On some trips, there are some days where I want to cry over the fact that I don't own a car. Granted, I would need to get my license before I could get a car (on my to do list, don't you worry) and I don't think I could feasibly justify buying a car at the moment considering how excellent Edinburgh and the UK's public transport network is (which also helps save the planet...) but it doesn't stop those days from coming. The days where I want to kick and scream that I can't just pull over anywhere and take photos. Or rather, in this case, the days I can't just grab the wheel to the nine metre long coach I'm in and rip it off the road. Whoops.  

If you've been reading my blog for a while or have seen enough of my photos, you'll have noticed that I am very much into landscape photography. While I love exploring any new place, my heart is drawn to wild and untouched expanses of land (the kind that have been carved by natural elements for millions of years and that sound really corny to write about because they're so insanely indescribable - those ones). If you've seen that one bit in Skyfall, you'll have a taste of what the drive north was like. I so badly wanted to demand we pull over but alas, we had an itinerary to stick to.


Glencoe wasn't half bad though.


Half good, some might say.


The highlands are known for being atmospheric and dramatic which roughly translates as "bad weather" and "even more bad weather" so I was low-key anxious that the skies would open and drown all of the north.

But after the long drive from Edinburgh to Inverness, Urquhart Castle couldn't have looked better!


I have to admit, the weather was incredible for this entire trip.


So incredible that there was a RAINBOW!


Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous...


Urquhart Castle (that's pronounced ur-kut) is such an interesting place too. It was hugely important in controlling access to the highland lochs and waterways (the best and easiest way to travel because of all the mountains). It passed from clan to clan but eventually was blown up by William of Orange's soldiers in 1690 who wanted to prevent the castle from becoming a Jacobite stronghold. All that history to rubble...

The visitor's centre does a fantastic job of explaining the castle's history and I love that you can just roam the ruins.


Loch Ness was looking splendid as well. I learned on this trip that at its deepest point (239.5m) the loch is deeper than the North Sea and contains more freshwater than all the lakes in England and Wales combined. Insane.


It had been over a decade since I'd been to Loch Ness so it was great to be back on the shoreline and keep an eye out for Nessie!