Lake Ness Half-Day Tour Starting From Inverness

Your half-day excursion to the Loch Ness starts and ends in your accommodation in Inverness.

Our first stop will be to the Clava cairns. Clava Cairns are a well-preserved Bronze Age cemetery complex of passage graves; ring cairns, kerb cairns and standing stones in a beautiful setting. Clava Cairns or the Prehistoric Burial Cairns of Bulnuaran of Clava are a group of three Bronze Age cairns located near Inverness. A hugely significant and exceptionally well preserved prehistoric site, Clava Cairns is a fantastic example of the distant history of Highland Scotland, dating back about 4,000 years.

Our second stop… is a visit to the powerfully moving site of the final Jacobite Rising – the last and most harrowing pitched battle to be fought on British soil between Scotland and England. Explore the interactive visitor centre, view fascinating artefacts from both sides of the confrontation, and experience the battle in our immersive surround cinema. On 16 April 1746, the final Jacobite Rising came to a brutal head. Jacobite supporters, seeking to restore the Stuart monarchy to the British thrones, gathered to fight the Duke of Cumberland’s government troops. It was the last pitched battle on British soil and, in less than an hour, around 1,500 men were slain – more than 1,000 of them Jacobites.

We now travel to Dochgarroch Locks, fascinating to see the boats as they clinb up through the Caledonian Canal to gain entry on to Loch Ness. There is also the opportunity if you wish to board one of the Jacobite Cruisers onto Castle Urquhart where I can collect you.

Now we make our way to a Castle full of Wild natural beauty and 1,000 years of history – Urquhart Castle offers a taste of the Highlands at their most dramatic. Discover 1,000 years of drama, experience a glimpse of medieval life and enjoy stunning views over Loch Ness from the ruins of the greatest castle in the Highlands. Climb the Grant Tower that watches over the iconic loch, peer into a miserable prison cell, said to have held the legendary Gaelic bard Domhnall Donn, and imagine the splendid banquets staged in the great hall.

If time allows on the way home we can visit Inverness Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Andrew, Inverness. It’s an imposing building constructed in pink sandstone. It stands close to the west bank of the River Ness and looks across the river to the city centre and to Inverness Castle. Inverness Cathedral was built between 1866 and 1869 by the Inverness architect, Alexander Ross. Gothic in style, the exterior of the cathedral tends to attract slightly unflattering comments in architectural guides, and there is no denying that it would have looked rather prettier, and still more imposing, had the funds stretched to include the 30m spires the architect originally intended to top off the west towers.