Inverness and Loch Ness

Our second stop in Scotland was in northern Scotland at the port of Invergordon with an excursion to Inverness, Loch Ness, and the ruins of the Urquhart castle.
As we pulled into port in the famous former British Naval port, we saw several oil rigs. One was under repair while another 4 were being stored in the harbor. It seems one of the main uses of this port and town is servicing oil rigs, including a volunteer lifeboat service.
We wandered around the small town in the morning with Mary doing some shopping while I visited the town museum. After lunch, we headed out on our half day excursion.
Our bus took us to Urquhart castle which sits on Loch Ness. his castle was first built in the 12th century and had been expanded several times over the centuries. It was intriguing to see how it had been designed and how thick the walls were (5 feet in places). As you can see it was spread out over quite a wide area and still had one tower fairly well intact (at least strong enough to support all the tourists climbing it!)
After leaving this very busy stop we drove along Loch Ness as we headed to Inverness.
You can see Loch Ness behind the castle in this picture. The Loch is very deep and maintains a constant water temperature between 40 and 50 degrees F, never freezing.
We then drove through Inverness on our way back to the ship. Not much to say about our trip back -- pretty town and pretty countryside.
Tomorrow is another day at sea (Hurrah!) before we have 6 straight days of excursions. It's a great feeling to know that we've been on vacation seeming forever and we still have a full week to go!