2020 was...

Visits from friends, Veganuary, Durness, Proposing to Ailish, Celebrations, Big Table, Clare’s Birthday, Edinburgh trip, Trail of Dead live, 5k runs, Animal Crossing, Lockdown, Face masks, Months where nothing happens, Dread, Existentialism, Ugh, Covid Parents, Online D&D, Deactivating Facebook, Airiel, Cancelling a Denmark trip, Videochats, Fargo, Films, Reading, Leg Pain, A few cries, Shaving me head, The Last of Us, Sunday Night Mario Kart, No running, Forse of Nature, Building a LEGO Castle, Back to work, Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle, X-rays, Dishonored, Jurassic Park in the cinema, Playstation 5, Gael’s bday dinner, Winter Sad, Xmas Shopping, Secret Santa Lunches, and so much time in the house.

It was a difficult year that made me thankful.

December Status Update

With most of the year in tatters, new strains of virus, and further lockdowns, things weren’t looking too optimistic for the end of the year. November went by quickly, but doubly so for December; a month full of dark mornings, darker afternoons, and, well, dark days every week to be honest, with little breaks for good weather or activities outside the house.

A week before mainland Scotland entered lockdown again (or “Tier 4”-the same thing really) we managed to escape to the cinema again for one last big film of the year, and watched Wonder Woman 1984. As with Tenet earlier in the year the experience was great, with huge visuals, epic sound, and great atmosphere. I’ve only been to the cinema five times this year and while the two afore-mentioned films weren’t always perfect, I really missed cinemas this year! I miss doing things in general if I’m honest! I’ve missed seeing people, and the same weekend as Wonder Woman 1984 I got to catch up with lots of friends for two separate Secret Santa lunch gift exchanges. As with cinema trips both lunches make up only a handful of meals I’ve had with friends this year, and after the year being what it has it was great seeing so many people for the first time in ages, safely. Lots of in-jokes, and food, and nerd talk, and great gifts too, from people that I’ve relied and depended on a lot this year. Even with masks and distancing, everything that weekend felt incredibly…normal- a fantastic mid-way relief from winter.

Until Xmas Eve, and maybe even the day itself I hadn’t been feeling very festive at all, so our Xmas tree went up relatively early in December, and there was always lots of films on to try and chase or replicate that feeling. Some worked better than others. Household and family-mixing was advised against, so after a busy social weekend the weekend before, Xmas this year was just my partner, our dog, and I, and this was really great. The usual amount of food, drink, and bad films were all there, and everything was just. so. relaxed. It was fantastic switching off from everything outside the house and inside my head for a while, and even without the festivities this would’ve been more than enough. No appointments! Nowhere to be! No social arrangements! Just a few days of long-needed lazy off-mode indulgence and time spent as a family.

There were gifts too! An excellent selection of books I’m now planning for a similar reading challenge to this year’s, new boardgames to play, and clothes too. The best present was the most unexpected: this year I was fortunate enough to unwrap an actual velociraptor tooth gifted by my partner. What the fuck! A 700-million year old tooth that’s now in the house and on the bookshelf, and undoubtedly one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. I still can’t believe it to be honest.

Xmas and year-end are a great time for giving, spending time with loved ones, and reflecting. This year I’m incredibly thankful for anyone that’s suffered my moaning, moodswings, or mental disasters, and I really appreciate anyone this year that has listened. As everything outside in 2020 got harder I’ve spent a lot more time inside and in my head, and video-chats, online D&D, and being here, blogging, has helped me vent accordingly. Even if or when things “go back to normal” I really want to keep all of this up. 2020 has been an absolute shitter, but maybe some things can stay.

A Lego Castle WIP

This year -amongst other things- I was planning to attend a few Lego shows across Scotland, and most excitingly, display some builds too. I’ve written previously about plans and how big a fuck up 2020 as a whole has been, and the same unfortunately extends to my ambitions for Lego-based travel too. Nonetheless I’ve had a great year pottering away and building those projects, particularly the big Castle MOC I was planning. This was a build that was supposed to be finished for display in April but as one thing led to another and deadlines changed to July, it still remains sadly unfinished...

