Urquhart Castle

Sehr schöné Burgruine am Loch Ness. Ausreichend Parkplätze sind vorhanden. Sehr netter Empfang mit Einweisung. Da man durch den Shop rein und raus gehen muss, ist es dort meistens sehr voll, in der Burg verläuft sich das aber. Ein 8 minütiger Film informiert einen über die Entstehung, den Zerfall, den Neuaufbau und die Zerstörung. Sehr Empfehlenswert!
Man sollte für einen gemütlichen Rundgang 60 – 90 min. einplanen, je nachdem wie voll es ist und wie viele Fotos man macht.

Having grown up 40 miles from the castle you think I’d have visited before, but no. I’ve driven past plenty of times but never visited.
I visited with my mum and nephew, both have disabilities so visiting places can sometimes be problematic. My mum uses a walking aid and on long walks a chair, it can be hard work pushing a chair and trying to enjoy the views.
We arrived, I explained to the staff taking the ticket money and I was given free entry as a carer. The staff could not be more friendly it helpful.
The visitor centre is modern, bright, clean and is easily accessible for all ages and abilities.
We headed down to the shop and entrance to the castle. The shop staff again could not be more helpful. My mum was given a motorised scooter, free of charge. She was shown how it worked and off we went. My mum doesn’t drive but it was easy to use and she loved it. It was a bit of a trek down to the castle. My mum couldn’t access all areas of the castle due to lots of stairs. But me and my nephew had a good investigate. Everything is well sign posted and explains a bit about each area or room. There was a film to watch before heading to the castle, but we gave it a miss.
The ruins of the castle were interesting and the views of Loch Ness are stunning. Well worth the visit. And I can’t tell you how pleased I was I didn’t have to push my mum back up the big hills on the way back to the visitor centre.

Classic ruined castle on the shores of Loch Ness, steeped in history the scene of a few Clan battles featuring heavily in Scottish history. Good place to scan for Nessie from the viewing platform on the tower keep.

Urquhart Castle has some of the better castle ruins in Scotland, and stands picturesquely on the Loch Ness, about a 20 – 25 minute drive south of Inverness.
It was a hotly contested location, and changed hands quite a few times between the 13^th and 17^th centuries.
The site itself is well done. The visitor center is nice and open, with a café, shop, and small well done exhibit about the castle’s history and important members of the castle (like the constable and steward). It also has an 8-​minute video that goes through the castle’s history, which did have French and German subtitles during our showing. (My impression was that more were available too.)
The castle itself is also well marked with signage, and gives more information about each of the rooms’ significance.
Tip: if not eating at the café, there is a nice pub called Fiddler’s Arms about 1.5 miles northwest on the highway in Drummadrochit.

Stunningly beautiful (ruined) castle, definitely worth a visit.
This is a wonderful, atmospheric sight to visit when you’re vacationing in or near (e.g. Inverness) Loch Ness. Really does convey a idea of what life must have been like in this area in the 13^th century. There’s a visitors’ centre, including a rather nice café with an outdoor seating area. I definitely recommend approaching the castle by boat. Several tours are bookable from Inverness bus station at a fairly low price, guide included. They gave us 2 hours for the castle, which is plenty.
A beautiful piece of antiquity.

I was one of the lucky ones getting to Uruqhart castle on a sunny summer’s day. The green parkland surrounding the ruins are well maintained and clean. I think animals are not allowed.
The property is maintained by Historic Scotland. Its free for members. I would think that the entry price for tourists is at least £10 and no wonder, considering the effort that goes into this place to keep it so well maintained. Before entering the property you are led to a room where you can watch an introduction movie telling you all about its bloody history. It changed hands from one clan to the other, always being part of political intrigue.
Personally, the ruin is just a ruin (not much left) and you can wonder around admiring the amazing views over Loch Ness. In the background I could hear backpipes and the music is mesmerizing.
Everything is well marked.
I saw people queuing for Nessi boat rides. Yes, seems the ruins have their own access point to the Loch.
Last but not least I enjoyed a coffee and cake in the coffee shop overlooking the ruin. I was able to conquer a seat outside on the terrace. The gift shop is massive, one of the largest I have ever seen.
Plenty of parking available. However, its less accessible for visitors using public transport.
I definitely recommend a visit when in the area.

