Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle

Loch Ness and the legend of the monster does a bonny job of keeping the world of tacky souvenir manufacture ticking over. We stayed in the town of Drumnadrochit on the western shore of the Loch. Drumnadrochit is a small town but it had several large souvenir shops and not one but two paid Nessie exhibits which we refused to visit on principle and stinginess.

The one really interesting tourist attraction to be found around Drumnadrochit (in addition to the Loch itself) is the famous Urquhart Castle. The castle was built in the 13th Century on the site of previous fortifications. Like most medieval ruins in Scotland it comes with a romantic and bloody history thanks to it's various historic custodians.

Arriving just as the castle opened, not only did we avoid the crowds but we had our own personal short lecture on said romantic and bloody history given by one of the National Trust of Scotland Guides.

After our lecture we wandered around the old grounds looking at the various kitchens, offices, bedrooms and the obligatory dungeon before leaving via the small museum and bigger souvenir shop (nothing's perfect).

Someone carelessly left their trebuchet just lying around. Lucky we got to Sam before he could cause any damage.

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