8-day Scotland travel tour: Highlands, Skye & Outer Hebrides

Highlights

• See the Highland countryside unfurl before your eyes as you travel by train between Edinburgh and Inverness, accompanied by your Scottish tour guide, at the start and finish of your Scottish adventure.
• Travel by boat from Skye to the magical Outer Hebrides islands, staying overnight on Lewis before a morning trip to the extraordinary Calanais Standing Stones.
• Hear the most dramatic stories of the western Scottish Highlands and its famous castles, as you discover the dramatic landscapes and consider the human and geological forces that created them.
• Spend two whole days exploring Skye, including Elgol and Loch Coruisk, the Old Man of Storr, and the Quiraing. Enjoy two nights at Cuillin Hills Hotel in Portree, the main town on Skye.
• Learn all about the local history, mountain building and the dramatic Ice Age landscapes as you return via Ullapool, taking in a visit to Corrieshalloch Gorge, one of the most spectacular box gorges in Britain.

Overview

Our seven-night tour takes you into the stories and traditions of Scotland. Travel over the sea to Skye, to Harris and to Lewis, starting from Edinburgh. You’ll explore the history, geology and traditions of Scotland as part of a small group (maximum 10).

This Scotland vacation package encompasses loch-fringed coastlines, towering mountain ranges and hidden-away gems, all in the company of your Scottish and expert guides, who will bring to life Scotland’s history, culture and geology.

Your Scotland vacation includes castles laden with tales of conflict, clans and courage. You’ll dig deep into the local landscape, marvel at the landscape’s rugged beauty and uncover its deep-time origins.

One highlight of the tour is Skye. This ‘Misty Isle’ just off the Scottish mainland holds so much history, culture and traditions that you’ll be enthralled the moment you set foot on the island. Our Skye vacation takes you across the island and from hundreds of millions of years to the present, from peaceful ports to jagged mountain peaks, with all the richness of island life in between.

More sea travel to the Isles of Harris and Lewis follows. There you will walk amongst ancient standing stones and hear about the billion-year history of the rocks that form these neolithic monuments.

We return via Ullapool and more insights into mountain building and dramatic ice age landscapes.

Day 1: Edinburgh to Inverness - welcome to Scotland!

The first part of your tour is by first-class train from Edinburgh to Inverness. It’s a gentle introduction to the Scottish Highlands, with views of lochs, mountains and moors. After a mid-morning departure, you will arrive in Inverness in the afternoon, transferring to your accommodation via taxi.

You’ll receive a warm Scottish welcome at Coul House Hotel, an historic, family-run Georgian mansion. Get settled in, admire the countryside views and garden, and raise a glass to the start of your vacation in Scotland.

• Hotel: Coul House Hotel, Strathpeffer
• Group dinner

Day 2: To Skye

On the way to Skye, we’ll stop at a quintessentially Scottish landmark – Eilean Donan Castle.

Standing where three lochs meet, the castle’s fascinating history began long before BBC branding and James Bond films made it famous! You’ll have plenty of time to wander the battlements and the castle halls and take lunch, before we hit the road and cross the bridge to Skye.

Travelling back down to Portree, we’ll end this day by checking into your accommodation on Skye, the four-star Cuillin Hills. This award-winning hotel has an equally commended restaurant, inviting bedrooms and some of the most remarkable loch and mountain views on Skye.

• Hotel: Cuillin Hills Hotel, Portree for the next two nights
• Group dinner
• Daily Walking Details: Approx. 2 miles | Negligible ascent | Approx. 2 hours

Day 3: The hidden loch

After breakfast with an unforgettable view of the Cuillin Hills, you’ll embark on a real Skye vacation adventure. We’ll head to a loch that’s notoriously hard to reach – if you travel there by land…Luckily, you’ll be travelling by water! Board a boat in the village of Elgol to reach the elusive loch Elgol, which has stories of its own, having hosted Bonnie Prince Charlie while he evaded government capture after the Battle of Culloden.

At the picturesque Loch Coruisk, you’ll find out about the area’s geological past and hear the story of the Highland Clearances, a key chapter in Scottish history. Afterwards, there will be a picnic lunch and time to take a short or an optional longer walk along the shoreline of this hidden gem.

After getting the boat back to Elgol, we’ll return to Portree for a free afternoon and a last dinner at the Cuillin Hills Hotel.

• Hotel: Cuillin Hills Hotel, Portree
• Group dinner
• Daily Walking Details: Approx. 1.8 mile | 165ft ascent | 1.5 hours

Day 4: Over the Minches to the Outer Isles

After a last breakfast on Skye, it’s time to head off on the next leg of your Scotland vacation to the Isle of Harris. First though, we’ll travel to its northern Trotternish Peninsula, and stop off at the Old Man of Storr, an iconic collection of rock pinnacles that is an internationally recognisable sign of the island. Then around the north of Skye and further sights, including the spectacular Quiraing mountain landscapes and cliffs, that owe their origin to ancient volcanic activity.