So, here it is, in not quite but almost there completion! I’m posting it here because it represents quite a bit of my time this year but it also serves as a big to-do reminder for the upcoming months, where -hopefully- it will be getting displayed publicly. The other reason of course is that while all photos and videos of Lego MOCs online are brilliant, there’s a certain fascination to seeing something not quite finished; a work in progress, rough and ready, where techniques and inspiration can be found. This isn’t the most technical or complicated Lego Castle out there by any means but hopefully someone will find it’s development interesting, or at the very least, inspire them to do their own! I’ve been posting regular updates over on my Lego specific Instagram, but here they all rounded up to show the progress.

I’ve built Lego Castles before -this is going to be a bigger, better, and more complete iteration of my Widmore series- and it’s great seeing that progress over a big 15 year AFOL period. Keeping the mostly same landscaping and shape make comparisons easy, and it’s just satisfying having that all play out like a little child. I’m building for me. Send this back in time so I can play with it! There’s still trees and more landscaping to add as well as further interior details and the addition of actual Lego minifig knights to populate it. With good intentions and a few more weeks it will be finished soon- assuming I don’t get distracted or -more likely- try to make it even bigger!

Faves in 2020

Normally year-ends are marked with numerous rundowns, “…of the year” posts, and favourite picks. This year has been a bit different release-wise across various media, so I wanted to do something different other than obvious game/film etc of the year and enthuse instead about my late discoveries or personal entertainment highlights from the year. Stuff I’ve missed or not fully posted about yet. Catch-up year!

‘Trail of Dead live, The Mash House in Edinburgh

In March before everything went tits up we were very fortunate to get a mini break in Edinburgh . Two weeks before UK Lockdown was even a remote possibility I was lucky enough to get to see one of my favourite bands play live in quite possibly the most crowded, loudest environment ever. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead have been a band that I’ve been a big fan of for close to 20 years now, so it was incredibly rewarding finally getting to see them live after all this time. The band played lots from their back catalogue as well as plenty from their new album this year -X: The Godless Void and Other Stories- and the gig was probably one of the most thunderous and booming shows I’ve ever been to. Volume is subjective and usually with hyperbole, but I’m not lying when I say I didn’t know bands were allowed to play so loud…legally. I had extra tinnitus for days, annnd declaring that now makes me older than ever. Sorry.

Spotify and BBC Radio 6 Music

This year I started listening to BBC Radio 6 Music in a big way and after defaulting to Apple Music for years, this year I rejoined Spotify as streaming provider. These are quite small things, but both changes resulted in me discovering and listening to a lot more bands, artists, and genres than I have in any other year. I listed to 241 new artists this year(!) and 327 total, a lot more than my usual standard plays and go-to favourites. So lots more diversity this year- here’s my playlist of my favourite songs from this year.

Lots of Films!

With lockdown and being off work earlier this year I watched a LOT of films. In total this year I watched 81 Films For the First Time, and 140 films overall. In the absence of cinema trips here were plenty of rewatches of past favourites instead, and Christopher Nolan, Michael Caine, and Peter Jackson all featured quite heavily- here’s my stats in full. Next year I’d like things to be a bit more diverse, cult, and overall varied. Any recommendations let me know!

Lots of Books!

This year I aimed to read 25 books and while I quite havent reached that target yet (there’s still tiime) I’ve read a lot more this year than normally and spent more time actively reading accordingly. My favourite audiobook this year is Pet Sematary by Stephen King, I’ve posted about that already, and one of my favourite books was We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson. Again, I’ve already posted about that, so let me offer up my other favourite instead…

Ice by Anna Kavan

I picked this up at random earlier in the year, and I read through it pretty quickly. It’s set in a distopian post-apocalyptic landscape where the cold stings and a chill bites throughout. Things happen, and there are scenes and events, but I wouldnt say there is plot, if that makes sense. It’s a maddening blizzard of a journey where things and narratives happen in paralell to each other but you’re never really sure what it real and what isnt. It’s magical in places with it’s language, sometimes feeling like a bleak fairytale in others, but it’s a piece of media that’s really stuck with me throughout the year. It’s not for everyone, but it’s definitely something I want to reread slower and even more thoughtfully next year.

Nintendo Firsty-Party Games

Animal Crossing: New Horizons released earlier this year and over lockdown and in the absence of structure, was something that I enjoyed and played immensely. The game really helped me relax and switch off, and ultimately give me something to obsess over instead of doomscrolling. Nine months later i’m still playing frequently. Also helpful and fun, my friend group started playing Mario Kart 8 online most sunday nights. In a time where couch-multiplayer is disappearing from games (regardless of social disctancing) these nights really felt old-school fun, and again, something good to distract and break up the week.

