Loch Ness is 23 miles long and at its widest point it is just 1.5 miles wide. Nessie was first seen by St. Columba in 564 AD. Every year people are reporting sightings - in 2017 there were 11 sightings, and in 2018 there were 13 sightings. Keep your eyes peeled as we journey around the loch. Our first stop is at the Wellington lay-by where on the 31st December 1939 a Wellington Bomber from RAF Lossiemouth was forced to ditch after suffering engine failure. The remains of the bomber were recovered in 1985 and it has been fully restored and is now in Brooklands Museum in Weybridge in Surrey.
Carrying on through Drumnadrochit we come to Urquhart Castle sitting on a rocky promontory with fantastic views over Loch Ness. This 800 year old castle has had a turbulent and bloody history. Explore the ruins and visitor centre.
Beauly Priory is currently closed due to recent high winds causing masonry to fall , we do not know when it will reopen. We will still visit Beauly where you can see The Priory from the gate. Leaving Urquhart Castle, we head back to Drumnadrochit and take the Culnakirk Hill Road towards Beauly and our next stop, the Beauly Priory. The priory was founded in the 13th century for monks of the Valliscaulian order. In the grounds of the priory you will find the Beauly Elm Tree, this tree is 800 years old and is the oldest elm tree in Europe.
Cawdor Castle re-opens on the 27th April 2024 Cawdor Castle, has been home to the Thanes of Cawdor since 1370. The castle is set in stunning grounds and gardens and is surrounded by the magnificent Cawdor Big Wood, one of the finest woodland areas in Europe.
We head back towards Inverness to the Clava Cairns. The Clava Cairns are 4000 years old and the area is an ancient cemetery. The sites contain a range of prehistoric burial monuments and the remains of a medieval chapel. The Clava Cairns provided inspiration for Creag Na Dun in the Outlander series and the Cleft Stone can be found here.
Less than a mile from Clava Cairns is Culloden Battlefield where on the 16th April 1746 the last battle on British soil was fought and the final Jacobite Rising came to a brutal end. In less than one hour, 1600 men were slain, 1500 of them Jacobites. This was to change the way of life in the Highlands forever. Walk round the battlefield and see the memorial cairn and the clan burial stones, and visit the visitor centre.
We pass by Inverness Castle where you will see in the grounds of the castle a statue of Flora Macdonald who was famous for helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape after the Battle of Culloden.
Inverness Cathedral is the most northerly Anglican Cathedral in the UK. The Cathedral was commissioned by Bishop Eden and was completed in 1866.
This tour was a great combination of folklore and history. Colloden was well worth the trip for it's history and beautiful grounds. Billy brought the battle to life. The history and folklore of Clava were great. We enjoyed the stop at Loch Ness and Urquhart castle.
Called in the morning and was able to pick us up Same day as high season was ending. William (Billy) was our tour guide. Billy is very knowledgeable. Loved doing the Outlander part as was able to talk about the story as relates to our stops! He is funny and we really enjoyed our 2 days with him. Cannot recommend this group enough! You won’t be disappointed!
Fantastic experience with Kevin! Picked us up at our inn right on time and asked us what we wanted to see and what our interests were so he could better personalize our experience. We couldn’t have asked for a better guide (or better weather!) Kevin took us to several outlander locations, showed us a bit of history and took us to a whiskey tasting! We were introduced to the dream ring and a few other local known activities. Kevin… Bonnie Kyle, The Campbell and I thank you for an amazing day and all the great recommendations for the remainder of our stay in Scotland!
Jim was so nice and made sure we were well taken care of and saw everything we were interested in. Excellent tour!
Billy was our amazing guide through the highlands on this tour. We had a great day with him! He was so friendly and accommodating and was open to doing anything we wanted for the day. He was so helpful in securing tickets for us for the Loch Ness cruise and even getting tables for us at a food hall in Inverness. He truly goes above and beyond for his passengers! We loved the sights on our tour, especially the boat ride across Loch Ness. He also tailored the information and stops to our interest in Outlander. We were only in town for a few hours as we were on a cruise ship, but this was a perfect tour for us to see the outlander big spots like the Clava Cairns and Culloden battlefield in such a short time. Thank you Billy for an amazing day!
Amazing job, thoroughly enjoyed out your
Billy Maclean was our tour guide for an exceptional day of site seeing around Inverness and Loch Ness. Billy is fun and informative and made us feel right at home. The sites we visited were fantastic and Billy made sure to give us enough context and historical insight to fully appreciate what we were seeing. I highly recommend booking your own trip when you are in Inverness. Billy is an expert in walking the fine line between guiding your tour and providing you with the privacy to explore and discover on your own and at your own pace.
Our tour with Lawrence was fantastic - both fun and informative. We were a family group with a grandparent and children and he made sure everyone enjoyed the tour. Definitely use his service!
Lawrence did a wonderful job tailoring the tour to our preferences. We especially loved the Highland Cows!! It was a wonderful day!
Lawrence was amazing!! He made the day so worth it with his knowledge, interesting stories and so much more. We learned so much about Scottish history it was unbelievable!!
