Urquhart castle on Loch Ness

(Note – due to a snaffu with WordPress, this post is out of order. We went to Urquhart the day after we finished the NC500. I got the post restored but it appears out of sequence with the trip)

After our big adventure on the NC500, we had a couple more days planned in Inverness to explore the city and day trips. A must see that was on our list was Urquhart Castle which was about 45 minutes outside of Inverness by bus.

Now, we have learned that traveling bus in Scotland can be a hit or miss affair but they got us to the castle in fine time. For a castle in ruins, this was a fun castle to explore. Lore aside, Loch Ness is gorgeous.

The above summary of the castle’s history helps us understand its significance. You can almost envision the people who lived there, the conflicts and wars.

A quick note to my friends at my workplace. I am sure you noticed I wore my Alert360 hoodie all over Scotland promoting the brand. We can work out my compensation with the marketing department when I get home.

On the path to the castle we encountered a huge replica of a weapon used to attack a well fortified castle like Urquhart. It was called a trebuchet and the stones they hurled to destroy castle walls were massive.

While the castle was fascinating, it was impossible not to turn a head and be swept up in the beauty of Loch Ness itself. A couple of times I noticed disturbance in the water. Now this part of my report is not just me being goofy, I called Jane over to look at it.

You can make out the disturbances barely in the pictures. As we watched, black objects appeared within the disturbances and went back down. Yes we dismissed the phenomenon as underwater rocks or some other disruption. But then it moved. We saw it in different areas of the loch and the black objects seem to move within the disturbances.

We left it unexplained and turned to leave until, just after Jane turned and looked away, 2 eyes appeared, one winked at me and it was gone.

Our bus back to Inverness was an hour and a half late. Yes we were put out and more than a little nervous. Ordinarily I would not blog such a routine travel setback except for a hidden blessing that came of it.

As we waited, we were joined at the bus shelter by a family from France who had missed their tour bus for their return to Inverness. They had hoped to use the public bus but were as concerned as we were about the delay.

The language barrier was part of the fun of visiting with them. They were likeable and interesting to talk to. In fact, when they reconnected with their tour bus, they talked the driver into taking us back to Inverness too!

Say what you want about the French, these people were great. Then we had a great time visiting with the pure Scottish bus driver!

The moral of the story is don’t jump to conclusions when a bad thing may be happening. It might turn into something terrific. Or as Kurt Vonnigut put it, “strange travel plans are the hand of God”.