15 May 2006 - but no Nessie

We pressed onward to Inverness with a stopover at Urqhart Castle. In fact, it is a site of a ruined castle overlooking Loch Ness. There has been some rudimentary restoration of elements of the battlements etc. to give the place a taste of the ‘archaeological’ and an attempt to present it using a Jurassic Park movie scene take-off. In reality, the place should be free. The Scots, like the English are harvesting the tourist dollar. Folks, if you go that way – see a real castle. They cost about the same, are ten times more interesting and often have exquisite gardens. Not this place! My advice - don't bother!

Places you stay at in a town influence how you feel about the place. When we got to Inverness, we found the SYHA only to find it was fully booked. We later found out that a guest had managed to fall out of a top bunk and thus, all top bunks were off the accommodation choice. We went into town, finding a cheap hostel called Baz Packers. ₤14 for accommodation did save us a few quid, but it was close to a negative star rating. Still, it was clean and we were warm and cozy.

Inverness itself was cold and damp. We looked around for a few hours the next day but decided that the appeal of Inverness was lacking on this trip.