Scotland Road Trip: Loch Ness, Inverness, and the Road Back to Edinburgh

05/16/2025globegazers Leave a comment

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.

Driving back to the mainland on the Skye Bridge

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.

The view from our room. We added the time (10:44 PM) to show how light is still is late at night in the northern part of Scotland

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.

Walk through a cute residential neighborhood

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.

This building, built in 1668 as a hospital, now contains a pancake shop

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.

One of the kids enjoying their single bedroom

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!

Scotland Road Trip: Glencoe, Glenfinnan, and the Isle of Skye

02/22/2025enjean2013 2 Comments

Glencoe

After checking out of the hostel in Oban, we drove north along the coast. Our next stop was Glencoe (also written as Glen Coe), a beautiful valley in the Scottish Highlands. If you have watched Outlander, you have seen this beautiful area in the opening credits. There is a highway that provides for a scenic drive through the valley and a number of hiking opportunities along the way.

We stopped at the Visitor Centre to get more information about the area and what hikes would be best to do with kids. They also had a reconstruction of a 17th-century turf house showing what life was like in that era.

Nice views of Glencoe from the turf house

The rain seemed to have cleared slightly, so we next did the nearby Signal Rock hike. It involved some mild up and down through a (planted) conifer forest. There was lots of mud and some puddles we had to help the kids get around. The rock itself is now surrounded by trees, so you don’t get the visibility you would have had when it was supposedly used to signal the start of the Glencoe Massacre. It did start raining again on our walk back so we tried to move quickly.

For lunch, we stopped at the recommended restaurant of the nearby Clachaig Inn. We were impressed that even with a number of other visitors our food came quickly. We were also excited to hear that the music that they were playing matched many of the songs on our road trip soundtrack.

After the welcome chance to dry off and warm up, we got back in the car, cranked up the Outlander theme song, and drove the scenic road through Glencoe. The views did not disappoint!

We stopped at the Three Sisters Viewpoint where there are great views across at the Three Sisters mountains, plus up and down the valley.

We stopped one other place where Rick Steves had recommended a hike, but it seemed too windy to be enjoyable. We did get some great views from the parking area though.

Once we got to an area called Rannoch Moor, the hills flattened out. We turned around and drove back through Glencoe, getting to see the beautiful valley coming from the opposite direction.

We stopped at one more overlook, but had to take turns getting out because our younger kid had fallen asleep.

Glenfinnan

After driving back through Glencoe, we got back on the bigger coastal highway and continued north through the town of Fort William (and its many roundabouts). Our next destination was the Glenfinnan Monument. This is again another location of particular significance to fans of Outlander. The monument marks the spot where Charles Edward Stuart (“Bonnie Prince Charlie”) landed in Scotland in 1745 to start the 1745 Jacobite Rising – the conflict featured in the novel and show.

Before checking out the monument, we walked over to see the attraction that perhaps draws even more visitors to the area: the Glenfinnan Viaduct. This expansive railway viaduct was popularized when it was used as a filming location in the Harry Potter films as part of the tracks that the train to Hogwarts takes. There is a steam train for tourists that makes a few trips daily over the viaduct, and it has become a very popular destination for fans looking to get a picture. We debated trying to see it, but we would have either had to cut our time in Glencoe short or arrive late to our hotel in the evening, and we ultimately decided it wasn’t worth fighting the crowds anyway.

Next, we learned more about the monument in the small visitor centre, and then walked across the road to walk around the monument. The Highlander soldier at the top seems especially evocative.

To wrap up our time, we took a short trail up to a viewpoint with good views of both of these attractions.

Arisaig

When we were putting together our road trip itinerary, the toughest puzzle was figuring out where to stay between Oban and Skye. We thought about staying near Glenfinnan itself, but there aren’t any budget options near there. Ultimately we had the revelation that it might be good to stay as close to Skye as possible so that we could spend as much time as possible there the next day. With that goal in mind, we looked near the port of Mallaig where we could catch the ferry the next morning. We found a reasonably priced hotel in the town of Arisaig.

