Invergordon: My Loch Ness Quest

We boarded the coach at 8 a.m. and were on the banks of Loch Ness by 9:30 – the water black and still, Urquhart Castle ruins dramatically perched on the shore. The Jacobite cruise took us halfway down the loch while the guide told monster stories and sonar pinged the 230-meter depths. No definitive sighting, but we saw ripples that made hearts race.

In the afternoon we went to Cawdor Castle – Shakespeare's Macbeth connection, still lived in by the Dowager Countess, gardens bursting with roses and a maze we got gloriously lost in. We had lunch – Cullen skink soup and whisky on the boat, creamy smoked haddock that tastes like the Highlands distilled. The pros: real Scottish Highlands without overnighting. The cons: long coach day, but the scenery makes time disappear.