Balmoral Castle

After your arrival at Edinburgh airport (Turnhouse) and taking possession of your hired car you have time to discover Scotland's beautiful and vivid capital for the rest of the day.
Go for a long walk down or up the historical Royal Mile, go shopping in Princess Street or say a prayer in the medieval cathedral of St Giles. Then visit the old castle and stroll down to famous Holyroodhouse at the other end of the Royal Mile.

Accommodation in or near Edinburgh is already booked for you.

  Today you discover the beautiful area around Loch Lomond which is the largest lake of Great Britain. This ice-age glacier lake is for many Scotland fans the most romantic and most beautiful of all Scottish lochs and should actually be a part and one of the highlights of a Scotland trip. Unfortunately there is only very scarce secure parking space along this often narrow and winding road along the bank of the loch.

In the little town of Luss you can visit an interesting bagpipe manufacture.

Next stop is in beautiful Inveraray with its snow-white houses, the famous Jail and majestic Inveraray Castle.
From here you should drive through Kilmartin Glen where you can visit a lot of (chambered) cairns and stone circles of the neolithic and bronze age. Then you can visit the former capital of Scotland (around 500 AD) called Dunadd Fort and will then reach the busy ferry port Oban at the west coast.
Here you will spend the next two nights.

  Drive on the A83 back as far as Lochgilphead and then take the A816 north which is running partly along the shore. If you want you can have a closer look at the little Isle of Seil which you can reach over a hundreds of years old stone bridge of Clachan - a bridge which is spanning the sea!

Oban is a very colourful and vivid town. Allow yourself a long walk through this important port where the ferries to Mull and other isles of the Hebrides are leaving and visit the curious so-called "Oban Folly" on a hill above the town.
In oban you can book guided tours to Mull, Iona, and Staffa with the famous Fingal's Basalt Cave. Of course, you also can reach the isles by ferry.

The beautiful and quiet abbey island of Iona can be easily reached by car if you take the main single-track road (A849) on the Isle of Mull heading to the south-west to Fionnphort where it is ending. There a little passenger ferry will take you over the Sound of Iona to this wonderful picturesque island which should really be one of the highlights of your Scotland trip. Here, at the birthplace of the occidental Christianity, where St Columba founded a little cloister in the 6th ct, here, from where the Christianity began its victorious career throughout Europe, and here where 48 Scottish kings were buried, here you can deeply feel the breeze of the past.

Hint: The ferry from Oban to Craignure on Mull and back should be booked in advance if you are travelling in the main season. Of course, we can do this for you!

  On the A828 your journey through Scotland continues along the shore from Oban to Fort William at the foot of Ben Nevis, which ist Great Britain's highest mountain. Please stop here! It is a really beautiful and busy little town on the northern end of Loch Linnhe. Walk through the tourist bursting passenger zone with its many souvenir shops and make a little boat tour on the famous Caledonian Canal which contains of three big lochs (Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and Loch Ness).

Now continue along the shore of Loch Lochy to Invergarry and leave this road to discover the perhaps most famous and beautiful road of Scotland - the A87 and so-called " Road to the Isles". At the quiet shores of great Loch Cluanie you are entering Glen Shiel with the famous majestic peaks of the "Five Sisters of Kintail" in the background.

Near Shiel Bridge you reach Loch Duich in which one of the most famous castles of Scotland is still standing since the Middle Ages - Eilean Donan Castle. It was built in the 13th ct on a rocky spit of land and can be reached over an ancient stone bridge. This unforgettable sight will doubtlessly be another highlight of your Scotland trip.

Passing through some picturesque little villages you finally reach Kyle of Lochalsh which is the end of the railway and an important ferry port of former times. Since several years you can reach the Isle of Skye by taking the new big Skye bridge.

You'll spend the next night on the Isle of Skye.