Online Dungeons & Dragons

Something that equally kept me ticking over was voice chat D&D, and playing over Roll20. I’ve probably played more this year than any other year combined with near weekly precision. In one campaign i’m heist happy halfling Panwick, in the other i’m dashing, dumb, dentist half-orc Henk. Both campaigns have been great distractions, and good burst escapes from reality.

Airiel

This year I listened to so much shoegaze and dreampop, and Airiel were one of my early discoveries through Spotify. BAND OF THE YEAR! Admittedly they only released one single this year and the stuff I did listen to was mainly from 2017-2004, but band of the year! I really enjoyed playing their dreamy/floaty, lets be honest, lovely discography and zoning out especially during the height of lockdown/2020 doom hell. The band are one of my favourite things this year- definitely on the list to see live once things are okay again.

Dishonored

The Last of Us Part II came out in June and really blew me away with it’s bold narrative choices and heavy story consequences, but after completion I bounced off it pretty hard and revisited my backlog. The original Dishonored came out pretty late in one console generation and early into another so it was something that like lots of things I never really got round to. I played through the base game and all it’s DLC this year and I fell in ove pretty much straight away with its open-ended gameplay and the world narrative that it’s all set against. I jumped into it’s sequel shortly after and it was the same here, but with even more polish and gameplay options to be had. I had so much devious stealthy fun with this series I really regret sleeping on the franchise for so long, especially now that it seems finished. I would still definitely recommend playing the games even now

November Status Update

November -like 2020 as a whole- went by sooo quickly; what a short month! This month I bought a Playstation 5 and that’s gone off with a lot of my time (separate post about the games soon?) along with work and moping, but there’s a few specific days worth mentioning from the month too.

With plenty of films either delayed or postponed due to 2020 hell my local cinema has been great at bringing back and showing older titles. Earlier this month we went to see the original Jurassic Park in the cinema, and this was probably one of my favourite cinema trips in recent memory- a joy finally getting to see it on the big screen. As a child I was well aware of the film and hype, but after missing in the cinema initially I was forever relegated to watching it on tv/vhs/dvd et al. Jurassic Park is a film i’m incredibly fond of -and even one that I had already rewatched earlier this year- so watching it again in the cinema was an embarassingly comfortable, reassuring, and rewarding experience: positive endorphins only. The film has aged beautifully- dinosaurs are scary, set-pieces are fun, and the soundtrack that accompanies is easily John Williams best, all heightened in that cinema screen setting. The film is fun and full of heart throughout- I can safely say it’s one of my favourite films.

Socialising this year has largely been online with voice chats and videocalls, with piss-ups and fantasy roleplaying in between, but this month we managed to get out and attend a big birthday dinner with most of my friends present. Lockdowns, social-distancing, and self-isolation are all terms I don’t think I’ll ever have the benefit of forgetting, but against all odds I managed to have a ‘night out’ with 20 people (safely) and it was great getting to catch up with so many people (safely) for the first time in months. 2020 has been a big year of changing habits and no contact so I was drained afterwards, but the night will probably stand out quite a bit in terms of individual days for the year. I had fish for dinner, it was great! Everything at the moment generally feels a bit samey or blurs together, and I still cant believe it’s December tomorrow, but it’s good to know that as far as global pandemics go we’re hopefully coming out of it. Hopefully.

Less optimistically, I went running at the weekend for the first time since April and while I still have daily leg ache (in my muscles?) from earlier this year I was naivé and gave it a shot. On an early Saturday morning I got my running gear on and went to the nearby riverside to meet a friend and see how we got on. My pacing and breathing was good and I managed just over 4km with stops and starts quite easily. It was great being out on the paths and moving again, but I was sore as hell the remainder of the afternoon -the next day even worse- and reminded pretty harshly that I’m still mysteriously injured and aching. This one got to me- more doctor appointments before I try anything stupid like that again.

It’s hard to believe that next month is December and that the year is almost over. While aspirations and enthusiasm are quite low there’s a few things I’m planning to finish creatively before year end or as close to as I can manage. Fingers crossed there’s better stuff to report next month!

