Tours from Inverness · Run by Timberbush Tours
Beauly · Clootie Well · Black Isle Brewery · North Kessock
A short, easy day on the Black Isle with a brewery, a waterfall walk and the chance of dolphins.
The Black Isle is just over the bridge from Inverness, so this day is mostly spent out of the coach. You start at Beauly and its priory ruins, then walk to the Clootie Well at Munlochy, where people still tie strips of cloth to the trees. After a stop at the Black Isle Brewery, where you can add a tour and tasting, there's lunch in Cromarty, a lovely old town at the tip of the peninsula. The afternoon brings a walk up the Fairy Glen to its waterfalls at Rosemarkie and a look at Fortrose Cathedral. Keep an eye on the firth for dolphins. You're back by 5pm.
The places it stops at, in order. Routes can change with the weather and the traffic.
The day
Where it starts
Railway Terrace, Inverness IV1 1NW
Leaves at 9am
A stop
The ruined abbey church of a priory founded about 1230 for French Valliscaulian monks, in a wooded, riverside setting in Beauly.
More about Beauly and Beauly PrioryA walk
A stop
An organic brewery on its own farm near Munlochy on the Black Isle, brewing since 1998, with a shop, brewery tours and workshops.
Tour and tasting optional
More about Black Isle Brewery
Lunch
A handsome old town at the tip of the Black Isle, of Georgian merchants' houses and fishermen's cottages, with its old courthouse and Hugh Miller's thatched birthplace.
More about Cromarty
A walk
A steep, wooded glen above Rosemarkie on the Black Isle, an RSPB reserve, where a path follows the burn to two waterfalls tumbling into pools.
Woodland walk to two waterfalls
More about Fairy Glen, Rosemarkie
A stop
The red sandstone ruin of the cathedral of the bishops of Ross, standing in a leafy square in the middle of Fortrose, with fine vaulting and window tracery.
More about Fortrose CathedralA stop
Dolphin and seal viewpoint; sightings not guaranteed
Where it ends
Back at about 5pm
Photographs: Timberbush Tours
Railway Terrace
Railway Terrace, Inverness IV1 1NW
Leaves at 9am. Opens 15 minutes before departure and closes 5 minutes before.
Children aged 4 to 16 pay less; their price shows when you book.
Run by
Timberbush Tours has been taking visitors round Scotland since 1998. June and Gary Voy, a husband and wife team, started it with a single coach, and it now runs its own fleet, with driver-guides who have been with the company for years. Their tours leave every day from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness, and from Portree on Skye, and you book with them directly.
Timberbush Tours answer them, and you book with them directly.
9am to 5pm from Inverness, from £64 an adult.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before a day tour, and up to 7 days before a tour of several days, by Timberbush’s own terms.
Booked with Timberbush Tours, or call them on +44 (0)131 226 6066
From Inverness8 hoursBack 5pm
Cawdor Castle · Dores Beach · Inverness · Glen Ord Distillery
Off the ship at Invergordon for Cawdor Castle, Loch Ness, Inverness and a distillery.
About 3 hours of it on the roadUp to 53 on a coach
From £75 an adult
Run by Timberbush Tours
From Inverness9 hoursBack 5.30pm
Urquhart Castle · Fort Augustus · Falls of Foyers · Dores Beach
Loch Ness without the long drive: a relaxed day out from Inverness, back by teatime.
About 2½ hours of it on the roadUp to 37 on a coach
From £51 an adult
Run by Timberbush Tours
From Inverness11½ hoursBack 7.30pm
Loch Fleet · Dunrobin Castle · Wick · Dunbeath Harbour
To John o' Groats at the north-east tip of mainland Britain, with Dunrobin Castle on the way.
About 6½ hours of it on the roadUp to 37 on a coach
From £54 an adult
Run by Timberbush Tours
