was the oldest castle we visited, occupied from the 6th through 16th centuries. The setting along Loch Ness was beautiful. We even got a monster sighting!
Photo stop opportunity on our way to the castle. Our guide was great about finding opportunities like these for us to see things from a different perspective.
David with a tiny Urquhart in the background.
Sadly, this was our only Nessie sighting. Anne made sure we took a quick photo stop at the cheesy but obligatory Loch Ness visitor center.
Photo stop opportunity on our way to the castle. Our guide was great about finding opportunities like these for us to see things from a different perspective.
Back door experience
We got a lot of opportunities to make quick stops at beautiful viewpoints we never would have found on our own. This one was in Invermoriston on our way to Fort Augustus for our lunch break. We took a quick walk to stretch our legs to find this stunning bridge. And we got a few more bonus coo sightings! These guys just crack us up!
The lock system on the Caledonian Canal at Fort Augustus.
Fort Augustus
Our lunch stop was in the quaint little lakeside village of Fort Augustus on the banks of Loch Ness. This village has a series of locks on the Caledonian Canal that connects Fort William with Inverness. We ate a quick lunch at a local cafe so that we would have time to wander the village, watch the locks in operation, and walk down to the banks of Loch Ness.
Glencoe
After lunch, we visited the historic valley of Glencoe. This was one of the stops we were most looking forward to, and it did not disappoint! There were majestic mountains running alongside the valley with waterfalls pouring off and speckled with grazing sheep. We listened to local music played by our guide and learned about the horrific massacre of the MacDonald clan that occurred in the valley. The MacDonalds were late to sign the peace treaty required by their new king, King William, after the Jacobite uprising, so the king sent the Campbells to kill the MacDonalds. Before the MacDonalds were killed, however, they played host to the Campbells for 2 weeks, unaware of the plot. They were then slaughtered in their sleep, and many more were killed by the elements as they were fleeing. It is such a haunting but beautiful historic site.
Its difficult to get a scale of just how big the mountains were, but those little white specks in the lower left corner are grazing sheep.
Its difficult to get a scale of just how big the mountains were, but those little white specks in the lower left corner are grazing sheep.
We got a peak at a bonus castle on our way to our hotel in Oban after leaving Glencoe. There are castles literally everywhere here! It's a romantic's dream. This particular castle, we were told, is available for rental for large gatherings. The weather was quite dreary when we arrived in Oban, so we had a quick dinner and then settled in to watch the rain from the windows in our room and catch up on some much needed relaxation. It was nice to be forced to rest before our busy day as we journeyed to Iona!