The drive from Glenfinnan to Arisaig along the “Road to the Isles” was quite scenic. The sun came out and made for nice views over the water. We could see the train tracks for most of the way too, and we even briefly saw the steam “Harry Potter” train when we went under it on a bridge – too quickly for pictures unfortunately.

We stayed in the Arisaig Hotel in one of the family rooms with bunk beds for the kids (booked directly with them). We had a nice dinner at the attached restaurant (making sure to make reservations ahead of time because it was quite popular). Probably our favorite feature came the next morning: our room rate included a full Scottish breakfast! The adults really enjoyed getting to try some of the specialties including blood sausage.

Over the Sea to Skye

Merry of soul s/he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye.

The line above is from both the Outlander theme song and the poem/song it is based on, the Skye Boat Song. It is describing Bonnie Prince Charlie escaping on a boat over to the Isle of Skye after the defeat of the Jacobite Rising. It was interesting for us to make the same journey just a day after seeing the monument to the beginning of the Rising.

We had pre-booked the ferry to Skye out of Mallaig for the 9:00 sailing. The breakfast at the Arisaig Hotel would only be served starting at 7:45, so we made sure to be all packed up and at the breakfast area right at the beginning. From there it was only a ten minute drive to the ferry terminal, and we ended up making it on time.

The ferry was run by the same company we had seen in Oban, Caledonian MacBrayne. We drove our car onto the ferry, then got out and headed up to the observation area. The sun came out so we spent most of the ride out on the deck, watching mainland Scotland recede just as Bonnie Prince Charlie had.

Skye: Portree

The ferry from Mallaig goes to the town of Armadale on the Isle of Skye. Here we drove off of the ferry and then drove up the large island to its largest town, Portree. This scenic drive took about an hour and a half.

In Portree we parked in a public lot in the main square and then got out and explored the town. We explored some souvenir shops and walked up to a viewpoint to get a nice view of the harbor and the colorful houses lining it. On the way back we stopped at a cafe for a hot drink and some snacks. The kids also had fun chatting with a talkative local.

Skye: Trotternish Peninsula

We got back in the car and started our trip around the scenic Trotternish peninsula north of Portree. We used the Rick Steves guide to help us figure out which of the places along the loop to get out of the car and see.

Unfortunately, the weather was not very cooperative, so we didn’t linger at many of the stops. We didn’t get out at the trailhead for the Old Man of Storr (rock formation) because we couldn’t even see it. We made brief stops at the overlooks for Lealt Falls and Kilt Rock.

The Old Man of Storr is back there somewhere

We drove on a smaller road off of the main path to get to An Corran beach. We had been interested to come here because there are dinosaur footprints you can supposedly see when the tide is right. A sign on the beach confirmed that they were there, but did not give great directions as to how to find them. The adults scrambled over the slippery rocks to try their best to spot them, but the kids were more than happy to just play in the black sand. The rain let up a bit as well so we ended up spending a while here.

The rain returned as we got back to the car, so we decided to eat our lunch (of picnic supplies purchased in Portree) in the car.

Our next stop was The Quirang, a series of rock formations in the center of the isle, accessible via a somewhat steep single-track road. We had been looking forward to viewing and maybe even hiking in this area that looks so scenic on the cover of the Rick Steves guide, but blowing clouds and rain in huge winds meant that we didn’t want to do much more than get out for a few pictures.

It took us a while to drive down from the area – this was the incident we mentioned in the Driving in Scotland discussion where someone coming up ignored the rules of the single-track road and never pulled over. A car coming down had to keep backing up in front of them something like half a mile until we and some others helped work the puzzle for how to squeeze them into a passing place.

We continued on around the peninsula loop. Due to the weather we didn’t think it was worth it to get out, so we just enjoyed the views from the mostly single-track road.

