Mainly because the parking lot at Urquhart Castle was full. The road through the Great Glen runs alongside the lake and there is limited space between the lakeshore and the steep hills on the north side, so if the parking lot is full, that’s that.

Fortunately there were the odd lay-bys here and there and a few were both empty (or nearly so) of vehicles and had a good view of the Loch …

It was cold and dismal and there was a bit of a wind-induced chop on the Loch … so either Nessie was sitting in her centrally heated underwater cavern or, well, she was keeping her head low … like a U-Boat schnorkel.