(MOC) A Big Lego Loser

A political disaster in 95 bricks. This morning I made a Lego model of the current Big Loser from the instructions going viral at the moment for a friend. They weren’t the easiest to follow and the figure is a bit cumbersome, so it’s all very in keeping with the man himself. It was difficult to get that orange-cheesy-wotsit-fake-tan-coating right so I made a darker variant, a clean one, and a lime green one for when he was sick with Covid and/or is later revealed to be a space alien. I joke about that, but honestly at this point it would not surprise me at all.

I recently made an instagram account just got Lego-specific content so I’ve posted the above over there too and I’m doing weekly work-in-progress Castle updates. It’s going great! Go give me a follow or a like if you want to see more.

2020 Was Pretty Bad So I Treated Myself

With 2020 continuing to be an absolute disaster culturally, politically, and more importantly personally, It’s been more important than ever to find ideas and activities to keep happy. Absolutely everything has changed in some way, and I’ve found the continued sudden stagnations and resets quite difficult if I’m honest. I might have mentioned this quite a bit already. Lets just write the year off and pretend it never happened?

With that in mind -and with all previous lookingforwards delayed or cancelled- back in August I decided to proper treat myself and preorder a Sony Playstation 5. Since that preorder went off it’s been my go-to calendar excitement, and incredibly fulfilling having something to look forward to daily. It’s perhaps a purchase sooner than necessary: gaming backlogs grow and are at this point forever, but the allure of shiny new boxes that play shiny new games is an insatiably maddening one, so here we are! After 27 years of playing videogames and having that as an interest I get my first “day one” console! I’m only a few hours in and still really need to play things properly but so far I love every bit of it. I have the next few days off, so while my birthday plans changed, my Denmark holiday was cancelled, and all those weddings I was hoping to attend were delayed, this is hopefully going to make up a little for some of the previous inconveniences of 2020. I feel better already…

2020 Reading Goals

Back in January I made a lot of New Year Resolutions and things I wanted to do this year, but with 2020 being the absolute worst, few of these have have actually been acheievable or even realised. Things like travel plans and running have been big no-gos as global pandemic and backache continue on, but one resolution this year was to read more and it is actually on track!

I set myself the goal of reading 25 books before the year was out, and while initially that doesn’t sound like much, it’s five times more than what I would normally get through in the same period. I never read as much as I’d like to (lets blame nights out, doom scrolling and social media) and while lockdown and distancing have been absolutely terrible it’s been quasi-good at partially eliminating some of those distractions. With eight weeks now left this year I’ve now got only five books left (see above) to hit my target- they’re an odd mix of books started last month, earlier this year, and even from a few years ago during house and job changes. What I want to do is get everything finally wrapped up ahead of next year. I am notorious for starting things and never finishing them, having backlogs, and slow progress on media across the board so I’m looking forward to completing this self-challenge and more excitingly, looking forward to doing even better next year.

A list of everything I’ve read so far this year is over on my Goodreads page. Once the year is over I’m planning on doing a post here summarising them all with my thoughts and faves, potentially another looking for 2021 recommendations too (if I actually get my backlog cleared)!

October Status Update

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2020 has been a scary year, and I wouldnt be lying if I said I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by it all at least ten times this year already. With a second wave of Covid_19 hitting Europe and the UK now (or just a continued first wave?) for me personally this month there’s not much to report. With venues and shops closing earlier due to restrictions, darker and stormier nights, and NO SOCIALISING WHATSOEVER it’s been a very quiet month, and one with very little respite from the ongoing Monday to Friday 9-5 work drudgery. Again, scary stuff, so with everything hellishly terrible I decided to lean into it all a bit more and made a point of really doing nothing this month except consume horror books/tv and film.

For the longest time Horror media of any sort was just a big no-no for me. Cowardice, confusion, a lack of…risk taking? I’ve read Stephen King as a teenager and forever since, but I was always aware of my limits and sensitivity. As I’ve gotten older it’s something that I’ve found myself enjoying more and more, particularly in film and literature. My favourite thing about the genre is that invariably it has some of the most human themes and characters compared to absolutely everything else and that it rewards looking inwards at self, identity, and just humanity in general. Not always of course, but a great number of stories look at what makes us human, what our relationship is with each other and then makes a horror or fear out of something that is the opposite.

