A much-visited medieval ruin on a headland over Loch Ness, with the Great Glen running away to either side
Open to visitorsa Historic Environment Scotland site — many are free to wander; staffed ones charge and keep set hours
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
Urquhart Castle sits on a rocky headland poking out into Loch Ness, which is a large part of why so many people come — you get the ruins and the loch in one look, and most visitors spend a while scanning the water just in case. The castle is a shell now, but a big one: it grew and shrank over roughly 500 years, and the tall block at the north end, the Grant Tower, still stands several storeys high.
Control of Urquhart mattered because whoever held it controlled movement through the Great Glen, the long valley that cuts clean across the Highlands. It changed hands more than once during the Wars of Scottish Independence in the late 1200s and 1300s, held at times for Edward I of England and at times for the Scots. Its working life ended in 1692, when government soldiers blew up part of it as they left so that Jacobite forces could not use it.
Historic Environment Scotland runs the site now, with a visitor centre and a steep path down to the ruins from the car park. It is just south of Drumnadrochit on the main road down the west side of the loch. Walkers on the Great Glen Way pass close by on the hillside above, and the Caledonian Canal links the loch to the rest of the glen.
