Urquhart Castle

The present ruins date from the 13th to the 16th centuries, though built on the site of an early medieval fortification. Founded in the 13th century, Urquhart played a role in the wars of Scottish independence in the 14th century. It was subsequently held as a royal castle and was raided on several occasions by the MacDonald Clan. The castle was granted to the Clan Grant in 1509, though conflict with the MacDonalds continued. Despite a series of further raids the castle was strengthened, only to be largely abandoned by the middle of the 17th century. Urquhart was partially destroyed in 1692 to prevent its use by Jacobite forces, and subsequently decayed. The castle, situated on a headland overlooking Loch Ness, is one of the largest in Scotland in size of area.

Clava Cairns

The Clava Cairn is a type of Bronze-age circular chamber tomb cairn, named after the group of three cairns at Balnuaran of Clava. They fall into two sub-types, one typically consisting of a corbelled passage grave with a single burial chamber linked to the entrance by a short passage and covered with a cairn of stones, with the entrances oriented southwest towards midwinter sunset. In the other sub-type an annular ring cairn encloses an apparently unroofed area with no formal means of access from the outside. The Clava Cairns serves as inspiration for the fictitious Craigh na Dun standing stones in the book and TV series Outlander. the famous “Cleft stone” that transports the main character Claire back in time can be found here at Clava Cairns.