Scotland - Ormond Castle

While visiting the Black Isle in Scotland, we ended the day with a pleasant hike to the top of a hill to see the ruins of Ormond Castle.  This is not to be confused with Castle Ormond in Ireland.  These are two VERY different castles.  Whereas the castle in Ireland is a standing castle, the castle in Scotland is a set of ruins with just a few stones remaining.  Ormond Castle in Scotland was destroyed in 1650 and the materials were used to build a castle in Iverness.  So what does it look like at the top of this hill?  Our pictures below cover this nicely.

In addition to a few stones left over, there is a breathtaking view of Avoch, down below.  

Getting to Ormond Castle is a bit tricky.  The walk itself is easy, but to figure out where to walk is the tricky part.  The trail itself begins on private property.  It's someone's farm and the trail starts by walking along their fenced property.  On the day we visited one of the farm's horses greeted us at the fence! Walking up to and along the farm is legal, but you can't park on their property, nor can you park at the end of their driveway.  You have to park down in Avoch, walk along the road up the hill to the end of the farm's driveway, walk up the driveway, and then finally access the trail.  Here's a link describing the access point in more detail.

Hike to Ormond Castle

Let me put this hike in perspective.  We cheated a bit.  My wife dropped my oldest daughter and I up by the driveway and we walked from there.  The two of them looked for seashells on the beach while my oldest daughter and I took the short hike.  It probably would have taken us 30 minutes to walk from the town to the top of the hill.  We walked back from the top to the town in 19 minutes.  Again, not a hard hike at all once you figure out how to get there!  

The hike to Ormond Castle provides a bit of history, beautiful scenery, and a great way to end another amazing day in Scotland.