  Today you'll make a round tour on the Isle of Skye. You should definitely visit the old castle of the Clan MacLeod called Dunvegan, the great rock formation of the Old Man of Storr, the famous cliff of Kilt Rock, the open-air museum of Kilmuir, the colourful and busy island capital Portree, the Talisker destillery, the mighty mountain range of the Cuillins, and Armadale Castle, the residence of the MacDonalds of Skye.

  Near Kyle of Lochalsh you reach the Scottish mainland again. Now take the A87 for a while and then branch off to the A890 to Achnasheen. Along Loch Carron you will experience one of the most beautiful regions of the Scottish Highlands. In Achnasheen you should take the A832 which will lead you through remote glens of Wester Ross to Kinlochewe and the quiet and lonely Loch Maree to Gairloch where you are back at the west coast.

Some miles to the north-east of Gairloch, directly on the A832, you will pass the parking place of the next great highlight of your Scotland trip - the wonderful Inverewe Gardens . You shouldn't miss them although it will take you at least three hours to visit them. You will be delighted by the various colours and smells of the partly even subtropical flowers and plants.
In Gruinard Bay there isw little Gruinard Island which is a forbidden area. After the Second World War the government has contaminated the island with anthrax.

Along Little Loch Broom your way will now lead you eastwards as far as Braemore Junction in the middle of the solitude of the Scottish Highlands. Here the A832 meets the A835 which would take you to the main town of the western Highlands - Ullapool . But here you should continue going eastwards to discover one of the remotest regions of the British Isles - a road on which there is only the picturesque Inn of Aultguish after passing Loch Glascarnoch.

Shortly before you reach Garve you will see the A832 again. Near the little health-resort Strathpfeffer you can find a typically medieval Scottish tower house called Castle Leod. Then you should go for a relaxing walk through the main street of Dingwall. Near Conon Bridge you cross the Cromarty Sound and are now on the peninsular of Black Isle. Now it's not very far to the capital of the Highlands called Inverness where you'll spend the next night.

On this morning you have to choose your further way along Loch Ness. You can either take the A82 southwards on which you can find the medieval Urquhart Castle and the Nessie centre Drumnadrochit. Or you choose the more beautiful route along the eastern shore of Loch Ness with its lonely single-track roads. Both roads are meeting again at Fort Augustus with its relatively new but fine Benedictine abbey.

Now go for a drive on the A82 along the Caledonian Canal as far as Spean Bridge and then take the A86 along Loch Laggan to Laggan. Here - you are now in the centre of Scotland - you'd take the A889 leading south over the mysteriously dark Pass of Drumochter with its famous Dalwhinnie whisky distillery. Crossing the mighty Cairngorm mountain range you finally reach another highlight of your Scotland trip - Blair Atholl Castle, the marvellous and very old tower house residence of the Dukes of Atholl who are allowed to have a private army!

Near Bridge of Garry you can have a short stop at the wonderful view point Queens View overlooking the great scenery of quiet Loch Tummel - don't miss it!!! Passing the little towns of Pitlochry and Dunkeld with a fine medieval cathedral and restored houses of the 16th - 18th ct you finally reach the big city of Perth. Only Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen have more inhabitants than Perth who gave its name to a even bigger city in western Australia. Go for a walk through the city centre - there is a busy pedestrian zone - and visit the cathedral of St John. A few miles north-east of Perth you then should visit Scone Palace and the near Moot Hill where the ancient Scottish kings were crowned. Also within only a few miles are the medieval tower houses of Elcho Castle and Huntingtower Castle.
You'll spend this night in or around Perth.

From Perth you can take the motorway south to Edinburgh. If you still have some time visit the small town of Kinross which lies directly beside the motorway and Dunfermeline which was the capital of Scotland in early times. At North Queensferry you cross the Firth of Forth over a several miles long motorway toll bridge, the Forth  Road Bridge. Scotland's capital Edinburgh lies to the left side. Leave the A90 after reaching the other shore of the Firth.

  On the last day you can make a shopping tour through Edinburgh's busy city centre or visit some of the already above mentioned sights.
Then you give back your hired car and leave Scotland by plane.