Scotland - Fort George

[Continuing to post about our two week trip to Scotland in Sept-Oct 2017.]

Our visit to Fort George, near Inverness, was another chance to use our Historic Scotland Explorer Passes.

The fort is huge - the walls around measure a mile.

I think this is a modern drawbridge over a moat.

Guard houses on the corners.

The interior has row upon row of these buildings.

Another view of that drawbridge once we went up on the wall.

Fort George was built after the final Jacobite Rising was crushed at Culloden in 1746.  It was to serve as a bulwark against future unrest but defenses have never been tested.

It's still an active fort housing the Highlanders Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

We walked the mile around the wall in a very stiff wind.

The chapel had a wedding on the day we visited.

The fort sits on the Moray Firth.

It was interesting to compare Fort George to two other forts we'd visited in recent travels:

Fort Morgan, Alabama

and

Suomenlinna - outside Helsinki, Finland

No Sign of the Loch Ness Monster

On our trip to Scotland in Sept/Oct of last year, we headed north one day to visit Loch Ness.

The major tourist spot is the Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness and since we'd purchased the 7 day Historic Scotland Explorer Pass we took advantage of it.

The castle is right on the banks of Loch Ness so there was no reason not to look for that monster.

We had a beautiful day too.

The castle and its site have witnessed some of the most dramatic chapters in Scottish history.

This is where St. Columba is said to have worked miracles in the 6th century.

The castle was sacked and rebuilt countless times.

In 1692 it was blown up to prevent the Jacobites from using it.

No monsters out there!

Here is a schematic of its history.

Now its just magnificent ruins.

Above is one of my favorite views in Scotland.  I am puzzled though by what the lines are in the forested hills.