Stirling

Doune and Callander by Bus – Castle, Distillery and Waterfall

A day by bus and on foot, from Stirling bus station and back.

The route

Doune Castle is about eight miles out of Stirling, and the 59 bus takes you there and on up the Teith without a car.

From Stirling bus station it runs out to Doune, where the castle of Monty Python, Outlander and Game of Thrones stands above the river at the edge of the village. Walk its great hall and kitchens with Terry Jones and Sam Heughan in your ear, then follow the river upstream and cross the old Bridge of Teith to Deanston, where a Georgian cotton mill has made whisky since 1966. The same bus carries on to Callander, the gateway to the Trossachs, for a walk up out of the town and through the woods to Bracklinn Falls and the footbridge across its gorge. The 59 brings you home along the same road in about 50 minutes.

Before you go

Book Doune Castle
A few days ahead in summer; tickets cost less online than at the door.
Book Deanston Distillery
A few days ahead in summer; tours take up to 12 people, with a few places kept for walk-ins.

The day

Doune and Callander

A day out of Stirling on the 59 bus, from the bus station at 9am along the River Teith to Doune Castle, the old cotton mill at Deanston and the falls above Callander. The morning is the castle, then a walk up the river and over the old bridge to the distillery. The afternoon is the bus on to Callander and a walk up to Bracklinn Falls.

Doune Castle
It's about half an hour on the 59 from Stirling bus station to Bank Street in Doune, then 11 minutes' walk through the village and down Castle Hill, with a steep climb on cobbles to the gate at the end. Tickets are for a set time, so book the first slot you can reach, about 10am from the 9am bus, and allow about an hour: leave by 11.15 for a noon tour at Deanston. Built in its present form in the late 1300s by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, it's the castle of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Outlander's Castle Leoch and Winterfell in the first series of Game of Thrones. Terry Jones and Sam Heughan narrate the audio guide, which plays on your own phone, so bring headphones.
25 min on foot
Deanston Distillery
An attraction
Deanston is about 25 minutes' walk, 1.8 km, by the river: the path below the castle follows the Teith upstream for half a mile, muddy in places, then climbs to the A84 at Dan Doo's Brae. From there the way runs downhill over the Bridge of Teith on its narrow pavement, then by the footpath towards Deanston to the distillery. Cotton was spun here from 1785; the mill standing now and its vaulted weaving shed date from the 1820s and 1830s, and turned to whisky in 1966. The tour takes about 45 minutes, and the Coffee Bothy does lunch.
More about Deanston Distillery
About 2 hr 55 min on foot
Callander
An attraction
The 59 takes 24 minutes from the distillery door to the War Memorial in Ancaster Square, on Callander's Main Street. The town is the eastern gateway to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, a long main street of stone shops and hotels beneath the wooded Callander Crags, which rise on the Highland Boundary Fault. Stop for a coffee before the hill, and look in at Galleria Luti on the square for bright contemporary Scottish art.
More about Callander
30 min on foot
Bracklinn Falls
An attraction
It's a 30-minute walk from Ancaster Square, the first 1.3 km steeply up Ancaster Road and Bracklinn Road to the walkers' car park, then a woodland path down to the falls. The Keltie Water pours through a rocky gorge in a string of cascades, crossed by a footbridge high above; the one there now opened in 2023, the second since floods swept the old one away in 2004. The falls are at their best a day or two after rain. Walk back the same way, 29 minutes down to the 59 on Main Street.
More about Bracklinn Falls

If it rains

Doune Castle's great hall, kitchens and upper rooms are under a roof, and the distillery tour is indoors, so the morning is much the same in the wet. The gorge path at Bracklinn turns slippery in heavy rain, though the falls are at their fullest after it. In a downpour, stay in Callander instead: Galleria Luti on Ancaster Square shows contemporary Scottish art, Main Street has its cafés, and the 59 home runs every hour, or every two on a Sunday.

Where to eat