Urquhart Castle is a ruined castle on a rock above Loch Ness, about 2 miles from Drumnadrochit, run by Historic Environment Scotland. Adult tickets cost £14 online or £16 at the gate. Book ahead in summer: when online tickets sell out, the castle sells none at the door.
Urquhart Castle is the ruin on the rocky point you see in most photos of Loch Ness. It sits on the A82 about 2 miles from Drumnadrochit, and Historic Environment Scotland (HES) runs it. An adult ticket costs £14 online or £16 at the gate. In summer, book a timed slot before you set off: HES says tickets often sell out well in advance, and once the online allocation has gone there are no tickets at the castle.
Is it worth it? For most people, yes. HES calls it “once one of Scotland’s largest castles”, and enough survives to make sense of it: a tower you can climb, the remains of the gatehouse and a water gate down on the shore. ALVA figures cited by Wikipedia put the 2025 count at 466,420 visitors, so you will not have it to yourself.
You come in through the visitor centre, which is built into the bank below the road. It has a shop, the Lochview Café, toilets (including an adapted one) and a picnic area. From there a steep tarmac ramp takes you down to the ruins.
The castle spreads over two parts of the rock. The oldest ruins sit on the higher knoll, up a steep, stepped path, along with a dovecot. At the other end stands the Grant Tower, five storeys when it was built in the 1500s. Staircases and platforms inside let you climb to the top, and the view from there runs up and down the loch. On a still day it is the best spot on the site.
Down by the water there is the Water Gate, reached by a sloped path and steep steps. The site also has a full-size replica trebuchet, a medieval siege engine of the kind that once threw stones at castles like this one.
The audio guide is free with the ticket and plays on your own phone, so bring headphones and some battery. Paths inside are tarmac or bound gravel; the tower uses wooden stairs. HES lends two wheelchairs and two mobility scooters on a first-come basis. Two rules catch people out: no dogs except assistance dogs, and no rucksacks or suitcases of 30 litres or more. There is nowhere to leave luggage or a pushchair.
The rock was fortified long before the stone castle. Excavations in 1983 dated a fort here to somewhere between the 5th and 11th centuries, and HES points to a Pictish brooch fragment as a sign of a high-status site. The ruins you walk through today are mostly later.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 5th to 11th century | An early fort occupies the rocky knoll (dated by excavation in 1983) |
| Around AD 580 | St Columba may have visited the area, according to HES |
| After 1229 | Alexander II grants Urquhart to Thomas de Lundin; the first stone castle probably follows |
| 1296 | Edward I of England captures it, the first documentary record of the castle |
| 1297 | Andrew de Moray besieges the English garrison |
| 1303 | The English take it again |
| 1306 | Robert the Bruce gains control (HES; other sources say 1307) |
| 1330s | One of the few castles still in Scottish hands |
| From 1395 | The MacDonald Lords of the Isles seize it repeatedly |
| 1509 | James IV grants the barony to the Grants, who must restore the castle |
| 1500s | The five-storey Grant Tower is built |
| 1545 | The “Great Raid”: cattle, three great boats and 20 guns taken |
| 1689 to 1690 | The last garrison holds out against a Jacobite siege |
| 1692 | The departing soldiers blow the castle up so it can never be used again |
| 1715 | Part of the Grant Tower falls in a storm |
| 1913 | The castle passes into state care |
| 1998 | The visitor centre is approved after a public inquiry |
Most dates follow HES’s history page. Where Wikipedia, citing the official guidebook, gives a different year, the table says so.
The Columba link is worth a footnote. The story of the saint and the “water beast” is set in the River Ness, not beside the castle; the full version is on our Loch Ness Monster page.
Prices and hours from the official HES Urquhart Castle page.
| Ticket | Online | At the castle |
|---|---|---|
| Adult (16 to 64) | £14 | £16 |
| Concession (65+) | £11 | £13 |
| Child (7 to 15) | £7 | £8 |
| HES member | Free | Free |
| Dates | Opening hours |
|---|---|
| 1 April to 31 August | 9.30am to 8.15pm |
| 1 to 30 September | 9.30am to 6pm |
| 1 to 31 October | 9.30am to 5pm |
| 1 November to 31 March | 9.30am to 4.30pm |
| 24 December | 9.30am to 4pm |
| 25 and 26 December | Closed |
| 1 January | From 11am |
Checked October 2026. Last entry is one hour before closing.
Tickets are for a set date and time. Up to two carers per booking go free, and disabled visitors pay the standard rate. Young Scot and National Entitlement Card holders aged 7 to 25 pay £1. If you plan to visit Edinburgh or Stirling castles on the same trip, the HES Explorer Pass covers Urquhart too.
The Lochview Café keeps shorter hours than the castle: 9.30am to 5.30pm from April to August, then 5pm in September, 4pm in October and 3.30pm through the winter.
