It’s not hard to fall in love with Scotland, and fall in love we did on our short but sweet road trip through the Highlands. There’s a wild, rugged beauty to this little corner of the world, where the otherworldly landscapes and centuries-old castles have a humbling, serene power.
Although our trip was short, we managed to squeeze a lot in, and I’ve been asked a few times to share our itinerary so I thought this would be the best forum to impart the most detail. The hardest parts for me as we began planning our route were, firstly, deciding where exactly to go, knowing that we could only budget four or five days for the Highlands portion of our trip, and secondly, striking a balance between seeing as much as possible while still having time to slow down and relax.
With more time, I would have loved to explore the Hebridean Islands and (at least a portion of) the NC500 route, but as first-time visitors to the Highlands, we thought that Glencoe and the surrounding area would whet our appetite without being too ambitious or overwhelming for our short timeline. As a personal preference when I travel, I like to have a solid home base from which to explore and not to move locations every day, which meant we needed something centrally located to that general area. If you don’t mind hopping around every day or two, you could absolutely squeeze in even more sights than what we saw!
This led us to focus on the western half of the country, and we ultimately decided to stay in the Fort William area — more on that in just a moment. Planning a road trip like this can (and certainly did!) feel overwhelming at first, so my biggest piece of advice would be to pick a single focal point that you’d like to prioritize (or two depending on how much time you have), and plan the rest of the itinerary around that focus so it doesn’t all feel so enormous. For us on this trip, seeing Glencoe was really our focal point.
Before we hit the roads, we wanted to have a couple of days to settle in and acclimate, so we spent the first 18-hours of our trip in Culross, which is just about 40 minutes from Edinburgh airport. It’s a gorgeous historic village that feels like stepping back in time, and actually features quite heavily in the first season of Outlander. We spent our day there wandering the quaint cobbled streets, eating in the village pub, and exploring the ruins of Culross Abbey, originally built in the 1200s.
We stayed at The Dundonald, a small hotel in the middle of the village that has the most gorgeous views over the Firth of Forth. The breakfasts were incredible, the bed luxuriously comfortable, and the room delightfully cozy. We absolutely loved our stay at The Dundonald and in Culross, and would happily go back.
After our time in Culross, we departed for the Highlands. On our first day, our ultimate destination was our adorable cottage outside Fort William, which we booked via Boutique Retreats. Situated just outside the town on Coruanan Estate, the cottage felt secluded and private, with stunning vistas of Loch Linnhe and Ben Nevis. It felt completely remote yet we were only a 10-minute drive from the nearest grocery store, restaurants, and the like. It was certainly more space than we needed but it was in the ideal location for us and was too gorgeous to pass up. We spent our days out exploring and our evenings enjoying our M&S delights and curling up with a dram by the fire. It was our first time staying in a Boutique Retreats property and we had an incredible experience; I’m already looking at more of their cottages for our next trip back to the UK.
With that part covered, here is our itinerary for our four days in the Scottish Highlands.
Day One
Departing from Culross, our first stop was Doune Castle. Built in the 14th century, the castle is imposing and transportive. It features as Winterfell in the pilot of Game of Thrones and as Castle Leoch in Outlander, and it really truly did feel like being on a film set. From there, we drove a short distance to see some Highland cows. We typed ‘The Highland Coos‘ into Google Maps and followed the directions to Callender. We were able to buy a bag of food for the cows and feed them, and they were really quite friendly (although I’ll chock that up to having a bag of carrots in my hand).
Our last pitstop of the day was Glencoe. We stopped a few times along the way at the Three Sisters and the Wee White House, both of which were sights I had been wanting to witness for years, and they did not disappoint. The mountains were truly awe-inspiring, and having driven through the Rockies in Alberta and British Columbia, there was something special about Glencoe. I could spend an entire day in this little area just exploring the hills and their many waterfalls, it was truly magic. From there, we were off to the cottage (with a quick pitstop at M&S in Fort William for provisions) to warm up, have dinner, and spend the night.
Day Two
We hit the road early on day two and arrived at Glenfinnan, our first stop of the day, around 8am. Glenfinnan is home to the Glenfinnan Monument, which memorializes the fallen Jacobite clansmen who fought and died in the cause of Prince Charles Edward Stuart in the 1745 Rising. Behind the monument is the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct, known for featuring in the Harry Potter films. The steam train only runs from April through October, but the view of the viaduct with the mountains and the morning mist was incredible in its own right.
From Glenfinnan, we headed two hours north to Eilean Donan Castle. Originally built in the 13th century, it was destroyed in the 1700s, and then rebuilt in the early 1900s according to the surviving ground plan of earlier phases of the castle’s life. Situated on an island at the juncture of three lochs and surrounded by wild mountainous landscape, it really is a sight to behold. Walking through the castle tells the story not only of its history, but of the family who restored it to its former glory. I couldn’t recommend a visit here more.
From Eilean Donan we journeyed home, stopping a handful of times along the way at viewpoints to admire the mountains and the lochs. The landscape along this stretch of the A87 was some of the most wild and raw scenery I’ve ever encountered; I haven’t stopped thinking about it.
Day Three
Our third day was spent exclusively at the cottage, sleeping in after the early morning of the day prior and exploring the grounds of the estate. It’s always important to me to build in time to decompress and relax when travelling (it’s a holiday after all!), and this little break at the midway point of our trip was very much welcomed.
Day Four
Our fourth and final day was spent driving back down to Edinburgh. There were a couple of alternate routes we could have taken, but we decided to retrace our steps and experience Glencoe once more. From Glencoe, we took a slight detour east to The Hermitage, to stretch our legs and walk amongst the towering Douglas firs. From there, it was back to the airport to drop off the rental car before jumping on the tram into the city.
Although we jammed a ton into our four days, there were still a few things that we didn’t quite get to and will have to wait until our next visit: the West Highland Museum in Fort William; a whisky distillery tour (Talisker and Balvenie became fast favourites amongst the many drams we taste tested); visits to villages such as Oban, Beauly, and Elgin; Culloden Moor; additional castles such as Finlarig, Kilchurn, and Urquhart; and the Highland Folk Museum. That’s not to mention the other regions we didn’t even touch, from the islands to the NC500 route to the Cairngorms and the east coast.
One thing I didn’t quite plan for was that the daylight (or lack thereof) would limit our itinerary more than I anticipated. We didn’t feel comfortable driving the winding, narrow country roads in the dark, which limited our driving time to between 7:30am and 4pm at this point in late November. Had we had more daylight hours, I’m sure we could have seen even more; something to consider as you plan your own trip!
We knew we couldn’t possibly see everything on this trip, so we focused instead on getting our feet wet and seeing some of the core sights in the western Highlands. There is truly so much beauty to explore in Scotland, and I know we’ll be back.
Thank you as always for reading and I will see you in the next one, a little city guide on Edinburgh!
Victoria xx
