Loch Ness, mysterious, dark waters, hiding a monster or an overhyped lake in the Scottish Highlands? Perhaps a bit of both.
Loch Ness is a huge loch {Side note: Don’t call it a lake, you will offend the locals!} just outside of Inverness. The loch is full of cold, dark water. The water is dark because of the peat in the soil and the water temperature never rises above 7 degrees C. While the loch varies in depth, at it’s deepest, 66 double-decker busses could be stacked, nose to nose and only then would one reach from the bottom to the top of the loch. It’s deep. Legend has it that Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster lives in the lake.
Frances and I headed out to see if we could catch a glimpse of Nessie, or just see the loch in all it’s beauty. We certainly succeeded at the latter. To get to Loch Ness we took the Jacobite Temptation tour. Our tour began with a bus ride to the ferry. During the 35 minute ride, our tour guide, Sue, told us history of the town, river and loch. Then we had a 30 minute ferry ride across the loch. Earlier in the day it had been rainy, but during the ferry ride the rain mostly held off, although it did spit on us some. Clouds hung low in the sky, the water looked dark and foreboding; it was eerily beautiful.
Our ferry docked at Urquhart Castle and we got off to explore. The current ruins of the castle date back to the 1500’s, but history shows that there has been some sort of a fortress at this site since the 300’s. We had nearly an hour to explore the ruins and appreciate the beauty of the stones against the water.
After an hour, we boarded our bus back to town. On the way back, we were able to spot the shaggy highland cows that the locals call Heighlen Kuhe.
In the end we didn’t see Nessie, of course that means I’ll need to return and try again!
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