Two years ago Netflix produced and released The Haunting of Hill House, a one-off miniseries inspired by the Shirley Jackson book af the same name. I loved it. It was tense, dark, it was about love, it was about hope and light, and it really opened up the genre for me, both series and book. The show was one of the most complete, satisfying, and absolutely whole things I’ve ever watched. This year it’s follow-up released -again a miniseries- this time inspired by The Turn of The Screw by Henry James. I wasn’t familiar with the source material but I was very excited to watch the show as a spiritual follow-up with the same cast and creative team. The first night we watched three episodes, another three the second, and the final three on the third, closing the entire show out within one weekend. Thematically it’s very different to ‘Hill House with a horror and darkness that sometimes feels altogether more frightening. It’s a lot lighter on tension and jump scare set pieces, but it was incredible at studying humanity, life, death, and the transition thereof. I really want to watch it again and think and talk about it a lot more- a revisit is guaranteed once I’ve finished reading the book.

I made a point of watching only Horror films this month and things that kind of came under that genre, so yes, Hocus Pocus, The Addams Family and Practical Magic were all allowed of sorts. I finally watched Halloween (1978, John Carpenter) this month, having ignored/missed/avoided the franchise my whole life. It was incredible! A real old-school practical slasher flick with lots of scares and jumpsightings of famous stabber Michael Myers throughout, and so really well done. A whole 42 years later(!) I think the film has aged phenomenally and I really regret missing out on it for so long. My other big film fave was Us by Jordan Peele. Get Out, his directoral debut, was critically lauded and while I could recognise it’s brilliance upon watching it, it wasn’t really something that I admired. Against the majority, I much preferred Us. An absolutely stellar, bold, and complex piece of both narrative and filmmaking. It’s not without it’s flaws, but it has buckets of allegory to unpack throughout and really taps into some very nasty unnerving human fears.

As with Halloween this month I went back to another genre-definer classic and I listened to Dracula by Bram Stoker. I knew going in that this was perhaps going to be a bit of a difficult one, but I really didnt enjoy this much at all. It puts all the pieces on the board with a creepy castle, stakes, garlic, bats and fangs, inspiring everything forever afterwards but I found it really dry. The opening chapters are enjoyable and engrossing -Tense! Creepy! Dramatic!- but the second half of the story meanders and dithers so much. The protaganists think, and observe, and ponder which is great, but it’s all with very little urgency. There’s lots of exposition but the story just felt unecessarily long. Not for me. Conversely, I really enjoyed -and I really can’t believe I’m comparing the two- listening to Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I find with Gaiman he’s generally really good at creating unease from the simplest of childhood fears and anxiety, and Coraline does this so well. A dark twisted fairytale about things that are different, changing circumstances (which are just the scariest at any age), and uncertainty through younger eyes. I’ve seen the film before but this was my first time with the book and I liked it a lot.

Going forward there’s still lots to do. At the moment it seems like some of the scariest stuff is on the news and there for us all to see whether we like it or not, but I’m in the process of reading The Turn of the Screw and i’ve started reading the numerous short stories by Shirley Jackson too. In an ideal situation it would be proper lockdown again with all the time in the world to read and watch so much more and already I feel like I really missed plenty of other great stories I could have done. As the horror that is 2020 continues, I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of dark winter nights to get stuck into some of them.

Castle Urquhart and The Loch Ness Centre

Last month as a bit of an escape, Ailish and I had a few nights staycation, with one night spent in Inverness and another in Nairn. Originally at the end of September we were going to be attending a wedding, but with that cancelled and excess work leave still to take, we decided to head off all the same for a bit of escapism. The car *might have* needed a service too, but that’s besides the point. All the same, after months indoors and looking at mostly the same walls, we had a few nights staying somewhere else for honestly the first time since March and it was incredibly refreshing.

With a worldwide Covid pandemic still largely in progress (and particularly in Scotland) we weren’t really keen for much shopping or crowded streets so when we reached Inverness we kept going and went to Castle Urquhart just outside Drumnadrochit, and next to Loch Ness. This is a place i’ve been wanting to revisit for a few years now, only vaguely remembering a trip there when I was much much younger. The drive there and heading south out of Inverness was warm with bright beautiful scenery. We followed great roads under trees beckoning us down the map and to the loch; a loch certainly a lot bigger than what I remembered. We passed lots of great houses and small hamlets and drove by plenty of parked would-be-photographers, before the sight of the castle on the edge of the loch began to appear in earnest; everything picturesque as hell.