Single-track road, Trotternish peninsula. Note that we shouldn’t use the closest passing place because it is on the right!

Skye: Broadford

When searching on our own, we had a hard time finding any place reasonable to stay on Skye. Thankfully, the staff at Hostelling Scotland was able to book us a room at their hostel in Broadford on the island. We had a private room with two bunk beds. One downside was that we did not have an ensuite bathroom, so we had to walk down the hall for toilets or showers. However, the kids did fine with this and overall we enjoyed our short one night stay.

For dinner, we took a short walk into town to Cafe Sia. We all enjoyed the pizza, and the kids also appreciated that theirs came with ice cream.

This was a nice way to wrap up our two days traveling along the coast, both on the mainland and the Isle of Skye. The next morning we would head back to the mainland to Loch Ness and Inverness!

Summer Trip to Scotland: Edinburgh

01/12/202501/11/2025globegazers 6 Comments

In the summer of 2024, we took a trip to Scotland with our two children, ages six and three. Our trip started and ended in the country’s biggest tourist draw, the city of Edinburgh.

We originally planned to spend three nights there at the beginning of the trip and one night at the end (with a road trip in between), but our travel troubles getting there meant we missed out on our first night. We ended up adjusting our road trip itinerary some to give us extra time in Edinburgh on that final night.

Arrival and Settling In

As mentioned in the post about getting there, we took the tram from the Edinburgh airport to the flat we had booked through Airbnb, located just to the northeast of the city center. We loved the location, which was right off a road with grocery stores and bus lines to help us get around. It was definitely nice to have multiple bedrooms for the first nights as we were fighting jetlag.

Nice sitting area overlooking the city street

After getting settled, we decided we needed to get out and enjoy the sunshine to try and help adjust. We caught our first of many double-decker buses, which the kids really enjoyed.

We rode the bus to the middle of the Royal Mile, the main tourist and historic road which runs through the city center. From here we walked downhill, using the second half of the Rick Steves’ self-guided walking tour to help describe what we were seeing. Some of the highlights were Canongate Kirk, Dunbars Close garden, and an alley where some scenes from Outlander had been filmed. The kids did not have a lot of patience for sightseeing though, so we were a little more rushed than we would have liked to be. We ended at the bottom of the Royal Mile by looking through the gates of Holyrood House palace.

From this point, we decided it was actually just as easy to walk back to our flat. On the way, we stopped at a grocery store and got some breakfast supplies and some prepared food for a simple dinner. We watched the movie Brave, then all crashed pretty early!

Exploring Edinburgh

After a good night of sleep, we were mostly rested and ready to explore Edinburgh on the only full day we would have in the city.

Our first destination was Edinburgh Castle, which sits at the top of the Royal Mile. To get there, we took the bus again and got off by the National Museum, then walked up the hill to the castle, passing by scenic Victoria Street in the process.

We had followed the advice and booked our tour online ahead of time, which turned out to be a good idea because the tickets had been sold out by the morning of. Instead of just buying entrance to the castle, we had gone ahead and purchased Explorer Passes, which are good for 14 days and would allow us entrance to many of the historical sites we were planning to visit.

To tour the castle grounds, we again followed Rick Steves’ self-guided walking tour to provide a route and context. The castle staff also gave us a kids activity guide that provided some information for their age range. We enjoyed touring the grounds, which provided great views over the city. The kids especially liked climbing on the cannons. We did stand in line for some of the interiors of the buildings as well.

After the castle, we headed down the Royal Mile. Almost immediately we decided to stop at an attraction called Camera Obscura and World of Illusions. We had wondered if it was a tourist trap, but it ended up being an enjoyable visit. We got to travel through different floors filled with many interactive optical illusions. On the top floor is a 19th century device called a camera obscura which uses lenses and mirrors to project images from outside onto a table, looking almost like a video feed.

