01 October 2016

Urquhart Castle, Shores of Loch Ness, Inverness-shire, Scotland




Urquhart Castle

Approaching Urquhart Castle
This was a travel day for us. We started our day at The Old Pine Yurt, near Tomintoul, Cairngorm Mountains. ( Old Pine Yurt ). Our end game for today would be John O'Groats, Caithness country in Northern Scotland.

Our first big stop of the day was on the shores of Loch Ness at Urquhart Castle. Plan to stop at Urquhart Castle at the beginning of a day or just before closing. The middle I guess would be a zoo. As we were on our own, not on a bus/coach tour, we just wanted to do a quick stop and get some family group pictures. Yes, I remembered the tripod for this trip. 

We arrived just at opening and the car park was almost full!!! At 0927 in the morning. Parking is limited. I am not sure where you would park if you arrived later. (My trip in 1990's, we arrived at the end of the day and rushed to see everything.) When we left an hour later the car park was officially "FULL".

Massive Gate at Urquhart Castle

Urquhart Castle
We did our best to stay ahead of the crowd to get as many pictures with as few people in them. I rarely succeeded.

I did manage to get some very nice shots from both inside the walls and from outside. 

From the damage done to Urquhart Castle, to reduce it to ruin.....it is easy to see how much of a threat these castles posed to the powers that be, at that time. Now, it is just a mere shadow if what it would have been. The image of the thick wall around the main gate, shows to me, that this would have been a very difficult castle to storm-by-force of ground troops. However, a fleet of naval ships with all guns trained on this stronghold, something had to give.


Nice View of Urquhart Castle
Our visit blessed us with calm, blue waters and clear, blue skies. Our previous pictures showed both skies and waters to be much darker and more grey.
Tower, Mostly Intact

Awesome Iron Work
 I hope you enjoy the photos. I enjoyed taking them. Later this day, we would visit Sinclair Castle. But, that will be another post on another day.

Until next time.....grab your camera and capture some memories!!

Mountainman.


Final look

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