Legendary Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle Tour

Dochgarroch

30 min

Here you will seee the final set of Boat Locks as you enter Loch ness via the Caledonian Canal. There is also a good chance you will get to feed some carrots to the friendly highland Cows in the adjoining field.

The Loch Ness Centre

1 hour

This is a 5 star visitor attraction and retail complex. Loch Ness is already the most famous lake in the world but our aim is to make it better understood. This is achieved through a fully audio visually guided 35 minute tour. The presentation is theatrical in style and integrates the real tools and archive footage from four decades of research. The facts are objectively explained and whilst keeping the mystery centre stage, we place it in the context of the loch's very unusual properties. Thus we are endorsed by Scottish Natural Heritage as "A portal to the unique natural phenomenon that is Loch Ness". We offer a huge range of retail onsite and boat cruises on Loch Ness in the summer months. There is also a large cafe and restaurant attached to the site.

Urquhart Castle

1 hour 30 min

Discover 1,000 years of drama, experience a glimpse of medieval life and enjoy stunning views over Loch Ness from the ruins of the greatest castle in the Highlands. Climb the Grant Tower that watches over the iconic loch, peer into a miserable prison cell, said to have held the legendary Gaelic bard Domhnall Donn, and imagine the splendid banquets staged in the great hall. A more comfortable view of the iconic ruins, against a backdrop of Loch Ness and the hills of the Great Glen, can be enjoyed from the café. Urquhart’s stories are also told through a remarkable collection of artefacts left by its residents, historic replicas, including a full-sized, working trebuchet siege engine, and a short film. The castle has a distinctly Highland heritage and the site has witnessed some of the most dramatic chapters in our nation’s history. This is where St Columba is said to have worked miracles in the 6th century, where acts of chivalry and defiance provided inspiration during the Wars of Independence and where the MacDonald Lords of the Isles struggled with the Crown for power.

Beauly Priory

30 min

Beauly Priory was a Valliscaulian monastic community located at "Insula de Achenbady", now Beauly, Inverness-shire. It was probably founded in 1230. It is not known for certain who the founder was, different sources giving Alexander II of Scotland, John Byset, and both. The French monks, along with Bisset (a nearby, recently settled landowner), had a strong enough French-speaking presence to give the location and the river the name "beau lieu" ("beautiful place") and have it pass into English.
An alternative story about the naming of Beauly village told by locals is that 'Mary, Queen of Scots' was said to have been travelling through the area, probably on her way to Dingwall in her late teens and popped her head out of the Carriage window and uttered the words 'Beau Lieu' (Beautiful place).