Photograph: Hidden Scotland
Tours from Edinburgh or Glasgow · Run by Timberbush Tours
Glencoe · Fort William · Commando Memorial · Blair Athol Distillery
Two days from Edinburgh or Glasgow: Glencoe and Loch Ness, then Culloden and the Cairngorms.
This is a good first Highlands trip if you have two days. Day one takes you up Loch Lomond to Glencoe, then on past Fort William and the Commando Memorial to Fort Augustus and Loch Ness, with Urquhart Castle on the way to a night in Inverness. Day two is about history and hills: Culloden Battlefield, the ancient Clava Cairns, Loch Morlich in the Cairngorms for lunch and the ruins of Ruthven Barracks, with a distillery visit in Pitlochry before you head home. Rooms aren't included, but the tour can book them for you.
Day by day, the places it stops at and the roads between. Routes can change with the weather and the traffic.
Day one
Where it starts
Castle Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2EW
Leaves at 8.30am
A break
Britain's largest inland stretch of water, with more than thirty islands and the Highland Boundary Fault across its middle.
More about Loch Lomond and the Trossachs (Luss)
A photo stop
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
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
A photo stop
Three bronze commandos above Spean Bridge, looking south to Ben Nevis over the country where they trained, with a car park off the B8004.
More about Commando Memorial
A stop
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, Loch Ness
A photo stop
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.
Time permitting
More about Urquhart Castle
The night
The castle on Castle Hill above the River Ness, open since 2025 as the Inverness Castle Experience, with exhibitions and a rooftop terrace.
More about InvernessDay two
A stop
Entry optional
A stop
A cemetery of cairns and standing stones about 4,000 years old, in a small wood on a terrace above the River Nairn near Inverness.
More about Clava Cairns
A photo stop
A village on the River Dulnain with a stone bridge of 1717, the Golden Spurtle porridge championship and red squirrels in the pine woods.
More about Carrbridge
Lunch
The highest beach in Britain, golden sand on a loch of the Glenmore pinewoods, with watersports and the Cairngorms beyond.
More about Loch Morlich, Cairngorms National ParkA stop
A stop
An ivy-clad distillery of 1798 on the edge of Pitlochry, making the malt at the heart of Bell's, with tours, tastings and a bar made from an old copper mash tun.
Tour and tasting optional, subject to availability
More about Blair Athol Distillery, or Pitlochry if unavailableSeen from the coach
Photographs: Timberbush Tours
Castle Terrace, outside the NCP car park
Castle Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2EW
Leaves at 8.30am. Opens 15 minutes before departure and closes 5 minutes before.
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Rooms are not in the price. Timberbush Tours can book them for you, paid on arrival; roughly:
Book your own and it is £10 less.
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.
2 days from Edinburgh, from £125 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 Edinburgh12½ hoursBack 8.30pm
Glencoe · Fort William · Urquhart Castle · Clansman Hotel
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.
About 9½ hours of it on the roadUp to 53 on a coach
From £56 an adult
Run by Timberbush Tours
From Edinburgh or Glasgow4 days
Luss · Rest · Inveraray · Culloden Battlefield
Four days that include the Jacobite steam train over the Glenfinnan Viaduct and two nights on Skye.
About 17½ hours on the road in allUp to 16 on a coach
From £329 an adult
Run by Timberbush Tours
From Glasgow11½ hoursBack 7.30pm
Glencoe · Fort William · Fort Augustus
Loch Lomond, Glencoe and Loch Ness in a day from Glasgow, an hour shorter than the same day from Edinburgh.
About 9 hours of it on the roadUp to 53 on a coach
From £67 an adult
Run by Timberbush Tours
