From Your Scottish Base
Scotland Day Trips
✦When you're already up north — Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness✦
- Aberdeen — Granite Mile to Old Aberdeen — Granite Mile through the city centre, north to medieval Old Aberdeen for King's College and St Machar's Cathedral, along the River Don to the medieval bridge, beach esplanade back via Fittie fisher village.
- Ayr & Culzean Castle — ScotRail down the Ayrshire coast to Burns country, then a clifftop castle with a tunnel down to the beach — Eisenhower's Scottish home.
- Cairngorms — Aviemore & Rothiemurchus — ScotRail south of Inverness to Aviemore, walk the ancient Caledonian pinewood at Rothiemurchus, take the funicular up the side of Cairn Gorm for a sub-Arctic plateau view.
- Crathes Castle & Gardens — 16th-century pink-harled tower house above the River Dee, with one of the great walled gardens of Scotland — yew hedges from 1702, herbaceous borders, hidden chambers.
- Culloden Battlefield & Cawdor Castle — The 1746 battlefield where Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite rising ended in slaughter, and a 14th-century castle from the Macbeth legend — both within 30 minutes of Inverness.
- Edinburgh — Old & New Town walk — Royal Mile through the Old Town, up Arthur's Seat, down to Holyrood, across Princes Street to the New Town and Stockbridge along the Water of Leith.
- Glasgow — City Centre to West End walk — George Square through Merchant City to Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis, west across to Kelvingrove and the University cloisters, along the Kelvin to Riverside Museum and the Tall Ship.
- Inverness — Castle, River Ness & Caledonian Canal walk — Inverness Castle viewpoint, then a loop along the River Ness through the Ness Islands, onto the Caledonian Canal towpath, back via the Victorian Market and Leakey's Bookshop.
- Largs & Great Cumbrae — ScotRail to Largs on the Firth of Clyde, ferry to Great Cumbrae, hire a bike to circumnavigate the 10-mile-around island, ice cream from Nardini's on the way home.
- Linlithgow Palace, Falkirk Wheel & Kelpies — Mary Queen of Scots' birthplace, then a working boat-lift (the Falkirk Wheel), then two 30-metre steel horse-heads. Three of Scotland's most surprising sights in one day.
- Loch Lomond — Balloch & Luss — Train to the foot of Loch Lomond, walk Balloch Castle Country Park along the lochside, ferry or bus up to Luss — chocolate-box conservation village with the loch behind it.
- Loch Ness — Drumnadrochit & Urquhart Castle — Bus down the Great Glen to the Loch Ness Centre, the ruined Urquhart Castle on the lochside, and a Loch Ness cruise — search for Nessie included.
- Melrose Abbey & Borders Railway — Borders Railway to Tweedbank, walk along the Tweed to Melrose, ruined abbey where Robert the Bruce's heart is buried, lunch on the square, return via Abbotsford.
- North Berwick & Bass Rock — Train to a Lothian seaside town, climb North Berwick Law for a Forth panorama, walk the harbour to the Scottish Seabird Centre, optional boat to the Bass Rock.
- Rosslyn Chapel & Pentland Hills — Bus south of Edinburgh to Rosslyn Chapel — Da Vinci Code, riotous medieval carvings — then walk into the Pentland Hills for a soft-summit view back to the city.
- Royal Deeside — Ballater & Balmoral — Bus west up the Dee valley to Ballater, the granite village under Lochnagar, then the gates of Balmoral — the King's holiday cottage for 170 years.
- Speyside Whisky — Aberlour & Dufftown — Bus + train northwest from Aberdeen to the heart of Scotch — Aberlour for the Aberlour distillery + Walker's shortbread, Dufftown for Glenfiddich + Balvenie. The Whisky Trail.
- Stirling Castle, Bannockburn & Wallace Monument — The second castle of Scotland on its volcanic crag, the battlefield where Bruce defeated the English in 1314, and a 67-metre Victorian tower up the hill behind town.
- Stonehaven & Dunnottar Castle — ScotRail 20 minutes south of Aberdeen, harbour town, cliff-path walk to the spectacular ruined castle on a 160-foot sea-stack — birthplace of the Honours of Scotland.
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