Loch Ness, Glencoe and the Highlands

Glencoe · Fort William · Urquhart Castle · Clansman Hotel

How long: 8am to 8.30pm
On the road: About 9½ hours77% of the day
Group: Up to 53 on a coach
Runs: Daily, all year
From: £56an adult

Check dates and book Run by

The big one: Glencoe, Fort William and Loch Ness in a single day from Edinburgh, if you don't mind a long time on the coach.

If you only have one day and you want to see the Highlands, this is the tour that fits the most of them in. You leave Edinburgh at 8am and head north through Callander and across Rannoch Moor to Glencoe, where the coach stops so you can take in the mountains. After lunch in Fort William it's on to Loch Ness, with time by the loch at Urquhart Castle, and home by way of Pitlochry. It's a long day, back at about 8.30pm, and most of it is spent on the road, so it suits people who are happy to watch the scenery go by. Add the cruise when you book if you'd like to see the loch from the water.

The route

The places it stops at, in order. Routes can change with the weather and the traffic.

The day

From Edinburgh and back

Where it starts
Castle Terrace, outside the NCP car park
Castle Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2EW
Leaves at 8am
A break
Callander area
The busy gateway town on the River Teith where the road enters the Highlands, with a Roman fort, the Crags and the Rob Roy Way.
More about Callander area
Seen from the coach
Rannoch Moor and the Black Mount
A photo stop
Glencoe
A deep Highland glen walled in by the Three Sisters and the Aonach Eagach, cared for by the National Trust for Scotland, with a visitor centre off the A82.
More about Glencoe
Lunch
Fort William area
The town under Ben Nevis at the head of Loch Linnhe, where the West Highland Way ends and the Jacobite leaves.
More about Fort William area
Seen from the coach
Fort Augustus
The village at the southern end of Loch Ness, cut in two by the Caledonian Canal and its flight of locks, named after a fort built after 1715.
More about Fort Augustus
A stop
Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness
The ruins of a castle that was once among Scotland's largest, on a headland over Loch Ness, with the Grant Tower to climb and a café on site.
Cruise and castle package option
More about Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness
A stop · about 1 hour free time
Clansman Hotel, Loch Ness
Optional whisky experience (20–30 min), Old Coffin Road walk, or a 1-hour cruise
A break
Pitlochry
A Victorian resort town on the Tummel, grown up after Queen Victoria's visit of 1842 and the railway of 1863, with its theatre, its dam and its salmon ladder.
More about Pitlochry
Where it ends
Back to Castle Terrace, outside the NCP car park
Back at about 8.30pm

Photographs: Timberbush Tours

Where you meet

Castle Terrace, outside the NCP car park

Castle Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2EW

Leaves at 8am. Check-in opens 30 minutes before departure.

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What’s included

Digital translations
Knowledgeable Driver-Guide
Luxury Modern air-conditioned coach

Not included

Food and Drink

Extras you can add

Package: tour with Loch Ness cruise
Package: tour with Loch Ness cruise and Urquhart Castle
Donald Fraser Illicit Whisky Experience at the Clansman Hotel (20–30 minutes)

The cruise and the castle are added as a package when you book, or later by paying the difference. The Historic Scotland Explorer Pass isn’t accepted.

Good to know

Luxury modern air-conditioned coach
From age 4
The guide speaks English; written notes in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Chinese (Mandarin)
About 360 miles in all
Some places on the route may be hard going for wheelchair users or anyone who finds walking difficult.

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.

Every tour by Timberbush Tours