Urquhart Castle is so far my favorite castle (the other two castles I’ve been to were Huntly and Tolquhon). One of the coolest parts of this castle is the view of Loch Ness. When you walk to the top of the hill or tower, you are rewarded with this breathtaking panoramic view of the entire Loch. It’s a spectacular view that photos can’t quite capture. It’s nice just standing on the hill when it’s quiet to absorb the surroundings.
I arrived here right at the time it opened. Even then, there was about 10 or 15 people already lined up at the door… in the rain. I highly suggest going early to beat the crowds. It can get packed. Another good reason to beat the crowd is to climb up and down the tower. The staircase is so narrow that you have to wait for a group to go down before you can go up. Once you are up, you have to wait for people to stop going up so you can go down. It’s frustrating and gets stressful with the crowd. If you arrive during opening, you won’t have to deal with this issue until about an hour or two after.
TIP: Bring an umbrella! If you been in Scotland for a while, you know how unpredictable the weather can be. The umbrellas and poncho they sell at the souvenir shop is expensive!

We were already driving around Loch Ness, so Urquhart Castle was just around the corner. We arrived a little after 6:00pm, only to find the castle already closed. The view from the parking lot was still good enough for a few pictures. Urquhart is an old, ruined castle, which is kind of cool to see. The tour probably would have given us some good info about the history, but it didn’t seem like there was enough to see to justify an admission price.

Absolutely stunningly located ruins along the shores of Loch Ness.
We, like many, visited Urquhart Castle as part of a boat tour on Loch Ness. The rain kept starting and stopping and it made climbing up the steps around the ruined castle quite interesting, to say the least! Seeing Loch Ness partly shrouded in fog from the ruins of the ancient castle was just breathtaking.
The site itself isn’t very large or full of amenities, but there is a historical video provided and a decent café to enjoy a coffee in while waiting out a storm. Generally just a great place to get some fabulous shots of Loch Ness.

On Beautiful Loch Ness & chocked full of history, this castle is basically ruins — not a habitable castle
Like us, tons of Loch Ness cruisers venture to the castle as part of our cruise package so be prepared for crowds.
Not a lot of history or backstory provided, aside from a short 10 – 15 min film talking about the family’s heritage who used to live there… but there’s a HUGE giftshop
Overall, we just found it to be a nice set of ruins along the cold & windy Loch

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful… We took a tour from Edinburgh and this is the highlight of the trip. We spent about 10 min watching the film to provided background/​history information on the castle and then walked around the premise. The castle, the surroundings, the gorgeous views, we really wanted to stay longer to just taking in all in. The winter short day light hours prevented us to stay longer, but also because we were there in late November, that there were very few tourists besides us.
We would love to go back again and stay much longer than the 2 hours we did for the tour.

Urquhart Castle is one of the most beautiful and intriguing castles on the famous Loch Ness. Only about a mile or so south of Drumnadochit. Both names always make me think of Tolkien’s «The lord of the rings» and with a little bit of fantasy it could very well have taken place there. Interesting Castle but the entry fee is almost prohibitive … 8 pounds! Almost impossible to get a good shot at it from the parking place and without entering, but if you walk a couple of 100 yards further north and have a decent telephoto lens … you can still take a nice picture.

Wow, this place was crowded when I came to visit. However, it is definitely worth the time to check out. There are plenty of places to wander (although the little «tower» like thingy that you can climb up requires a lot of patience and notifications to the folks below and above you, as there’s very limited space on the spiral staircase) and plenty of places to grab some amazing shots of the ruins itself as well as Loch Ness.
Apparently, a lot of people were complaining about the stairs? Not sure what the deal was, as I didn’t notice anything odd about them…
I completely ignored the gift shop. Oops.