We take a ferry from Uig, on Skye’s north-western coast, to the town of Tarbert on the Isle of Harris.

On the way up from the ferry to the hotel in Stornoway, we’ll visit Luskentyre beach and go on a short walk over the sands to see the ‘runrigs’ and The Coffin Road – Hebridean Way

The oldest rocks on Harris and Lewis, known as the Lewisian, are named after the Isle, and were formed over 3000 million years ago. They are two-thirds as old as the Earth itself! Some of the rocks are similar to rocks found in the mountains of the moon.

We will travel to Stornoway, the main town on the Isle of Lewis.

• Hotel: The Royal Hotel, Stornoway
• Group dinner

Day 5: Standing stones, deep time, Viking Chessmen and to Ullapool

Today we visit and a walk around the extraordinary Calanais Standing Stones. The stones were erected 5,000 years ago, that is even before Stonehenge!. Made of Lewisian gneiss the intriguing deep time story of the Lewisian rocks and their journey from depths of up to 60km, from below the continental crust, back to the surface a billion years ago, to then be placed in Neolithic Circle. We’ll also visit the Carloway Broch, which is one of the best preserved in the Hebrides and dates back over 2000 years.

Hear stories of Norse invaders and the discovery of the famous 12th century, Lewis Chessman found in 1831 and carved from walrus Ivory. Parts of the set are now in the British Museum and parts in the National Museum of Scotland.

In the afternoon we leave the outer Isles and travel back across the Minches to Ullapool. Approaching the mainland again we pass the Summer Isles with their colonies of seabirds and seals and take in the view of the majestic mountains that define the west coast of Scotland. We will hear about a geological history that involves continental collision and is home to the early theories of mountain building. These theories created some of the most intense Victorian scientific controversies.

• Hotel: The Ceilidh Place, Ullapool
• Group dinner

Day 6: Loch Assynt and the beautiful coastline near Lochinver - moving mountains and dramatic coasts

Today the tour takes in some of the most spectacular parts of the scenic route of the North Coast 500 and spends much of its time in the NW Highlands UNESCO Geopark.

The themes straddle one of the most contentious debates of Victorian Earth Sciences at the dawn of tectonic geology. The Highlands Controversy pitted the amateur and academic geologists against the Victorian scientific establishment. We’ll visit the key locations, including the famous Knockan Craig, armed with copies of the maps used by the various factions together with their interpretations of the critical outcrops.

And we’ll discuss a modern controversy, surrounding the evidence for a meteor impact 1200 million years ago and the location of the crater itself. We’ll also take in the history and archaeology of human occupation in the NW Highlands before returning to Ullapool.

• Hotel: The Ceilidh Place, Ullapool
• Group dinner

Day 7: Glacial landscapes, and the Highland Clearances

On the last part of our journey we will travel across the glacial landscapes of the highlands, visiting Corrieshalloch Gorge to see the spectacular results of several episodes of Quaternary glaciation, and review the history of the Highland Clearances in the area. This period of intense suffering and disruption effects was felt all the way across the Atlantic with the surge in Scottish migration to the US which followed.

If time we will visit Loch Ness to assess sightings of ‘beasties’.

• Hotel: Coul House Hotel, Strathpeffer
• Group dinner

Day 8: The journey's end and returning home

Savour your last breakfast at Coul House, then enjoy the journey back to Inverness to board the train back to Edinburgh late afternoon.

Note: If required for reasons beyond our control, GeoCultura reserves the right to substitute alternative accommodation of equal or higher quality or adapt the itinerary if required.

Activity Level and Transport

The activity level is rated as LEISURELY to MODERATE, requiring an average level of fitness (view our activity level definitions). The tour will involve walking in generally easy terrain, but will require good walking boots (please note, some paths may be uneven and loose underfoot). Walks are 1.5 to 5km (1-3 miles) long. This tour also involves boarding a passenger boat to reach Loch Coruisk, from a ramped pier.

If walking is an issue, alternative arrangements can be made during the scheduled longer walks, so please let GeoCultura know in advance.

The Tour Includes:

• The services of your expert guide and tour host who will be with the group throughout the tour, staying at the same hotels.
• Local geology expert who will accompany the group and give talks on selected days
• All transportation costs when travelling from Edinburgh on the first day, and when returning to Edinburgh
• Entry fees, local guide fees and activity fees, where arranged as part of the tour.
• All accommodation costs for the nights stated, assuming two people sharing a double room. Single occupancy rooms are available for a surcharge. See Single Supplement in ‘Need to Know’ tab.
• All breakfasts, six dinners, 1 picnic lunch.
• All service charges and most gratuities.

The Tour Excludes:

• Travel insurance. Guests should carry their own health and travel insurance.
• Extra or optional activities not described in the tour
• Lunches not included on six of the seven days, 1 dinner in Ullapool
• Personal expenditures, any alcoholic drinks with meals, and extras at hotels such as laundry bills
• Transportation to and from Edinburgh Waverley railway station at the start and end of the tour
• Passport and visa fees