We took a break from the Royal Mile and went back to Victoria Street for lunch at Bertie’s Fish and Chips. Eric got the fish and chips, and Della tried her first haggis of the trip (fried this time).

We returned to the Royal Mile and did the first half of Rick Steves’ self-guided walk, taking us past more scenic older buildings and atmospheric closes (alleys). It had gotten a little damp so we did pause for a bit in St Giles Cathedral. We made it back to the middle of the Mile and caught the bus back to our flat for some nap / quiet time.

Then, for dinner we went to a food hall called Edinburgh Street Food. Here we met up with our friend Christine from Denver along with her niece, who were coincidentally visiting Edinburgh at the same time! We were able to order an eclectic mix of food: plant-based tacos for Della, bao buns for Eric, and pizza for the kids. The kids also got some interesting flavors of soft-serve ice cream for dessert.

Before heading to bed, we decided to try one other amenity of our flat: a chest full of dress-up clothes to allow us to dress like Scotsmen!

The next morning, we had to check out of our flat and go pick up our rental car for the Highlands road trip. Stay tuned for a future post about that!

Return to Edinburgh

After a fun trip in the Highlands (foreshadowing!), we returned to Edinburgh for one night. Since we had missed some of our sightseeing time at the beginning of the trip, we made some changes to the road trip itinerary to allow us to get back to Edinburgh in the morning so we could have most of the last day to explore as well. We were able to drop off our luggage at our accommodations for the evening (more on that in a bit), and then headed out into the city to explore.

We caught a bus (double-decker!) back to the National Museum area. We first got lunch at MUMS Great Comfort Food, a homey diner serving some traditional Scottish food. Eric got the haggis tower which came with mash (mashed potatoes) and turnips. Della got two different types of sausage with mash.

From there, we walked through the nearby Greyfriars Kirkyard to find some of the headstones with names that appear in Harry Potter, like Thomas Riddle.

We then visited the National Museum itself. It is free which was a nice perk, although that did mean it was crowded. We once again used the Rick Steves self-guided tour to help us chart a path through the varied exhibits. We walked through the technology section to a separate wing with different eras of Scottish history on different floors. The floors were ordered chronologically, but we found ourselves a little frustrated that within each floor there was not a well-defined path to follow for a good story of the era. We had to just poke around randomly on each floor, looking at items that interested us. After finishing on a nice rooftop terrace, we went back into the main wing and explored some of the exhibits on animals. We paused to rest our legs, and then decided to head back to the hostel to relax.

We were staying at the Edinburgh Central Youth Hostel, part of a network of hostels across the country called Hostelling Scotland. We had stayed at a number of these hostels on our road trip (more foreshadowing), so we knew what to expect. The Edinburgh Central hostel was definitely the fanciest one we stayed at! We got a private room with an ensuite bathroom, so it was basically the same as a hotel room, except that the beds were bunk beds. The kids’ favorite feature of the room was that our window looked out on a major road where they could watch the trams and buses go by.

For dinner we walked to Vittoria Italian restaurant (the “on the Walk” location). We had seen this on lists of good restaurants for families in Edinburgh so we thought it would be a good stop for our final meal out in Scotland. Both the adults and kids found some good things to eat, including some nice ice cream for dessert.

After dinner, we debated taking advantage of the late light of Scottish summer evenings and doing one last Rick Steves walk in New Town, but we could tell the kids would probably rather just go back and relax in the room, so we listened to our parenting side over our traveler side and called it a night.

The next morning, we got the breakfast at the hostel which was included in our rooming package – called the “Wee Breakfast,” it was your standard continental breakfast of cereals and breads with some fruit. Each hostel did it slightly differently. The main difference at Edinburgh Central was that we had to fight through swarms of other travelers trying to eat at the same time – it’s a big and popular hostel. After fueling up, we caught the tram to Waverley Station, where we caught a high-speed train to London. We would spend the night there and then catch our flight back to the US the next day!

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Outlander