Photo: BIG ALBERT (CC0)
Nature · Scotland
A Loch Ness cruise and Urquhart Castle
A boat on Scotland's most famous loch to the ruins of Urquhart Castle on its shore. Half a day of history and legend.
Loch Ness and the Highlands · Scotland
The experience
Loch Ness is a long, deep freshwater loch in the heart of the Great Glen, about 37 km long and nearly 230 metres deep. Its peat-dark water has for centuries hidden the legend of Nessie, which still fires visitors' imaginations.
Cruises leave from Drumnadrochit, Inverness and Fort Augustus, and the best stop at Urquhart Castle so you can go ashore. The castle is the ruin of a fortress with more than 1,000 years of history, fought over in the Wars of Scottish Independence and partly blown up in 1692 so the Jacobites could not use it.
The visitor centre has a short film on its history and a display of finds, and Grant Tower looks over the whole loch. At Fort Augustus, to the south, a flight of locks on the Caledonian Canal raises and lowers boats.
We fit the cruise into a transfer day between Fort William and Skye or Inverness, so it needs no separate day.
Scotland
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