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Best of the Scottish Highlands Tour from Inverness: Black Isle, Loch Ness and Scotch Whisky
1 day
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About this activity
Depart Inverness by minivan and travel with your guide to the heart of Scotland’s dramatic Highlands. The first stop of the day is at the banks of Loch Ness to try and catch a sight of the fabled Loch Ness monster. As you stroll through the village of Drumnadrochit and around the gorgeous shores of this famous loch (lake) surrounded by flora and fauna, you’ll soon realize that there’s more to Loch Ness than just a monster!
Next you’ll head to the nearby town of Beauly for lunch (own expense) and to have a look around. The name of the town comes from the French beau lieu meaning ‘beautiful place,’ and you’ll find it to be just that while you explore its charming streets at leisure.
The town is home to the legendary Glen Ord Whisky Distillery, and you’ll visit this next with your guide. While touring the cellars and distillery itself, you’ll see the whisky workers creating their flagship product – a 12-year-old single malt whisky – and you’ll be given a wee dram to sample before leaving.
Our next stop of the day is in Cromarty, a picturesque village where time feels like it’s truly standing still. Enjoy a leisurely walking tour around its quaint streets, seeing cute fisherman’s cottages and houses with typical Scottish crow-stepped gables.
Heading west, you’ll venture along a stunning stretch of the Highlands known as the Black Isle, an area of land that’s actually a peninsula and named for its association with the dark arts during medieval times. Hear tales like this and more from your friendly guide as you journey deep into the Black Isle’s beautifully barren countryside.
Continue traveling by minivan through the pretty villages of Rosemarkie and Fortrose, and then stop for a walk along a ridge known as Chanonry Point. Jutting out into the sea at Moray Firth, the ridge is widely acknowledged as the best place in Britain for see dolphins – home to a community of some 130 bottleneck dolphins. After dolphin spotting to your heart’s content, your tour continues back to Inverness.
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Next you’ll head to the nearby town of Beauly for lunch (own expense) and to have a look around. The name of the town comes from the French beau lieu meaning ‘beautiful place,’ and you’ll find it to be just that while you explore its charming streets at leisure.
The town is home to the legendary Glen Ord Whisky Distillery, and you’ll visit this next with your guide. While touring the cellars and distillery itself, you’ll see the whisky workers creating their flagship product – a 12-year-old single malt whisky – and you’ll be given a wee dram to sample before leaving.
Our next stop of the day is in Cromarty, a picturesque village where time feels like it’s truly standing still. Enjoy a leisurely walking tour around its quaint streets, seeing cute fisherman’s cottages and houses with typical Scottish crow-stepped gables.
Heading west, you’ll venture along a stunning stretch of the Highlands known as the Black Isle, an area of land that’s actually a peninsula and named for its association with the dark arts during medieval times. Hear tales like this and more from your friendly guide as you journey deep into the Black Isle’s beautifully barren countryside.
Continue traveling by minivan through the pretty villages of Rosemarkie and Fortrose, and then stop for a walk along a ridge known as Chanonry Point. Jutting out into the sea at Moray Firth, the ridge is widely acknowledged as the best place in Britain for see dolphins – home to a community of some 130 bottleneck dolphins. After dolphin spotting to your heart’s content, your tour continues back to Inverness.
Included
- Transport by air-conditioned minivan
- Driver/guide
Not included
- Food and drinks
- Gratuities
- Alcoholic Beverages - Admission to the distillery is not included
Additional
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Features
Tourism
95%
Cultural
80%
Reviews
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We had a lovely phase of warm weather in Inverness and the surrounding area. Victoria was a funny and informative guide, sharing info on the local history. The village and coastal stops around the Black Isle were picturesque, especially towards the end. A couple of stops, including Loch Ness, were pretty basic, but it was a perfect one day tour as far as overall ground covered and the total hours (7) was not exhausting.
Great tour and awesome views of the highlands. I love this tour and have seldom seen sights as beautiful as the highlands in Scotland. Amazing tour and highly recommend it.
It is worth of for those who enjoy countriside views, want to see life out of capitals and spend comfortably a day during their stay in Inverness. Nice Black Island sites and really rural atmosphere of villages to enjoy some coffee, sandwich or beer in local pubs. Whisky tour in Glen Ord only basic level, however, enough for most of not deeply interested in, finished with tasting. All tour related information given during the day were practical and interesting. Satisfied at all, but would recommend to tour guides, in general, to take better care of their pronounced english as also not native english speaking visitors can appear on their board from time to time. Thanks for nice day.
Enjoyed the lovely scenery and our guide, Julien, despite a mostly rainy day. We only stopped for a short time to take in the view of Loch Ness but I think I prefer that to the place we passed by - what seemed like a more commercial Nessie visitor's center. Julien, kept up a commentary through the day telling us interesting facts as well as local lore of the places we visited. The distillery tour was great and I felt there was ample time spent there about 45 min. Sally was our good humored distillery guide. I'm not a scotch drinker but this was an interesting tour and I can better appreciate what goes into making this libation! Footwear tip: don't wear thin/ spiky heels as part of it is walking on grating. Stopped in Beauly for a visit to the ruin of what was once an abbey. Julien's commentary did not seem rehearsed and I felt that he was sharing his knowledge with us rather than talking at us. It was like traveling around with a friend! We did not see dolphins near Cromarty but had a very nice lunch on our own and a brief walk on the beach there. By then the sun was peeking out. Again, Julien's stories were entertaining and personable. I would like to go back and spend a little more time in some of these places! Logistically speaking the pick up and drop off point bus station in Inverness was convenient and we left in a timely manner and got back earlier than I had expected. One thing I would encourage is to engage the tour participants with each other - maybe some ice breakers as we begin the tour. The people on the tour were pretty quiet and we didn't interact much with each other. Maybe all of us happened to be introverts that day? Overall a good day - wet but well spent! Thank you, Julien!
We had a fantastic tour guide Duncan, who was extremely knowledgeable and gave the best stories of the area. He even played music during the tour. It was exceptional. My in-laws said that this was the best tour they had ever had in their lives, so we know it was memorable. Highly recommend!