Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle

There was no sign of Nessie as I looked out the bus window along the road that hugged Loch Ness. I started walking from the nearest bus stop to Urquhart castle. Along the way I saw a freshly dead eagle. 

Urquhart's visitor's center had one of the best information centers I've seen about castle life, including this chart of the castle hierarchy. 

The castle itself stood sentinel above the long thin lake.

A replica of a catapult threats from the front. 

The gate was not destroyed by medieval siege engines, however, but rather with explosives. In 1692 it was blown up so that it could not be used by the Jocobites (those who supported the Stuarts over Mary II and William of Orange).

I was walking back to the bus when a car stopped and I was offered a ride by the same German couple who I had spoken with outside of Dunnottar Castle. I gladly accepted. We enjoyed seeing the locks where Loch Ness meets Loch Lochy and small boats can pass by being raised or lowered to meet the level of the other body of water. These two lakes and the bays to either side of them split Scotland open, because like the rents in the earth in Iceland they are on a rift pulling a country apart. Discovering this fact made me really want to kayak from Cromarty Firth to Loch Linnhe, right through Scotland, which one can do without really leaving the water.  Loch Lochy, despite the ridiculous name, was beautifully reflective. 

Our paths split at Fort William, where I took a bed at the hostel, which happened to be situated at the base of Ben Nevis, the tallest peak in the United Kingdom.