Took a cruise on the Lochness River and out of nowhere, you come upon the Urquhart Castle! Beautiful scenery of the highlands in the background. The history of this place was very interesting, though very tragic. The area surroundings made me feel as if I were living back in the medieval times! ! Overall, great great place! I can definitely sit on a bench all day here and stare at the River!

What a setting, what a view! The Historic Scotland organization offers 3-​day and 1-​week Explorer Passes for £25, covering 78 attractions throughout the country. Our first use was at the Urquhart Castle ruins. Overlooking Loch Ness and the mountains beyond, the castle’s setting is gorgeous. The fortress has a fascinating yet turbulent history, which the information center captures in its displays of artifacts found onsite. There is a short movie on castle history as well. At the end, the screen is raised, and the curtains part, revealing a panoramic view of the castle and loch outside.

The only things that would make this place any cooler would be if Nessie actually did float by or if I could magically catch a glimpse of it in all its historical glory. Oh well… ruins and drawings will have to suffice. This place is wonderful. Not only do they have lots of things to see such as catapults and drawings and historical information all around, the ruins themselves are cool. The shop and little café are good (better than most) and the views of the lakes and the surrounding hills are outstanding. This is really a good time. MIND THE STAIRS!

It takes a lot to get me to voluntarily go outside when it’s cold and rainy. This castle was so worth it. The grounds and ruins are great by themselves, and make for good photo ops, views of Loch Ness, and letting the imagination wander. Aside from that, there are lots of little extras that really make this a place worth visiting. Just be careful going up and down those stairs!
As someone else mentioned, there’s an 8-​minute video, giving a condensed version of the castle’s long and often sad history. It really sets the mood for walking through it. If you go, don’t skip the video.
My boyfriend and I spent a good 2 hours from the time we sat down to the video to the time we came back in from the ruins. It was cold and rainy, but thanks to that, we got to see a perfect rainbow, landing right in the loch.
The café is a cut above your usual castle/​museum/​tourist attraction food. Actually, it’s more like several cuts above. The soups of the day smelled heavenly, but we were more interested in the cakes. I’d expected dry, grocery-​store-​grade slices, but instead, we shared a really nice piece of apple cinnamon cake and some kind of coconut cake with a pastry crust. Also, the hot chocolate didn’t come from a mix.
Not only were the employees just generally friendly, but when their credit card machine went down and it turned out there was no place to get cash nearby, they just comped our food. We spent some money in the gift shop to kind of make up for it, and found more than just the standard array of plastic bagpipes and shortbread. There was jewelry from a local artist, books, and gorgeous photos that are great if you’re not a photographer yourself.

Located on beautiful Loch Ness this castle ruin has a very modern tourist facility with a fantastic movie about the castle’s colorful history from the Picts to the Jacobites. I won’t ruin the surprise, but there is an eye popping ending. The castle is superbly maintained and the staff are extremely friendly.
We also ate at the café’ which has panoramic views of the Loch Ness and very good food. Nothing like a nice hot bowl of barley soup to warm you up on a cold winter’s day.

This is sort of Bravehearty. It’s a fairly decent castle in decent condition. Good enough to allow one to tromp up its tower and all over its grounds. It is also right on Lochness. So, if you want you can do your Nessie-​searching from this gothic-​looking viewpoint. It’s a bit touristy, but heck — it’s a cool Scottish castle.

This is a great place. Not only are the waters nearby the castle ruins reportedly the best spot to see the Loch beastie, but the ruins are fun to romp about in. BTW the map position is incorrect, as the castle is right on the shore.
I visited a number of years ago and we arrived after it was apparently closed (still early though) on the way back from Skye. We walked around the gate and took a ‘self-​guided tour’ anyways and quickly saw we were not the only ones with the same criminal-​mindedness.
Anyway it’s beautiful and it should really be open later.