Vacation Scotland

With the exception of around 60,000 native Gaelic speakers, most Scots are English monoglots: that is they can only speak, read and understand English. All languages impart a ‘view’ of the world, and as a result we see our land and our culture through the medium of the English tongue. Gaels, people who speak Gaelic, [...]

Many of Scotland’s place names reflect a distant past when evangelical monks wandered the country trying to convert the locals during the so-called Dark Ages. Many of these priests left an indelible mark, and were canonised as Celtic Saints; and one such was St Mael Rubha (who’s name we find in Loch Maree) who preached [...]

The Great North Road, the A9 Highway slices northwards into the Highlands at Dunkeld and then follows the Rivers Tay and Tummel to Pitlochry before reaching a formidable barrier at Killiecrankie. For centuries the narrow gorge and steep mountain slopes looming large above have provide an engineering challenge for any road builder carving a route [...]

The Trotternish Peninsula in the north of the Isle of Skye is a Tolkienesque world of ridges, pinnacles and plateaux; a staccato terrain that forms a stunningly beautiful landscape. At the north end of the peninsula, as it juts out into the sea facing the broad horizons of the Western Isles beyond, is the Cuithraing, [...]

In ancient times the people of the Highlands didn’t consider the Grampian Mountains as a single block, but as a complex series of ranges and valleys; each with their own characteristics, lofty peaks and secret pathways. A few of the old names have come down to us; and the broad plateau of hills lying to [...]

From the Highland capital, Inverness, the A9 Trunk Road continues north through the Black Isle, and over the Cromarty and Dornoch Firths making towards a ridge of blue mountains in the distance; for the land beyond is the great county of Sutherland. Sutherland is a an odd name for a district in the far north [...]

Running a travel company, I’m often asked – when is the best time to travel to Scotland; when will I see Scotland at its very best; and there is no right answer to that. Yes, the summer is warmer, but then the roads are busy, and it’s harder to find places to stay. May or [...]

Charles Steinberg from New York’s Brandy Library travelled to Scotland last winter on a whirlwind whisky tour, which took him from the rolling hills of Speyside to the Celtic heartlands of Islay. This is his account of the trip, and we thank him for this contribution and for allowing us to post as a blog.

Our Outlandish Adventure tour is an eight-day romp based on the hugely successful Outlander Books series written by Diana Gabaldon. In it we combine fiction with fact as we draw the traveler back in time to the world of the Jacobite Rebellions of the 18th century, and walk in the footsteps of our heroes, Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser. The tour weaves its way from the turrets and towers of Edinburgh to the wild Highlands, and visits the key places found in the books – a time-travelling quest that shows how modern Scotland was born amid the blood and romance of the Jacobite Civil Wars