After six port days in a row, we had a scheduled sea day on August 4, 2025.

And then we had an unscheduled sea day.

Storm Floris delivered high winds and rough seas across and around Scotland. 

We missed out on the Isle of Sky and Scotland’s most photographed castle, Eilean Donan.  (This picture is from the castle website.)

We spent two days relaxing,  playing cards,  going to lectures, eating and drinking, and listening to music.  We could not walk outside on the promenade for safety reasons.

And then we had a sunny morning. We were headed to Loch Ness to see Nessie!

As we boarded our tour bus, we were told that the wind and salt water discharge from the nearby oil (or gas) rig left the bus windows very dirty.  Ummm, why park them there, or why not clean them?

It was not the best view out the windows for a Scenic Tour of the Scottish Highlands.

As always, the guide gave us some random facts:

It is estimated that Scotland once had 3000 castles now there are remains (sometimes very minimal) of 900.

There are over 150 whiskey distilleries in Scotland.

Curling stones are made from granite from Alisa Craig, a small Scottish island.

Scotland uses miles per hour.  They refer to lanes as carriage ways so highways are single or dual carriage ways.

Mac in front of a name means “son of.” MacDonald is son of Donald.

Scotland is making an effort to show signs in both Gaelic and English.  Since 2005, Gaelic is included as an official language in Scotland, instead of being ignored or suppressed.

We had a 20 minute stop in Inverness. It was too short to do anything but walk around the cathedral grounds. We could not go in.

We did find the nearby roof-lines to be interesting with the various chimneys.

This seemed to be a staging stop so all the busses didn’t get to Urquhart Castle at the same time. Unfortunately, our driver did not use the time to clean the windows.

We travelled along Loch Ness, the second largest loch in Scotland.  It is very deep at 734 feet. Strange creatures in the loch were “known” to the locals long ago. 

Interest grew in the 1930s after a modest article in the Inverness paper sparked a surgeon to take this photo. That was 91 years ago. The photo made Nessie a world wide phenomenon.

Our guide reported that modern technology has found unknown creatures very deep in the loch so maybe there is some truth to it all.

We didn’t see Nessie but were glad to see a much better view of Loch Ness from outside the bus.

Urquhart Castle was built both as a fortress and as a residence.  It has over a half million visitors a year and is said to be the greatest castle of the Scottish highlands.  (Cindy and Darrell toured a different highlands castle. Perhaps, their guide said the same.)

We had a short 45 minutes at the site so we walked around quickly. There were in-person and audio tours if you had the gift of time.

We watched an eight minute film that covered 1000 years of castle history!

The present Urquhart ruins date from the 13th century. A medieval fortification pre-dated this fortress.  

The castle and its inhabitants were instrumental in the 14th century wars for Scottish independence.  Then, it was a royal residence for a time. 

The highlands MacDonald clan raided repeatedly. 

Urquart Castle was awarded by King James IV to John Grant in 1509.  

The Grants built this tower and made the castle their luxurious home. 

The MacDonalds continued their raids and the castle was strengthened.  

The castle was abandoned in the middle of the 17th century. 

Then, it was purposely destroyed in 1692 so the Jacobites could not use it.  Jacobites advocated that the House of Stuart be restored to the throne.  

The saga of British, Irish and Scottish history is extremely long and complicated. It would take more than an eight minute film or a paragraph or two.  I’m not going there.

As we came back to the busses, we saw one of the other driver and guide combos working on cleaning the windows on their bus. Our driver and guide made a half hearted attempt at the last minute. I think if we hadn’t seen the others being cleaned, they wouldn’t have bothered.

On the way back to the port, our guide serenaded us in English and Gaelic.  Many on the bus knew the words to sing along, but we did not.

The guide pointed out a standing stone that is likely 3000 years old. Standing stones may be singles, like the one above, or placed in circles, lines or groups. They date to 4000 BC to 1,500 BC and are attributed to Neolithic peoples, those from the final period of the Stone Age.  The stone’s purposes are not known but generally thought to be practical,  ceremonial or religious.

Although we enjoy most tours, this one was not good. Considering the dirty windows, the wasted time in Inverness, and our shortened time at the castle, we were not impressed. We aren’t even factoring in that we didn’t see Nessie!

We came back to the ship and enjoyed some drinks and peanuts before dinner and our evening entertainment. Randy had a Smoked Cherry Old Fashioned.  Even with the elite beverage package, it cost $1 extra!

The next day was a big day in Edinburgh, as we would be touring morning, afternoon and night.  I needed to resist waking up and listening to the Mariners game in the middle of the night.