The drapes in the Georgetown B&B closed out the late evening light very effectively, and I slept quite well. Grant was developing a bad sore throat, so he headed off to find some coughing syrup. I read in the sitting room, and Isabel was kind and brought me some coffee.

For the first morning in several days we would start hiking with very full stomachs. The Greig's served us muesli, toast, yogurt, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, and sausages (vegetarian sausage links for me). We chatted with the one other guest, Robin, who worked for the Scottish Tourism Board. His job was to stay at B&B's and evaluate them for their service. He had visited parts of the US, especially the southwest and California. He compared "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hid here" with "Bonnie Prince Charles passed through here while fleeing the English."

As we were packing up to leave, Sandy saw my Injini Tetrasoks (with individual toes) and exclaimed to his wife, "Come here, you've got to see his socks. They've got little collars for his toes!" Isabel came around the corner and didn't know quite what to say. Finally she commented, "I've seen gloves like that, but never socks."

Grant and I had a relatively short day of only 14 miles to Drumnadrochit, but we wanted to arrive early enough to visit the Urquhart Castle. So we were off by 9am, following a road out of town which switch-backed up the hillside until we hit a forest road.

The couple in the Pig's Nose had recommend we stop at the stone seat, so we made the short detour. The landscape around the couch-made-of-stone-blocks reminded me of the Adirondacks - stunted evergreens and rocky terrain with a thin soil covering. We sat for a bit looking back down on Invermoriston and Loch Ness before returning to the trail and continuing on.

Our next distraction was the stone cave, a shelter made of stacked stones with no mortar. The group of three guys from Newcastle caught up to us here and we chatted a bit. We continued to pass each other for the next several hours, as we'd each stop at different points for pictures or to admire the view. They asked where in the US we were from, and then said "Indiana, that's in the south isn't it?"

While today's hike was fairly short, it would also be our hilliest to date. The trail dipped down near the loch, then climbed upward several times. But we also had several sections of single-track trail, and not just the wide forest road.

After lunch we passed through some pastures and out to a country road. A lady was sitting at a table and reading. She asked if we'd seen four women. We hadn't and continued on, following the road. We walked passed numerous small farms mostly raising sheep. Unlike other road walks, this section had a dirt and gravel sidewalk for two-thirds of its length.

We reached Drumnadrochit after another switchback down to the town, following the River Coiltie to the main road. We located our hostel for the evening, Loch Ness Backpackers, and checked in. I switched shoes with Grant to help out his blisters and we walked a mile outside of town to the castle.

Everyone in town that we talked to told us to go after 7pm when the guard would be gone and jump the fence. We were told that the castle used to be free, but after a grant to spruce the place up, a museum was put in and an admission fee was now charged. We didn't want to come back in the evening, so we paid up and watched the short film explaining the history of Castle Urquhart.

The castle was more interesting than the film and seemed pretty extensive, but it was also my first castle. Grant and I roamed all over the ruins, taking pictures and reading the signs. Finally, we left to walk back to town and get some dinner.

We decided to have another go at a chippie. The food was a little better, having avoided a two-hour "aging" in a bus's luggage compartment. Afterwards, we had a pint of Guinness at a bar before retiring to the hostel.