Weekend Trip

Yesterday a group of us went to Inverness to get away from Fort William. Don’t get me wrong, Fort William is a quiet place with a small number of traditional Scottish shops and Pubs. The nightlife here is quite good (or so I’ve been told) but during they day unless you are planning to climbing a mountain you are pretty much stuffed so a day trip is ideal. The journey up to Inverness is breathtaking as you drive along the entire Loch Ness. To avoid wasting time we headed straight for Inverness. It is a small city with a large main street, two malls and a number of side streets.
It is split by the river Ness which feeds onto Loch Ness. This is the south View and on the left you can see Inverness Castle
After going for something to east we walked around the shops and found a little mall full of small shops. This was unique and straight away I saw a postcards which tell a undeniable truth about our journey.
Soon afterwards we headed to the cinema and saw Kung Fu Panda which was great except we were five fully grown adults surrounded by families with small kids. When the film finished we headed home and made lots of stops on the way. Our first stop was at Drumnadrochit which is 2 miles form Urquhart Castle and is full of ‘Nessie’ (or Loch Ness Monster) memorabilia.
The hotels, shops and restaurants all have a ‘Nessie’ logo and we even found a full scale model in a pond.
They even have a Loch Ness Exhibition Centre at the Drumnadrochit Hotel. I guess they must have a lot of tourists that forget which side to drive on! At the same time we found a William Wallace memorial.
Just outside the town south at Urquhart Bay is Castle Urquhart. It is one of Scotland's largest castles on the banks of Loch Ness where it has occupied a defensive position for over 500 years. It is believed that a Pictish fort or settlement once occupied the site and that the present castle was built in the 13th century. It is also the place that most sightings of the Loch Ness Monster have been reported.
As it was closed we decided to have a look around and to our dismay a whole bunch of people were walking around the site. Funnily enough they must have left the gates open and I managed to take to following pictures.

The scale is hard to imagine but I can tell you that it is big. On the fortress wall with Loch Ness in the background.A replica of a period catapult. They know one was here as they found several stone balls. Right behind the castle is Loch Ness
Any guesses…? Well this was a Corn Mill.
Some of the Celtic designs which are dotted around the entire area.

Our final stop was Fort Augustus which is situated at the mouth of Loch Ness and is renowned for its flight of five locks that separate Loch Ness and the Caledonian Canal.