In the summer of 2024, we took a trip to Scotland with our two children, ages six and three. After a longer than expected journey getting there, and two nights in Edinburgh, we rented a car and took a road trip through the Highlands. Our trip started with Stirling and Oban, then continued through Glencoe, Glenfinnan, and the Isle of Skye.

The last leg of the road trip took us past Loch Ness to the city of Inverness, the unofficial capital of the Highlands. After some time there, we drove most of the way back to Edinburgh, stopping at a few attractions along the way.

Loch Ness

The drive from Broadford on the Isle of Skye to our next nightly destination of Inverness took us right by the famous Loch Ness, so we planned our visit to the attractions we were interested in by the Loch to be done on the drive.

After our included “Wee Breakfast” at the hostel in Broadford, we got back in the car and hit the road. Getting off the Isle of Skye was easier than our journey on the ferry onto the isle, as on that part of the island there is the large Skye Bridge to the mainland. This drive had some nice scenery along the way and wasn’t too hard.

Our first stop in the Loch Ness area was Urquhart Castle. The visit to this historic site was included in our Explorer Pass, so we were able to visit for free. We had made a timed entry reservation ahead of time.

To start our visit, we watched a nice film giving the history of the site, and then we went out to explore the castle itself. The castle was an important location throughout Scottish history and changed hands many times. The last occupants destroyed the castle to keep it from falling into the opposition’s hands, so currently the castle is just ruins. Still, the site right next to Loch Ness made for great views out over the water, and there was plenty of historic interpretation to understand what we were seeing. Also, there was a scavenger hunt for the kids to try and find different items.

Our next stop was just down the road at the Loch Ness Centre, a museum that explores the myths about the Loch Ness monster and the attempts to find “Nessie.” We weren’t sure what to expect but actually found the museum to be well done – visitors are guided through different rooms that are decorated to make you feel like you are actually experiencing what they are discussing in videos that are played when you enter. The museum presented the different evidence and findings but let you draw your own conclusions. Of course, it did have a huge gift shop at the end too!

Inverness

After a 30 minute drive (including some scary roundabouts in the city), we made it to the Inverness Youth Hostel, our destination for the next two nights. This was again one of the Hosteling Scotland properties. It was much bigger than the others we had stayed in up to this point. We got a private room, but did have to use a shared bathroom down the hall.

From the hostel we walked through a nice residential neighborhood into the main part of Inverness. We strolled down a pedestrianized street to the main square where we read about some historic buildings in the Rick Steves guide.

We took a break for dinner, but it was a little difficult to find a place open and available on a Sunday. Our first choice, the Victorian Market food hall, was closed. Another restaurant had a large group coming so couldn’t accommodate us. We ended up trying out a restaurant called Scotch & Rye which worked out well. The adults got to enjoy a whiskey flight, and the kids enjoyed their juice that came in a beaker and the ice cream that was included as dessert.

After dinner we continued our walk through Inverness, passing by some more historic buildings and walking through the graveyard of the Old High Church. We walked on the bouncy pedestrian bridge over the River Ness and then headed back to the hostel for the evening.

The next morning was again rainy, so after our “Wee Breakfast” we decided to skip sightseeing and instead head to the Inverness Leisure Centre. Here they had a huge indoor pool with lots of different attractions: a toddler splash area, wave pool, lazy river, and a big water slide (that our older kid was brave enough to try). Even though it was a Monday, it was quite popular, and we had to get out (based on a timed entry band) earlier than we might have otherwise.

Culloden and Clava Cairns

From there we drove out to Culloden battlefield, a site which should be very familiar to Outlander fans. This is the site of the climatic battle of the 1745 Jacobite Rising, featured in the books and the show. It is a very important site for understanding the conflict, so we were looking forward to the visit.

Before the visit, we ate lunch in the attached cafe which had some good warm options, plus a nice beer brewed specifically for that location.

The museum itself was well done, describing the events of the 1745 Jacobite Rising that led to the battle. We especially liked one hall where one side described the events from the perspective of the Scottish Jacobites, and the other side described them from the perspective of the British troops. The kids had a little scavenger hunt they could do, but they still didn’t let let us fully read the displays.

After the museum we went out onto the battlefield itself. There are red flags marking the line of the British troops and blue flags marking the line of the Jacobites. We made it out as far as the large memorial cairn and the nearby cairn for Clan Fraser, which is now roped off after being disturbed by all of the Outlander fans trying to take a picture with it. We would have liked to explore more, but both kids were complaining about having to do the walking, so we cut our visit a little short.

We drove to the nearby Clava Cairns, a Neolithic set of burial chambers and standing stones evocative of those described in Outlander (given the proximity to Culloden, this area was one of the inspirations for the Craig Na Dunh stones that Claire interacts with). The stones aren’t as big as those shown in Outlander, but it was still fun to pretend that we were going to travel through them. We were also interested to look at the burial chambers which seemed quite sophisticated for how old they are.

We were not whisked away to the 18th centrury, so we returned to our hostel in Inverness and relaxed for the afternoon. We walked back into Inverness downtown for dinner. The restaurants in the food hall were closed again! We went to a Thai place instead and had some nice noodles for dinner.

Inverness to Perth

As mentioned previously in the series, our original itinerary had us spending three nights in Inverness, but after our flight delays cost us a day in Edinburgh we decided to cut our Inverness time short and add time in Edinburgh at the end. We were not able to book an extra night in Edinburgh, but we were able to switch our last night at the hostel in Inverness to a hostel in the city of Perth which is most of the way back to Edinburgh. We were able to find a few places to stop along the way of this journey.

Our first stop was the beach town of Nairn, which we had considered as a day trip option from Inverness. It was a little bit out of the way on the path to Perth, but we thought the kids would be excited to see a beach. Unfortunately the weather was not conducive to playing in the water, but the kids still had fun playing in the sand. They had even more fun playing on the playground that was just on the other side of the small dunes.

From Nairn we drove south on a long stretch of single track road and eventually reconnected with a highway. We next stopped at the Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore. After a lunch in the cafe, we explored this open-air site with buildings and interpretive displays from different periods in the Highlands. The most interesting was a village set up to look like one from the 18th century. Here we learned about how to live, work, build houses, and dress like a Highlander. In a different part of the site there were structures from the early 20th century including a schoolhouse. The kids also enjoyed a small playground.

The Perth Youth Hostel that we had booked a night in was interesting because it was actually located in student housing from a local university, so our private room was actually a multi-bedroom apartment suite! We got a unit with three single rooms and one double room, all with their own bathrooms, plus a large kitchen and common area. Compared to our previous hostel rooms this was a huge amount of space! We just bought some easy meals at a grocery store for dinner in our large accommodations. The kids each got their own rooms which felt nice after a few nights of sharing small rooms.

The next morning we drove the final hour back to Edinburgh, and then spent some time there as described in one of our earlier blogs. It was a bit of a bummer to not get to spend the extra day in Inverness, but ultimately we were able to see almost all of what we had hoped to in the area, and enjoyed what we did see!