The Adventures of Doug and Bec: Scotland - Inverness and the Loch Ness

After an excellent time in Ireland we headed off to Inverness in the northern highlands of Scotland... the home of the Loch Ness Monster! The flight was so shorts that before we were even up to full altitude we could see Scotland.

We arrived in Inverness at about 2pm and caught a taxi into the city centre in the cold cloudy weather and checked into our hostel the Highlander which was conveniently located right in the centre of the city and had a nice big common room with pool tables and a well equipped kitchen. During the afternoon we had a bit of a look around town and walked up town beside the river before hiking up to the to of the hill to have a look at the Inverness Castle which was closed being a Sunday afternoon.

Or first full day in Inverness we headed to the tourist information centre at the base of the castle hill, and found the staff to be extremely helpful! We booked an afternoon boat ride up the canals from Inverness up to the Loch Ness and also a visit to Urquhart Castle which is perhaps one of the better known Castles in Scotland. Luckily we had a relatively nice day to do this trip and it was warm enough to spend some of the trip our on the top and decks of the boat taking photos of the amazing countryside.

The first part of the afternoon trip was a hour cruise up the Caledonia Canal which includes 32 miles of man made canals connecting the East and West coasts of Scotland together. During our trip we had to go through one of the 64 "Locks" which is an area the ship goes into and is blocked off by gates and the water level is raised by pumps and then you continue on at the higher water level... its a way for them to be able to cross the high land levels of Scoland.... the canals are basically made as a series of steps and the locks raise the boat at each step. Quite impressive really.

Once we made it to the Loch Ness we cruised down the immense lake to Castle Urquhart where we disembarked and spent an hour wandering around the ruins of the castle which was destroyed to prevent rival clans from reclaiming it. Despite the fact that the majority of it was destroyed, there were several sections in ok condition that we could go up replaced stairs within and get great views of the compound. The information provided on signs about the castle and what each building was used for was excellent. From here we headed to the information centre and watched a short film about the history which was very well done and informative before getting on board a bus back to Inverness which took perhaps 45 minutes. The trip was 23 GPB each but well worth it and definitely the highlight of the area.

On the following day we had planned on hiring bikes to ride around the city but it was a horrible windy, rainy day and the bikes cost $30 each to hire, a bit out of our price range. So we .wandered some more around town and looked in several Scotish shops and checked out some of our families tartan and crests. There were no power points in our dorm so we had to spend the afternoon charging everything in the common room.

On our last day we killed time in the common room in the morning before heading to the bus station to catch our 3 and a half hour bus to Edinburgh which went through some amazing scenery.