Loch Ness via the Dochgarroch Locks and Urquhart's Trebuchet

Dochgarroch

Here you see the final set of boat locks before Loch Ness, where the Caledonian Canal lets in. There is a good chance of feeding carrots to the friendly Highland cows in the field alongside.

The Loch Ness Experience

A five star visitor attraction with a retail complex attached. Loch Ness is already the best known lake in the world, and the aim here is to make it better understood, through a fully audio-visually guided tour of 35 minutes. The presentation is theatrical in style and uses the real tools and archive footage from four decades of research. The facts are explained objectively, with the mystery still centre stage, set against the unusual physical properties of the loch. Scottish Natural Heritage endorses it as "a portal to the unique natural phenomenon that is Loch Ness". There is a large shop on site, boat cruises on the loch in summer, and a café and restaurant.

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Urquhart Castle

A thousand years of history, a glimpse of medieval life, and views over Loch Ness from the ruins of the greatest castle in the Highlands. Climb the Grant Tower above the loch, look into the miserable prison cell said to have held the Gaelic bard Domhnall Donn, and picture the banquets held in the great hall. The café gives a more comfortable view of the ruins, with Loch Ness and the hills of the Great Glen behind them. Urquhart's story is also told through the artefacts its residents left, historic replicas including a full-sized working trebuchet siege engine, and a short film. The heritage here is distinctly Highland, and the site saw some of the most dramatic chapters in Scottish history: St Columba is said to have worked miracles here in the 6th century, acts of chivalry and defiance during the Wars of Independence took place here, and the MacDonald Lords of the Isles fought the Crown for control of it.

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