Things to do at Loch Ness, sight by sight

The main things to do at Loch Ness are Urquhart Castle, a cruise on the loch, The Loch Ness Experience, the Falls of Foyers, the canal locks at Fort Augustus and Dores Beach. The first three are within 2 miles of Drumnadrochit on the west shore. The others are spread round the loch, and since no bridge or ferry crosses it, the east-shore sights take 30 to 45 minutes to reach by road from the village.

#	Sight	Shore	From Drumnadrochit	Cost
1	Urquhart Castle	West	2 miles, 6 min	Adult £14 online, £16 at the gate
2	A Loch Ness cruise	From both ends	In the village, or 19 miles to Fort Augustus	£22 to £25 adult for an hour or less
3	The Loch Ness Experience	West	In the village	Adult £15.75 on the website
4	Falls of Foyers	East	32 miles, 45 min	Free; donation car park
5	Fort Augustus Locks	South end	19 miles, 27 min	Free
6	Loch Ness View Point Fort Augustus	South end	19 miles, 27 min	Free
7	Dores Beach	East	21 miles, 29 min via Inverness	Free
8	Invermoriston Falls	West	13 miles, 19 min	Free
9	Corrimony Chambered Cairn	Glen Urquhart	About 9 miles, 14 min	Not stated by HES
10	Meall Fuar-mhonaidh	West	Starts at Grotaig, south-west of the village	Free
11	Divach Falls	West	Walk in, about 2 miles	Free; road to the car park closed

Checked October 2026. Drive times by OSRM routing, free-flow; allow longer in summer.

1. Urquhart Castle

The ruin on the point below the A82 is the loch’s best-known sight, and it earns the fuss. Historic Environment Scotland (HES) calls it “once one of Scotland’s largest castles”; soldiers blew it up in 1692, and what is left is a shell you can climb through, up to the top of the Grant Tower. Book a timed ticket on the HES tickets page: it is cheaper, and HES says tickets often sell out in summer, with no gate sales once the online allocation has gone. Parking is free but only guaranteed when you book it with the ticket. The Urquhart Castle guide has hours, history and the full price table.

2. A Loch Ness cruise

The water is the point of the place, so get on it. From Drumnadrochit, two small boats of up to 12 people sail from Urquhart Bay past the castle in about an hour: Loch Ness Cruises’ Nessie Hunter and The Loch Ness Experience’s Deepscan (adult £25, season 3 April to 1 November in 2026). At the south end, Cruise Loch Ness sails from Fort Augustus all year (adult £22 for about 50 minutes). Jacobite’s bigger boats leave from Clansman Harbour, about 4.4 miles north of the village, and Dochgarroch near Inverness. The Loch Ness cruise guide compares every pier.

3. The Loch Ness Experience

Formerly the Loch Ness Centre, The Loch Ness Experience is the hour-long exhibition in the old Drumnadrochit Hotel, whose manageress, Aldie Mackay, and her husband made the April 1933 sighting that started the modern legend. Eight rooms take you from the loch’s geology through the sightings and the scientific searches to a closing debate, with an audio guide in nine languages. It is the best rainy-hour option on the loch. The Loch Ness Experience guide has times and prices; Nessieland next door is the children’s version.

4. Falls of Foyers

On the east shore, the River Foyers drops 144 ft (44 m) in two falls into a wooded gorge. A steep path with plenty of steps leads down from the road to two viewing platforms, and every step down is one to climb back. Robert Burns came in 1787 and wrote a poem about it. Hydro schemes now take much of the flow, so the falls look best after heavy rain. See the Falls of Foyers guide.

5. Fort Augustus Locks

At the south end of the loch, the Caledonian Canal climbs out of Loch Ness through a staircase of five locks in the middle of the village. Boats take 45 to 90 minutes to work through, and summer is the busiest season on the canal. Visit Inverness Loch Ness suggests watching with a coffee or an ice cream by the lockside. It costs nothing. The Fort Augustus guide covers the village, and the Caledonian Canal guide covers the whole 60-mile route.

6. Loch Ness View Point Fort Augustus

This is the free lochside viewpoint at the very southern tip of the loch, a short walk from the canal bridge in Fort Augustus. It looks north-east up the length of Loch Ness. It is a stretch of shore rather than an attraction, so ten minutes covers it; combine it with the locks and a cruise from the canalside.

For a view from higher up, the Suidhe viewpoint on the B862 between Foyers and Fort Augustus looks over Loch Tarff and the hills in every direction.

7. Dores Beach

At the north-east end of the loch, Dores has a pebble beach looking south-west down Loch Ness. It is 17 minutes from Inverness and popular with people from the city. Steve Feltham began a Nessie vigil here in 1991 that Guinness World Records lists as the longest of its kind. The Dores Inn behind the beach is closed for a rebuild approved in August 2026, but the beach stays open. Details in the Dores Beach guide.

8. Invermoriston Falls

Invermoriston, 19 minutes south of Drumnadrochit, is a quick stop worth making. The River Moriston crashes through rocks under an old two-arched bridge usually credited to Thomas Telford, and a short path through Falls Wood leads to a summer house above the gorge. Salmon are often seen jumping the falls. Park in the village car park. See the Invermoriston guide.

9. Corrimony Chambered Cairn

Up Glen Urquhart, 14 minutes west of Drumnadrochit, is a burial cairn about 4,000 years old inside a ring of standing stones. Unlike the better-known Clava Cairns near Inverness, much of its passage roof survives, so you can see how the tomb was built. HES lists it as open all year. The Corrimony Cairn guide has directions.

10. Meall Fuar-mhonaidh

The rounded hill you see from much of the loch is Meall Fuar-mhonaidh, 699 m, the obvious climb from Drumnadrochit. The usual route starts at Grotaig, at the end of a minor road south-west of the village, and follows a path through woods and up the ridge, with about 535 m of ascent. Allow several hours. It is covered with the other routes in Drumnadrochit walks.

11. Divach Falls

A 100 ft fall in oak woods above the village. A landslip closed the road to its car park in December 2024, and Forestry and Land Scotland still showed the road closed to vehicles in October 2026, so walk in from Drumnadrochit (about 2 miles) or check before you go. See the Divach Falls guide.

Is Loch Ness worth visiting?

Yes, if you stay long enough to see more than the car park at one viewpoint. Day tours from Edinburgh spend most of a 12.5-hour day on the road, with one stop by the loch, and that is a thin way to see it. Give it a full day and you can do the castle, a cruise and the drive round to Foyers and Dores. Give it two and you add a hill, the glens and an evening by the water.

Without a car, the east shore is the hard part. A day tour fixes that: the budget coach loop from Inverness stops at Urquhart Castle, Fort Augustus, the Falls of Foyers and Dores Beach in one day, with the castle and a cruise as optional extras.

Can you walk around Loch Ness?

Yes. The Loch Ness 360 is an 80-mile loop from Inverness made of the Great Glen Way along the north-west shore and the South Loch Ness Trail along the south-east. It has six sections of about a day each, and it passes Drumnadrochit, Invermoriston, Fort Augustus, Foyers and Dores. A single stage makes a good day walk.

Things to do near Loch Ness

West of Drumnadrochit, Glen Affric has old Caledonian pinewood and Dog Falls, and Plodda Falls has a viewing platform over a 46 m drop. Inverness, 25 minutes north, has Culloden Battlefield and the Clava Cairns; see things to do in Inverness.

For background on the loch itself, its depth and the best month to come, read the Loch Ness guide. For places to sleep near the sights, see where to stay at Loch Ness.