By car. It is a short drive south on the A82, about 6 minutes from the village. Parking at the castle is free but limited, and HES only guarantees a space if you add it when you book your ticket. Motorhomes need a booked space too. Our Urquhart Castle parking guide covers the car park and what to do when it is full.
On foot. HES puts the castle about 2 miles from Drumnadrochit. OpenStreetMap’s walking route from the village green to the castle car park is about 3.7 km, or 45 to 50 minutes; from Lewiston, at the south end of the village, it is nearer half an hour. The parking guide has more on the route.
By bus. Two Scottish Citylink coaches stop at the castle car park itself: the 919 (Inverness to Fort William) and the 917 (Inverness to Skye). Both also stop by Drum Green in the village. In October 2026 the 919 ran about 10 times each weekday from Inverness, taking about 38 minutes to the castle. Stagecoach’s route 17 links Inverness with the village but turns up Glen Urquhart rather than passing the castle. Times change by season, so check Traveline Scotland before you go. If you are coming from the city, our Inverness to Drumnadrochit guide sets out the options.
On a tour. Several Inverness tours include castle entry. The most-reviewed is a half day that pairs a cruise with an hour inside the walls, ticket included, which saves you juggling a timed slot and a bus.
Coach parties make the crowds. Visitor reports say many tour groups start their day at the 9.30am opening, so the first hour can be the busiest of all. A slot after about 10.30am, or in the last two hours before closing, is the better bet. In July and August that last stretch runs to 8.15pm, in full daylight.
Outside the school holidays, September is a good compromise: the castle still opens until 6pm, and the summer rush has gone. From November to March the gates close at 4.30pm and daylight is short, so go in the morning.
Whatever the month, book online. Even in October a sold-out day means no entry at the gate, and the parking guarantee only comes with an online booking.
The view most people know is from the loch, looking back at the tower on its point. Several cruise boats sail past. Jacobite’s 50-minute trip from Clansman Harbour, about 4 miles north of the village, goes out to the castle and back but does not land; it is from $32 on GetYourGuide (checked October 2026). The Loch Ness Experience’s Deepscan boat and Loch Ness Cruises’ Nessie Hunter both sail from Drumnadrochit and pass the castle.
Some trips combine the two: a cruise one way and time inside the castle. Our Loch Ness cruise guide compares the boats and which ones let you off at the castle jetty.
3.5 hours
The best-selling half day from Inverness: a guided coach to the loch, a cruise with a sonar watch for Nessie, then an hour inside Urquhart Castle with the entry ticket included.
from$75
Check availability7 hours
A full lap of Loch Ness by minibus via Dores, the Falls of Foyers, Fort Augustus and Invermoriston, ending with Urquhart Castle entry and an hour-long cruise.
from$109
Check availability9 hours
A cheap full day that sails 30 minutes to Urquhart Castle for 70 minutes in the ruins (ticket included), then adds Beauly, Culloden Battlefield and the Clava Cairns standing stones.
from$60
Check availability9 hours
A budget coach loop of the loch that stops at Urquhart Castle, Fort Augustus, the Falls of Foyers and Dores Beach, with the castle ticket and the cruise as paid add-ons.
from$73
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, from outside. The castle and its grounds sit inside the ticketed site, but you can see the ruins from the water on a Loch Ness cruise, and some coach tours stop above the castle for photos. For a close look at the Grant Tower and the walls, though, you need a ticket from Historic Environment Scotland.
Historic Environment Scotland charged £14 online and £16 at the castle for adults (16 to 64), £11 or £13 for over-65s and £7 or £8 for children aged 7 to 15 when we checked in October 2026. Members go free. Booking online is cheaper and is the only way to be sure of a slot in summer.
For most people on Loch Ness, yes. It is the one place where you get a real medieval ruin, a tower you can climb and an open view along the loch together. Allow time for the audio guide. If you only want a photo of the ruins, a cruise past the castle may suit you better than a ticket.
From 1 April to 31 August the castle opens daily from 9.30am to 8.15pm. It closes at 6pm in September, 5pm in October and 4.30pm from November to March. Last entry is one hour before closing. It shuts on 25 and 26 December and opens at 11am on 1 January.
Yes. The Lochview Café in the visitor centre serves hot and cold food, snacks and drinks, with views over the loch. Its hours are shorter than the castle's: 9.30am to 5.30pm from April to August, closing at 5pm in September, 4pm in October and 3.30pm from November to March.
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.
Loch Ness cruises leave from four places: Urquhart Bay in Drumnadrochit, Clansman Harbour 4.4 miles north, Dochgarroch Lock near Inverness, and Fort Augustus at the south end.
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).
No evidence has ever been found of a large unknown animal in Loch Ness.