Park in the Highland Council car park by the village green: it is free, with donations invited, and has the Loch Ness Hub, toilets and a rapid EV charger. The Loch Ness Centre car park is free for 160 minutes. Urquhart Castle's car park is free too, but only guaranteed when booked with a ticket.
The main car park in Drumnadrochit is the Highland Council one beside the village green, postcode IV63 6TX, and it is free: the council asks for a donation but does not enforce payment. It has the Loch Ness Hub, toilets and a rapid EV charger. For The Loch Ness Experience, use its own car park, free for 160 minutes. Urquhart Castle’s car park is free as well, but a space is only guaranteed if you book it with your ticket.
Here is every car park in and around the village, with the rules as they stood in October 2026.
| Car park | Fee | Limit and rules | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Village car park, by the green (Highland Council) | Free; donation invited | 24 hours maximum in the council’s draft 2026 order | Highland Council |
| The Loch Ness Experience (Loch Ness Centre) | Free | 160 minutes; closes two hours after last entry | lochness.com |
| Nessieland | Free for visitors | Overflow to the village car park | nessieland.co.uk |
| Urquhart Castle | Free | Only guaranteed when booked online with a ticket | HES |
| Divach Falls (Forestry and Land Scotland) | Free | Road to it closed to vehicles after a landslide | FLS |
Checked October 2026.
This is the car park people mean when they search for “Drumnadrochit car park”. It sits on the A82 just south of the village green, a minute’s walk from Fiddler’s, the Ness Deli and the Drum Green bus stops, and about 3.6 km on foot from Urquhart Castle.
It is part of Highland Council’s “Invitation to Pay” scheme, which started in summer 2023: voluntary meters invite a donation, and the council said at the time that “non-payment will not be enforced”. The council’s draft 2026 parking order lists it among the non-payment car parks with a 24-hour maximum stay. Parkopedia shows 112 spaces and a 2-hour limit, which does not match the council’s paper, so read the signs on the day.
In the car park you will find:
Two changes may be coming. The same council order says a mandatory charge for motorhomes will be introduced at Invitation to Pay car parks that can take them, which would include this one; the amount has not been published, and we could not confirm whether the order has come into force. Blue Badge holders park free in all council off-street car parks except the Inverness multi-storey.
The council’s draft order also names a second site, the Drumnadrochit Village/Playground car park, as non-payment with a 24-hour maximum stay.
The Loch Ness Experience, formerly the Loch Ness Centre, has its own car park just north of the village green. Continuum Attractions relaunched the centre on 10 June 2023. Its getting-here page gives “160 minutes of complimentary on-site parking”, more than 120 spaces and motorcycle bays at the rear. The car park closes two hours after last entry, except for guests of the Loch Ness Drumnadrochit Hotel next door, and the whole site is cashless.
That is plenty for the one-hour tour, which GetYourGuide also sells as a ticket, or the hour-long Deepscan cruise that leaves from the same site. It is not enough to walk to Urquhart Castle and back, so if you are heading on to the castle, move the car. Details of the tour are in The Loch Ness Experience guide.
Nessieland, beside the Loch Ness Experience, has free parking for its visitors. Its overflow parking is the village car park, which it says holds 150 cars and 10 coaches. Loch Ness Cruises’ Nessie Hunter passengers park at Nessieland and take a minibus to the jetty.
Free, but book it. Historic Environment Scotland only guarantees a space if you add parking to your timed ticket online, and when tickets sell out in summer there are none at the gate. Motorhomes from 4.5 to 6 m must book a bay. The full rules, the bus to the gate and the walk from the village are in the Urquhart Castle parking guide.
Forestry and Land Scotland says “there is no charge to park” at the small Divach Falls car park, but a landslip closed the public road up to it in December 2024, and FLS still showed the road closed to vehicles in October 2026. Check before you go and plan to walk in from the village, about 2 miles (3 km). See the Divach Falls guide.
| Car park | Fee | Rules | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clansman Harbour (Jacobite cruises, Brackla) | Free | Limited in peak season; overflow a 15-minute walk on rough ground; arrive 45 minutes before departure | Jacobite |
| Dochgarroch Lock (Jacobite cruises) | Free | Shared with An Talla restaurant; bike racks | Jacobite |
| Invermoriston village car park | Non-payment | 24 hours maximum (draft order) | Highland Council |
| Fort Augustus, Bunoich | Non-payment | 24 hours maximum (draft order) | same |
| Fort Augustus, The Riggs | Pay and display | Check the tariff board; new tariffs are proposed | same |
| Falls of Foyers | Invitation to Pay | 24 hours maximum (draft order) | same |
Checked October 2026. “Draft order” means The Highland Council (Off Street Parking Places) (Variation Five) Order 2026, open for public inspection in July 2026; whether it has come into force is not confirmed.
