Private Loch Ness Tour Urquhart Castle Falls and Scenic Views

What's Included

Meeting and pickup

Itinerary

• 1
  Urquhart Castle

  A modest ruin in a position that is anything but — a spur of rock jutting into twenty-three miles of black water with the hills coming down on both sides. You cannot see that with four hundred people on it. You can see it perfectly at nine in the morning, which is the entire reason we leave when we do.

  2 hours • Admission ticket included
• Loch Ness (Pass by)

  Views along the west shore of Loch Ness.

  Admission ticket free
• 2
  Invermoriston Falls

  Thomas Telford threw a bridge over the Moriston in 1813 and it is still standing, just, next to the one that replaced it. The river underneath goes through a slot in the rock and drops hard after rain. Five minutes from the road and most people driving the A82 have no idea it is there.

  30 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 3
  Dundreggan Rewilding Centre

  Trees for Life’s centre at Dundreggan, up Glen Moriston on the road we take anyway. Lunch in the café, and trails from the door running twenty minutes or most of an hour, so it flexes with the weather and with how much walking you actually want. Facilities here are the good ones, and the next of them is Fort Augustus. It keeps its own seasonal hours and does close; if it is shut on your date we stop somewhere else nearby, and Dan will tell you that on the morning.

  1 hour 30 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 4

  The road climbs out of Glen Moriston onto open moor and the whole of Loch Loyne opens out below with the Cluanie hills behind it. When the loch is low you can still see the old road running down into the water, drowned when the loch was dammed. There is a nature reserve walk from near here if you want to stretch your legs properly.

  15 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 5
  Fort Augustus

  Five locks lifting the canal up from Loch Ness in a staircase through the middle of the village. If a boat is going through, it is worth the twenty minutes to watch it — the whole thing is still worked by hand. Public toilets here, and the last of them before the east shore.

  1 hour • Admission ticket free
• 6
  Suidhe Viewpoint

  The B862 climbs hard out of Fort Augustus onto open moorland and stops at a viewpoint that looks back down the whole fault line. On a clear day you can trace the Great Glen running away to the south-west like a scar, which is exactly what it is. Almost nobody comes up here.

  15 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 7
  Loch Ness Alpacas

  Alpacas on a smallholding above the loch. It is a genuinely good hour if you have children with you, and a slightly absurd one if you do not, which is its own kind of recommendation. Best arranged in advance.

  2 hours • Admission ticket included
• 8
  Dores Beach

  The north end of Loch Ness, looking back down twenty-three miles of water towards Fort Augustus — where you were three hours ago. It is the only place you can take in the whole thing at once, and it is where we sit for as long as you like before the ten minutes back into Inverness.

  30 minutes • Admission ticket free

Additional info

• Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
• Service animals allowed
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Specialized infant seats are available
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels

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