Even though the castle has been there 800 years the afore-mentioned virus really has changed everything socially, so booking tickets the night before was a requirement for entry. As we drove in this was reiterated again, and the restrictions and changes outlined. Masks optional when outside, stick to the right of the paths where you can. the cafe is closed for sitting in. There were a few cars there and people milling about but I fully expect the ticket pre-order had maybe caught a few tourists and visitors off guard. Advantage us. As with the loch, the walk down to the castle was equally bigger than what I remembered from my childhood, but with mostly clear skies, a soft breeze, and a reduction in numbers it was incredible to see the castle and it’s surroundings open up as we trod passively downhill.

Castle Urquhart’s history is one of much conflict with the castle itself participating in numerous battles, wars, and raids while in use over a period of roughly 500 years. It shows. A motte and bailey fortification founded in the 13th century, the castle’s place in history gave it a supporting role in The Wars of Scottish Independence changing hands between Scotland and England (and vice versa) before subsequently being owned by a series of Scottish clans and families. During exchanges destructions and renovations shaped the castle into the structure that it is now- a composite of leftovers, extensions, and rebuilds; defenses added as combat continued and time passed. By the end of the eighteenth century the actual castle was roofless, mostly ruin, and a scenic wonder only to artists and tourists alike. Which takes us to this post today… I’m not the artist.

The skies opened as we made our way down the hill to the castle proper as we passed a repro-educational trebuchet and crossed what would have been the drawbridge upto the gatehouse to seek shelter. Like the rest of the castle the gatehouse has suffered destruction in parts with collapsed masonry visible on approach, but the structure itself is mostly still there- as the rain continued quite heavily now it provided shelter to a number of us, though, alarmingly not always socially distanced. We left and took our chances elsewhere in the grounds, exploring the wall remains of the “castle-toun” assortment of smithy, great hall, and doocot. That there were once pigeons housed and farmed in the castle grounds to provide eggs and subsequently meat in the winter surprised me a lot more than I would have thought.

Grant Tower, the towerhouse is perhaps the postcard centrepiece of the castle remains, but due to pesky virus restrictions yet again we weren’t allowed to climb fully to the top. Nontheless we still got to explore the interior of the five-storey structure -one way paths- and hang hands and phones out of windows and openings to take photos of a now quite bleak and stormy surrounding loch. The Jacobite Ferry was on the water- thankfully no signs of any monster activty.

The sun did reappear after a while and the skies warmed but by this time we were mostly back up the hill and in the car. We headed back to Drumnadrochit and decided to visit The Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition, an impressive looking building and bright garden that was once The Drumnadrochit Hotel. Ailish had been here when she was younger; a ‘museum’ about the loch and all the scientific discoveries and wonder it had generated over the last century. This time there was no mention of middle-ages conflict or battle, but the experience was a bit of a ruin itself.

The hotel experienced a devastating fire in 1984 so while the outside looks forgive me (again) picturesque as hell, the inside is a weird plastic cavern misery where you go from one room to the next watching very dated timed videos on a projector. I read as much in the reviews on the Tripadvisor page but we gave the place the benefit of the doubt and decided to go. It’s…okay for what it is, but zero interactivity and the attraction could probably learn quite a bit from the edutainment and joy of places like The Edinburgh Dungeons et al, but that’s just me. The place had an ironic B-movie esque charm but it hurt me more knowing that it and the accompanying cafe, tourist hotspot to world-famous Loch Ness definitely had a lot more potential, just maybe not the inspiration.

Fear of open water -yes, that one, i’m that person- meant we didnt go on a cruise or boatride of the loch, but with an afternoon of rain soaked into my clothes and a chill from dated attractions freezing my bones, we went back to the car and headed off. I’m really glad we visited the loch that day because with so much reiteration of everything on the news and social media and even day to day it felt great to break that cycle a little and go somewhere new and genuinely different, without having to travel too far. Yes, it was only one day, but that really made a difference; the castle itself inspired me quite a bit in regards to my ongoing long-fabled work-in-progress Lego Castle, and I left with a new desire to learn more about Scottish history. I would definitely recommend anyone reading to not just visit the castle ruins, but the loch itself at some point- there’s no certainty of monster sightings, but you’re guaranteed some equally impressive views away from home.