Stage 1

Dur­ing the day are  too many tourists there (for my taste) to make good pic­tures. Unfor­tu­nate­ly I had on this trip  no time to wait of the sun­set and the absence of peo­ple. Here, there­fore, only a few impres­sions of the Cas­tle and the sur­round­ing coun­try­side, because per­ma­nent­ly tourists ran into my pic­ture or left col­or­ful dots in the Landscape.

Eilean Donan Castle

Eilean Donan is recog­nised as one of the most icon­ic images of Scot­land  all over the world. Sit­u­at­ed on an island at the point where three great sea lochs meet, and sur­round­ed by some majes­tic scenery, it is lit­tle won­der that the cas­tle is now one of the most vis­it­ed and impor­tant attrac­tions in the Scot­tish Highlands.

6th / 7th Century
The name Eilean Donan ‘Island of Donan’ estab­lished prob­a­bly through use as a chapel site by Saint Don­nan of Eigg.

12th / 13th Century
First cas­tle built on the island pos­si­bly by either King Alexan­der II or III to help strength­en defences against the Danes or by Far­quar II, Earl of Ross.

1715
Gar­risoned by Gov­ern­ment troops but retak­en by the Jaco­bites before the bat­tle of Sheriffmuir.

1719
Occu­pied by Span­ish sol­diers, part of a force of 300 who land­ed on the west coast to sup­port the Jaco­bite upris­ing. Gov­ern­ment frigates respond­ed by bom­bard­ing the Cas­tle and reduc­ing it ruins. After­wards, the Cap­tain Herd­man of the Enter­prise went ashore to destroy the pow­der mag­a­zine – it explod­ed and destroyed much of the remain­ing Castle.

1719 – 1911
The ruins lie abandoned.

(Source http://www.eileandonancastle.com/about/timeline )

In 1984 it fea­tured in the movie High­lander with Christo­pher Lam­bert and Sean Con­nery. Upstairs there are 3 b/w pho­tographs tak­en of the set dur­ing film­ing. Oth­er movies have fea­tured the cas­tle (see below) since it is so picturesque.

Eilean Donan Castle Ghosts

Span­ish Soldier

Dur­ing the Jaco­bite rebel­lion, 46 Span­ish sol­diers were sta­tioned here when the cas­tle was attacked by sev­er­al gov­ern­ment boats, lead­ing ulti­mate­ly to their death and the cas­tles’ destruc­tion. One of the more well known ghosts of Eilean Donan is believed to be that of one of the sol­diers that died that day. His eerie appari­tion has been seen often in the gift shop, clutch­ing his head under­neath his arm.

Lady Mary

The appari­tion of Lady Mary has been wit­nessed many times in one of the bed­rooms in the castle.

On the day are  too many tourists there (for my taste) to make good pic­tures. Unfor­tu­nate­ly I had on this trip  no time to wait of the sun­set and the absence of peo­ple. Here, there­fore, only a few impres­sions of the Cas­tle and the sur­round­ing coun­try­side, because per­ma­nent­ly tourists ran into my pic­ture or left col­or­ful dots in the Landscape.

Stage 2

We arrive at Loch Ness at 9:30 am and there was not much to see..it was very fog­gy and there where not many good view­ing Plat­forms on our Way…

Loch Ness

Loch Ness  is a large, deep, fresh­wa­ter loch in the Scot­tish High­lands extend­ing for approx­i­mate­ly 23 miles (37 km) south­west of Inver­ness. Its sur­face is 52 ft (16 m) above sea lev­el. Loch Ness is best known for alleged sight­ings of the cryp­to­zo­o­log­i­cal Loch Ness Mon­ster, also known affec­tion­ate­ly as “Nessie”. It is con­nect­ed at the south­ern end by the Riv­er Oich and a sec­tion of the Cale­don­ian Canal to Loch Oich. At the north­ern end there is the BonaNar­rows which opens out into Loch Dochfour, which feeds the Riv­er Ness and a fur­ther sec­tion of canal to Inver­ness. It is one of a series of inter­con­nect­ed, murky bod­ies of water in Scot­land; its water vis­i­bil­i­ty is excep­tion­al­ly low due to a high peat con­tent in the sur­round­ing soil. Loch Ness is the sec­ond largest Scot­tish loch by sur­face area at 22 sq mi (56 km²) after Loch Lomond, but due to its great depth, it is the largest by vol­ume in the British Isles.

Urquhart Castle

Urquhart Cas­tle is the most famous site in the area. The cas­tle is in ruins but an impres­sive ruin with walls, four tur­rets and the keep. The beau­ty of the place cou­pled with its his­to­ry makes it so attrac­tive. The posi­tion of the cas­tle at Strone Point is dra­mat­ic and com­mands a wide view of Loch Ness. There had been a fortress at that point from ancient times and the cas­tle was asso­ci­at­ed with big names of Scot­tish his­to­ry such as Saint Colum­ba (6th cen­tu­ry) and Robert the Bruce (12–13th cen­tu­ry). The end came with a bang in the final years of the 17th cen­tu­ry when it was packed with explo­sives and blown up to ren­der it use­less to the Jacobites.

Stage 3

It was quit a View…one of these mag­ic moments i love scot­land for..

Invermoriston Falls

Inbhir Mhoireas­t­ain (in Gael­ic)  is a small vil­lage 7 miles north of Fort Augus­tus, High­land, Scot­land. The vil­lage is on theA82 road, at a junc­tion with the A887. The vil­lage’s most vis­it­ed attrac­tion is the Thomas Telford bridge, built in 1813, which cross­es the spec­tac­u­lar Riv­er Moris­ton falls. This bridge used to form part of the main road between Drum­nadro­chit and Fort Augus­tus but was replaced in the 1930s with the new bridge used today.The Riv­er Moris­ton’s name means ‘riv­er of waterfalls.

to be continued