Exploring Loch Ness

Day 12! It was another gorgeous morning in the highlands or so Michael tells me, there was no waking me up this morning – even after 12 hours sleep! I was a walking zombie this morning, very lethargic and struggling to function!

We text the owners of the shop we parked at to see if they were opening (we fancied a good, hearty breakfast) but they were closed for another 2 weeks so we decided to get on the road to Loch Ness!

A slow start at Loch Ness

It was a quiet half an hour drive to Drumnadrochit (don’t ask me to pronounce that!) on Loch Ness where you can catch a number of different cruises across the big old loch in search of a big old monster that lurks beneath.

I was not myself today. I don’t know if i had simply overslept and was over tired, or was starting to become lethargic from everything we had done and achieved in the last 11 days or if it was simply because we didn’t have a plan set in stone for today, either way I was not feeling myself.

We stopped on the way to Drumnadrochit at Urquhart Castle, it had ample motorhome parking (the attendant let us park in the coach park) and then we mooched down to see what it was all about! We got to the ticket box (not expecting there to be a ticket box!) and when we saw that it was £12 per person, and you couldn’t take dogs, we thought better of it and decided to walk up the road a bit and take a photo from the road!

Highland coos and a woodland walk

We then made the 10 minute drive into the village and parked in the main car park (again there was designated motorhome parking making it super easy!) I still wasn’t feeling up to anything so Michael went off to pay for the parking whilst I slowly got myself and the dog together.

Well Michael comes back with the cutest gifts ever in an attempt to cheer me up (big brownie points!) parking was free, it was another donation box, and then he had found this cute little gift shop which sold loads of Highland Cow things (disclaimer; I love Highland Cows!) he got me a magnet and two reusable bags – sounds really silly but put the biggest smile on my face and helped get my butt into gear for the day!

We started by going back into the shop for me to have a look! From there the woman gave us a map of a couple of walks which would get us quite close to the Loch (as well as see some highland cows), so that’s what we decided to do next!

The walk took us through the village, past an art gallery (which we would come to later) and through a residential estate. We then came to a gate, with the path pointing us to go through the gate, on the other side were my favourite animals and they had a calf! I had a smile on my face from ear to ear – literally grinning like a Cheshire Cat!

It took Michael a while to peel me away, with the promise that we had to walk back through past the Coo’s (Scottish for cows) to get to the van! The walk through the woodland was so peaceful and we only bumped into a few other people out and about.

As we snaked through the woodland, we came across a canal/river and thought we would let the dog splash about, we then seemed to follow this body of water further and further through the woods. We then came to the end of the walk on the map which ended when we came to an opening in the woods.

However, there was a woman walking towards us with her dog, who had clearly done an extra loop and when she came closer told us to carry on going and stick to the path to the left and we are very glad she did!

Right on the edge of Loch Ness

We carried on for less than 5 minutes and found ourselves on Loch Ness!!! Literally on the water and it was spectacular and again eerily quiet! The cruises hadn’t started yet and we were looking out onto a very famous (and bloomin huge) loch with no other person in sight for miles!

It was a simply magical experience, we could have gone on another ferry/cruise like we did on Loch Lomond but we both felt as though we had experienced Loch Ness in a way that suited us – up close and personal and having stumbled upon it because a local Scottish woman told us how! We honestly cannot thank her enough!

We spent a while down on the Loch’s edge (keeping an eye out for Nessie) before we headed back to the van, which also meant back past the coo’s! It was a quicker walk back and as we were coming back through the residential estate we decided to pop in to the art gallery we had walked past earlier in the day!

We managed to find a lovely print of one of the highland cows we had just met, so that had to come with us and be added to the collection!

We made ourselves some sandwiches for lunch when we got back to the van, before we headed back out to explore the other side of the village and all the little gift shops along the way. We dipped in and out of all the shops on our way to the visitor centre, which again was a little bit pricey to go into, and you couldn’t take dogs, so we ambled back down to the van, coming across a bagpipe busker on the way back!

An unexpected evening in Golspie

When we were back at the van, Michael phoned a park4night spot which was higher up the NC500 in Golspie rather than staying on Loch Ness as we had originally planned. This was an hour and a half drive and would halve the drive we would need to do tomorrow = win/win!

We headed off on the A82, through Inverness and onto the NC500, next stop Golspie! The park4night stop was new, like a couple of weeks old at best, it is situated on a business estate right off the main road and had facilities such as electric hook up/fresh water/waste water disposal/toilet disposal and toilets. The owners are really nice and gave us some hints and tips as to what to do in the village!

We relaxed for a bit and then decided to go and explore Golspie. It was a short walk into the village, but we decided to carry on going. There as a map of walks in the middle and Michael had found on trip advisor a walk called The Big Burn walk, so we carried on to try and find it. It started up the other end of the village and was about 1.25km to some waterfalls, so we decided to do it as we were there.

The walk was lovely, clearly very well built and looked after. We crossed numerous bridges, walked up a few hills and took in our surroundings!

It was a really refreshing walk, exactly what we needed after a longer drive and was again super quiet – we bumped into one other couple on our walk. It was a bit of a hidden treasure, and would 100% recommend it to everyone!

We then ambled back through the trail, through the village, stopping to pick up a fish and chip takeaway before heading back to the van to eat dinner. You know a chip shop is going to be good when they are queuing out the door for it – and it was!

I had scampi, Michael had chicken bites and we shared a chips, we finished the chips off making chip butties and it was glorious! A lovely and unexpected afternoon/evening in a location we didn’t know we were going to be staying in at the beginning of the day!

It’s been great to have so much flexibility in our trip, it’s meant that we’ve been able to experience more than we had planned for! Stick around as we reach John O Groats and start making our trip back south! ✌🏼