United Kingdom June 4, 2016

Again, up early and on the road by 8 a.m.  Left Glasgow and was headed for Loch Ness as our final destination.  Today would be a precursor for the days to follow.  We got lost early and often.  The Tom Tom we were given by the rental company did not get a signal very often and Dave's phone only got us close.  Close was not very good because the streets were so confusing and we really didn't know exactly where to go.

Our first stop was to be Loch Lomond which is only 15 minutes from Glasgow.  Two hours after leaving we still had not spotted the lake.  We literally went in circles and enjoyed the Scottish countryside.  We went through several small towns twice.  We once even turned down a street and Dick exclaimed "this is the street where I pulled over 30 minutes ago".  We finally stopped at a small town gas station/convenient store and bought a nice UK Atlas.  When we calibrated were we needed to go we headed out and shortly thereafter saw a sign that said Glasgow 15 miles.  Finally we started making decent time.  We found Loch Lomond and continued north towards Loch Ness.


 On our drive through very narrow, scary, two way roads we stopped at Falloch Falls which is at the north end of Loch Lomond.  The parking lot was a narrow and crazy as the streets.  It took all five of us to navigate the car in and out without any dings or scratches.  The hike to the falls was short and pleasant.  The stream ran down the valley right past the car park.  The falls fall off the rocks into a nice swimming area and some brave(?) souls decided to try their luck and jump.  They survived.  As we walked back to the car, another group of hearty souls, was headed up with a cooler of spirits.  We hoped they survived. 

The Falls of Falloch

 The next stop was Glencoe.  It is an area known for its wild, powerful, and stark beauty of the highlands.  Hikers, bikers, and movie directors enjoy this valley.  Several of the Harry Potter movies were filmed here as well as Monty Python and James Bond Skyfall.  At the Glencoe Visitor Centre we briefly stopped for snacks and drinks and opted this to be our lunch as we were way behind schedule (see above).

 Glencoe

 

We finally passed Urquhart Castle located right on Loch Ness about 4:00 p.m.  We thought our hotel did not have a front desk and we had been unable to contact them so we hurried past the castle in order to get to the hotel as soon as possible.  We seemed to get to, what we thought, was the main road that the hotel was on.  Dave was confident that it was just off this main road but not sure which direction.  We drove back and forth on this road at least three times.  Each time Wade would say "let's stop at the gas station and ask".  Oh no, the brothers don't do that.  Dick said he would rather drive lost all day than ask for directions.  Shelly was sure that this hotel did not exist and that we had been duped and defrauded on the internet.  The more we drove the more nervous she got.  When we FINALLY stopped to ask at the gas station we were told that we were on the right road we had just not gone far enough.  The hotel was less than 3 miles from the gas station.  After arriving and checking in we rushed back to Urquhart Castle with only an hour to spend.  It was worth every minute.  If someone had stopped at a gas station sooner we would have had almost 2 hours to spend at the castle.

Janet Urquhart, Wade's ancestor, was born in Inverness, Scotland in 1804.  Inverness is only 15 minutes from the Urquhart Castle.   The castle is right on Loch Ness in a beautiful setting.  The castle has a 1000 year tumultuous history.  It's final destruction happened in 1692.  It's owners (who supported England) blew it up to keep the Jacobites from possessing it.  It was the largest medieval castle in Scotland and the most important in the highlands.  It wasn't considered worth rebuilding or defending and that is why it was abandoned.  Today it is mostly ruins, but enough remains to get an idea of what it looked like.

The castle itself wasn't as impressive as the Stirling and others we saw later but it's setting on Loch Ness made it the most appealing to the eye.  Urquhart is the family clan so it has more meaning than any of the other castles that we saw. 

 The trebuchet (catapult)

 The Gatehouse

 The Tower

 View from the top of the tower

 Private living chambers

 Kitchen

 Great Hall

 Water Gate

 Steps from water gate to the beach

 Doocot (Pigeon house)

 Great Kitchen

 Prison Cell (you can't see the spooky guy sitting in there)

By now we were all starving and we had made reservations at the hotel restaurant.  Off to dinner we went and then to bed.  This hotel was not a 4 star hotel.  The walls were paper thin and you could hear every little sound from the other rooms and the hall. We could hear snoring from the room next to us.   The mattress was lumpy and awful but the hotel did have character.

View from hotel

We saw Nessie.