We had such a wonderful day with Billy as a tour guide. He was so knowledgeable and patient. He took us to some hidden gems and places we never would have thought of! This was a true highlight of our trip. Do not hesitate. Book!!!
Kevin our guide tailored the day to our must sees, following up with what we didn’t know we needed to see! His knowledge of the Battle of Culloden was very extensive, the Cava Cairns information was fascinating and if you are an Outlander fan the stones connection at the Cairns gives more perspective on where the story was conceived. Our views over the highlands and Kevin’s knowledge of the area and the social history of Inverness was really interesting as well. An all round edifying and enjoyable day, well worth doing!
Bobby is an excellent guide his stories and vast knowledge made for a fun day and learning experience. The tour wad trailed to our family request's
Kevin was fantastic! Very accommodative and informative. He focused on the things in which we were interested. Great recommendations for dinner - the Waterfront restaurant. Would definitely hire him again. Thanks, Kevin!
Outstanding experience! Outstanding service! Outstanding Guide! We spent our day with Billy and fell in love with the Inverness area! Billy made sure we had a great time, saw everything we could see and accommodated our every need. He made our vacation experience one in a lifetime! Our kids are already hoping to see him again! Book with them!!! HIGHLY Recommend!
We had a wonderful day with Lawrence Macleod. He picked us up at our hotel in Aberdeen and our first stop was the Glenfidditch Distillery for a tasting His car was clean and comfortable and he had water for us. He took us through beautiful scenery and was very flexible. My husband thoroughly enjoyed the tastings and we continued on to Cowdor castle for lunch at the tavern and a tour. Lawrence found out we were Outlander fans; so, he added taking us to the “Craigh Na Dun” stones. He gave us a personal tour of the Cullodon battlefield, as well. We finished our day with feeding the Highlander cows, a highlight for me, and driving over to Loch Ness and the Urquhart castle. A very busy but fun filled day. Lawrence is a history buff so he had many a story or tale to tell which enriched our experience even more. We cant recommend him enough!
Our multi day tours were customized. We removed Loch Ness and went to a castle and some special places recommended along the way. This company is great for that reason. They aim to please, giving you the experience you want. We planned our bespoke trip in advance and these guys (Larry and Billy) were so helpful with dining and entertainment suggestions. They exceeded our expectations. We plan to go back to see other areas of Scotland and will have them assist us again with our sightseeing journey.
Billy was great. Wonderful knowledge of the area and very flexible service. Wind and rain was horrendous but we still had great tour.
We had a wonderfull day! Our driver and guide Billy was super!! He told us a lot about the historie and the surroundings!
Lawrence was phenomenal, very knowledgeable and easy to talk to, we had a 7 month old baby with us and he accommodated us no problem. Highly recommend their services if you want to tour the highlands
Creating a customized tour was easy with the great knowledge and good communication from Lawrence. Tour guide Billy was great!! Funny, Informative and very good at navigating the sites to save us time. Highly, highly recommend Highlander Private Tours.
A group of 8 from a cruise ship had an excellent tour with Billy. He was a wealth of information about the Highlands, history, Inverness and all things Scottish. We saw some great sites and learned a lot! Thanks Billy for a great day out in the Highlands!
I'm a little late with this review, as I had lost the contact info, then just found it! But, it was such an amazing trip, I just HAD to come leave a review for them! We had a private tour, 3 of us, with Lawrence as our guide. He was absolutely perfect! Picked us up from our cruise ship, took us to all the places we were interested in, told us great history and stories about everything, it was just an incredible tour. Definitely the highlight of our trip to Scotland. I would not hesitate to book with them again in the future!
Wonderful tour, fun surprises! Our driver was the best ever!! We loved all the sites. And learned so much.
The best day of our British Isles cruise was our tour day in Inverness, Scotland!! Billie our driver was the best! His knowledge, expertise, and familiarity with the traditions, history, and geography were unmatched!
Billy was a great tour guide and made us feel very welcome and he was very enthusiastic about his country and proud of his heritage. He gave us a grade A, A+ tour of Loch Ness, Culloden, Cawder Castle and other places that were not in the stated itinerary. We really appreciate him asking us where we wanted to go and never rushed us or talked about how much time we had at each place, unlike some of the other tours we have had with past tour operators. If we come back this way again, we would definitely take another tour with him. Anyone thinking about doing a tour in and around the Highlands, please book right here with Billy.
Lawrence was absolutely amazing! I loved every minute of this tour. He was very knowledgeable about everything on the tour and gave us time to enjoy ourselves with pictures. It was so nice to not feel rushed like other tours. We plan to come back and will always book and recommend our family and friends to Highlander.
Highlander Private Tours is the only tour company to use. Friendly, courteous, knowledgeable. They made us feel like family.
We had a wonderful day with our guide Larry. He picked us up on time at the port of Invergordon and showed us his Highlands. Larry told us with a lot of passion about his country and its history. The highlight for everyone was Loch Ness, of course, but other places like Beauly or Cawdor also had their appeal. Everywhere he could answer our curious questions. We also visited many places from the Outlander books and Larry told us how they relate to the history of the Highlands. The tour was the highlight of our holiday. By the way... we saw Nessie ;-)
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