Spots in Scotland (Part 3): The Highs and Lochs of Scotland's Countryside

- July 6, 2026, Monday.

- This post will have photos of mountains. LOTS of mountains. For both good and bad reasons. This was supposed to be my day trip to the Scottish highlands AND the famed Loch Ness. But I never made it to Loch Ness (read on to know why). At least, I had a nice view of Scotland's endless mountains and came face to face with some hairy Scottish cows - or as they call it, "hairy coos"!!

- I booked a Scottish Highlands and Loch Ness day trip via GetYourGuide. As usual, it was a joiner tour. After meeting our tour guide, off we went to meet some "hairy coos" at one of the toilet/snack stopovers. These cows are native in the highlands, and have naturally long fluffy hair!

We drove past the Kelpies. 

These statues of the kelpies can be found in Falkirk.

Stirling Castle.

Hairy coos!!

They were so far we couldn't pet them!!

- The rest of the morning was spent going to some viewpoints of the Scottish highlands. The mountains did not only look dramatic, but it was the way the clouds were so low, seemingly embracing the mountains' peaks. Glencoe in particular has a series of amazing viewpoints. In one of the roads in Glencoe (Glen Etive Road), we were told that James Bond Skyfall filmed there! Although the name "Skyfall" was the name of Bond's mansion, the inspiration also comes from how the sky literally looks like it's falling because of the low clouds I just mentioned. Among the viewing spots that morning, my favorite viewing spot was Loch Achtrichtan, with one of the lone houses in the middle of nowhere, with a majestic mountain behind and waterfalls, then a lake on the other side.

One of the bridges used in Harry Potter.

Loch Tulla viewpoint.

A memorial to those who perished climbing Scottish mountains.

SKYYYYFALLLLLLLL.

Random waterfalls.

One of my favorite spots for the day, Loch Achtriochtan! The small house at the back is private property.

Loch Achtriochtan (Loch by the way means "lake" in Scottish.)

I cannot stop staring at the low clouds!

- By lunch, we arrived at Nevis Range. We were only supposed to eat at the cafeteria there, but we received word that the way to Loch Ness was closed due to a fatal car crash. We waited for an hour to confirm if we could proceed or not, which gave us time to go up the cable car to see the view from the top of the Nevis Range. 

At Nevis Range, we rode on one of those cable cars you see in the photo.

THE HILLS ARE ALIVEEEEE.

Going down, hoping for good news. (Spoiler: we didn't.)

- Unfortunately, roads were closed because of the fatal accident, and because there were only limited roads going to Loch Ness, all tours going to Loch Ness had to be cancelled. I appreciated the tour company partially refunding our tour money, but of course, going to Loch Ness would have been cool. I know that chances of seeing the Loch Ness Monster (fondly called "Nessie") is far less than, say, me flying to the moon, but I really just wanted to take my chances anyway. It also fascinates me that it is one of the deepest lakes in the world too! Our guide told us that there is an alternative to maybe seeing the lake, or some small town, but we were later notified by authorities that there was ANOTHER fatal car accident too. Most tours had the same idea as we did, but alas, all of us had to turn back in the end. "Burn toast theory" I guess. Although I feel sorry for the people involved in the accidents, I am also grateful that our whole tour bus was so understanding since these are things we just couldn't control. We did give our tour guide some encouragement, because he really hyped up Loch Ness earlier that day not expecting that no one would be seeing it that day after all.

- At the very least, our guide decided to bring us to the highland viewing points in Glencoe, specifically, the Three Sisters. These are three ridges of Bidean Nam Bian peak, and one of the highest in the area. I guess this was a little consolation from the heavens, because we were supposed to visit this viewpoint earlier in the day but it was too crowded with tourists, so we had to choose a different one. This time, we not only had the chance to visit it, but we had the view almost to ourselves.

I wasn't sure where we were exactly since I took this photo from the bus, but I really liked this view and it looks like a painting.

A "hairy coo" bus.

I saw Nessie after all. Huhuhuhu.

One of the Three Sisters.

The second of the Three Sisters.

The Three Sisters.

Another random view from the bus.

Stirling Castle again, now with better lighting. This also means we're close to Edinburgh.

- We arrived in Edinburgh around 8PM, still sad we weren't able to visit Loch Ness, but happy that we got to see the highlands more, and more importantly, grateful that we weren't involved in any accidents (fatal or not). In the end, everything turned out in the best way it could given the circumstances. I may not have visited Loch Ness this time, but maybe this means I should go back to Scotland again some day!