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 Village Green |
Drumnadrochit lies at the head of Urquhart Bay on Loch Ness and is the centre of the Loch Ness Monster industry in Scotland: but don't let that put you off. It can seem a little crowded and commercialised as you drive through, but scratch the surface and you'll find yourself pleasantly surprised.
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OK: let's get Nessie out of the way before moving on to the real Drumnadrochit. The village is home to two competing exhibitions devoted to the beast first reported by St Columba in the 6th Century, and since the 1930s the subject of various fuzzy pictures and films.
 Post Office & Shop |
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 Tourist Information Centre |
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 The Nessie Shop |
Overlooking the main junction in the centre of the village is the Original Loch Ness Monster Centre, which also offers monster-spotting cruises on Loch Ness. This is open all year at a cost of £3.50: with longer opening hours in summer than in winter. A couple of hundred yards in the Inverness direction along the A82 is what is now called the Loch Ness 2000 Exhibition, with similar opening hours. This used to be called the Official Loch Ness Monster Exhibition, but presumably Nessie objected. Loch Ness 2000 costs £5.95 but tends to be rated more highly by those who have visited both, carrying a wide range of background information for and against the existence of Nessie.
Loch Ness 2000 is housed in the imposing baronial stone building that used to form the main part of the Drumnadrochit Hotel. The hotel is now housed in the attractive modern extension built in 1986. Proceeding through the gap between Loch Ness 2000 and the hotel brings you to the Nessie Shop and the Whisky Shop. Again, what you might expect to be highly commercialised development turns out to be pleasant conversions of older buildings.
If you travel the short distance along the main road past the junction with the A831 from Cannich you come to the unexpectedly attractive centre of Drumnadrochit, which seems a million miles away from the sometimes more frenetic atmosphere you've left behind.
At the heart of Drumnadrochit is a village green, complete with a stunning model in miniature hedges and plants of nearby Urquhart Castle. Surrounding it is a collection of largely white-harled cottages, cafes, plus an attractive village shop and post office on the far side of the main road. On the east side of the green is the Drum Farm gift shop and tea room: with a working farm behind it.
To the south of the green is the village's main car park, complete with the Tourist Information Office, open all year. Further south still, Drumnadrochit becomes Lewiston, a planned village created in 1769. Not far beyond Lewiston you should watch out for the turning for the car park for Urquhart Castle.
2002 saw the launch of Great Glen Way, the 73 mile long distance path from Fort William to Inverness. This passes through Drumnadrochit and has started to bring to the village a steady stream of footweary travellers in search of food and accommodation.
