Partway across the Caledonian Canal, we were lucky enough to anchor below Urqhardt Castle along the north shore of Loch Ness. “Let’s soak in the view”, we thought, “How many chances will we have to anchor next to a castle?”
Plenty, it turns out. We were only able to explore a small slice of the hundreds of islands and peninsulas on Scotland’s west coast before the autumn weather turned decidedly unwelcoming. But it seemed like we would have been able to anchor next to an old castle nearly every night if that were what we wanted.
Many promontories, headlands, and bays are home to castles (or their ruins) of varying scale. Ranging from a simple tower house to more elaborate structures. People have been living in Scotland for thousands of years, and the feudal and clan system meant that wealth significant enough to invest in a castle could be accumulated.
So it turned out we didn’t need to soak in the view in Loch Ness, but watching the sun set behind the ruins of a Scottish castle or watching the morning mist creep up a hill towards a stone tower never got old.
