Lochs and Highlands of Scotland

Nine nights across Scotland, self-guided, from Edinburgh through the Highlands to Loch Awe and Loch Lomond.

Nine nights in five places, with two nights everywhere, is a well-judged pace for Scotland, where the distances look short on a map and take rather longer on the ground.

Edinburgh opens it for two nights at the Balmoral, with a private tour of the castle and its crown jewels, the Royal Mile and Holyrood. A Perthshire country house follows for two, reached by the Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies, with Stirling Castle, the Wallace Monument, Scone Palace and Castle Menzies nearby, and golf at Gleneagles or salmon fishing on the Tay available. Fort William and Inverlochy Castle come next for two, by way of the Cairngorms, Culloden, where the Jacobite rising ended in 1746 and which the site now treats with appropriate seriousness, and Loch Ness. A round trip on the Jacobite steam train to Mallaig follows in first class, crossing the Glenfinnan Viaduct and its fourteen arches, familiar from the Potter films. Loch Awe and a nineteenth-century manor house close the route.

The hire car, the accommodation, the meals detailed in the itinerary, private transfers throughout and all the listed sightseeing, entrance fees and guiding are included; flights, other meals and unlisted excursions are not. The price shown is per person sharing. May to September gives the best of it, and the steam train runs to a seasonal timetable worth checking against the dates. Ten days with the car collected on the third day also means Edinburgh is seen on foot rather than from a parking space, which is the right way round.