Clansman Harbour is not in Drumnadrochit: it is on the A82 at Brackla, about 4 miles north. Jacobite also says the Clansman pier is not suitable for wheelchair users; Dochgarroch is its accessible departure. More on both in the Loch Ness cruise guide.
Highland Council runs a Campervan and Motorhome Scheme: membership costs £40 for 7 days and lets you stay 10pm to 8am at designated car parks, with no return to the same one within 72 hours. None of its 12 car parks is on Loch Ness; the nearest is Torvean in Inverness (Highland Council, checked October 2026). In the village, use Loch Ness Bay Camping at Borlum Farm, which takes vehicles up to 7.5 m on hardstanding from April to October; prices are in the Drumnadrochit hotels guide.
If you would rather leave the car behind altogether, the Citylink coaches stop on the village green and at the castle; see Inverness to Drumnadrochit.
1 hour
A self-guided walk through the darkened film rooms of the Loch Ness Centre in the village, covering the loch's geology, the famous sightings and the kit real monster hunters used.
from$27
Check availability30 minutes - 2 hours
Starts from the car park by the tourist information centre in Drumnadrochit for a private photo shoot on the loch shore, along a jetty and through nearby meadows, with edited photos sent afterwards.
from$53
Check availability50 minutes
The cheapest and most-reviewed Loch Ness cruise: 50 minutes from Clansman Harbour, a few miles up the A82 from the village, out to the castle for photos from the water, with no landing.
from$32
Check availabilityPrices and ratings were taken from GetYourGuide and can change. Booking through these links supports this site at no extra cost to you.
Yes. The Highland Council car park by the village green, IV63 6TX, is in the council's Invitation to Pay scheme: you are asked for a donation, and the council said in 2023 that non-payment would not be enforced. The Loch Ness Centre car park is free for 160 minutes, and Nessieland has free parking for its visitors. Urquhart Castle's car park is free if booked with a ticket.
The Loch Ness Experience gives 160 minutes of free parking on its site, which covers the one-hour tour with time to spare. The car park has more than 120 spaces plus motorcycle bays at the rear, and it closes two hours after last entry, except for guests of the Loch Ness Drumnadrochit Hotel. The site is cashless.
There is no official overnight parking. The council's draft 2026 parking order lists a 24-hour maximum stay at the village car park, and none of the Highland Council's overnight motorhome car parks is on Loch Ness; the nearest is Torvean in Inverness. Campervans should use Loch Ness Bay Camping in the village, open April to October.
Yes. The village car park by the tourist information building has a rapid charger with CCS and CHAdeMO at 50 kW and Type 2 at 22 kW, run by EZO; Zapmap says charges apply and to check the price in the EZO app. The Loch Ness Inn in Lewiston has charging for its guests. Urquhart Castle and the Loch Ness Centre list none.
It depends on the pier. Jacobite's Clansman Harbour, about 4 miles north of the village, has a free but limited car park, with overflow a 15-minute walk away on rough ground; Jacobite says to arrive 45 minutes early. Dochgarroch Lock near Inverness has free parking shared with a restaurant. The Deepscan cruise leaves from The Loch Ness Experience site in the village.
Parking at Urquhart Castle is free, but Historic Environment Scotland only guarantees a space if you add it to your timed ticket online before checkout.
The Loch Ness Experience, formerly the Loch Ness Centre, is the Nessie exhibition in the old Drumnadrochit Hotel.
Nessieland is a small, monster-themed family attraction in Drumnadrochit, beside the Loch Ness Experience.
Three buses run from Inverness bus station to Drumnadrochit: Scottish Citylink's 919 and 917 (about 33 minutes, and on to Urquhart Castle) and Stagecoach's 17 (about 25 minutes, Monday to Saturday).