Castles, lochs and mountains in one day. Your own van, your own Edinburgh-based driver-guide, your own party of one to eight. We collect you at your accommodation and bring you back to the door.
Your van, your driver-guide, your party. No imposed timings, nobody else in the vehicle, no fixed catalogue. The day moves between castles, lochs and villages according to what you actually want from it.
One to eight travellers, never mixed with another party. The vehicle and the driver-guide are yours from the morning pick-up to the evening drop-off.
If Doune Castle holds you, we stay. If you want longer on the shore at Luss, we adjust. There is no clock to keep and no coach waiting in a car park.
Castle history, filming anecdotes, the viewpoints the coaches drive past. Your driver-guide lives in Edinburgh and has driven this road in every season.
Five stops in a compact loop north of Edinburgh, inside the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. The order and the length of each stop follow the option you pick and the weather on the day.
Your driver-guide collects you at your accommodation, usually between 8 and 9am. A short briefing on the day, then north across the Lowlands.
A stop below Stirling Castle on its volcanic rock, the site that controlled the crossing between Lowlands and Highlands for three centuries. Depending on your option, we go inside, which takes about an hour and a half.
One of the best-preserved medieval castles in Scotland, and three screen roles in one building: Castle Leoch in Outlander, Winterfell in the Game of Thrones pilot, and most of the castles in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The audio guide is partly narrated by Sam Heughan.
Into the national park. Aberfoyle is the gateway village, where forest, hills and water start arriving all at once. This is the first proper Highland view of the day, and the natural place to stop for lunch if the timing works.
Board at Trossachs Pier for a sailing on Loch Katrine aboard the SS Sir Walter Scott, a steamship that has worked this water for over a century. Ben Venue on one side, wooded shores on the other, and an hour of genuine quiet.
The largest stretch of fresh water in Great Britain by surface area. We stop at Luss, a row of stone cottages covered in roses with an open view of the Munros dropping straight into the loch. Walk, photograph, or sit with a coffee at the water's edge.
Back to your accommodation at the end of the afternoon, usually between 6 and 7pm depending on the pace of the day and the option you chose.
Hover a step to find it on the map. Real geography: the coastline comes from Natural Earth, Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine from OpenStreetMap. The dotted line is the run home down the west side.
Expect between three and a half and four and a half hours of driving across the day, depending on how many inside visits you choose. Everything else is time out of the van.
From the ramparts of Stirling to the shore of Loch Lomond, each stop tells a different part of the story. The drive through the national park between them is as much of the day as the stops are.
The brooch of Scotland
On its volcanic rock above the town, this royal castle was the centre of Scottish power for three centuries. Mary, Queen of Scots was crowned here as a baby. The wars of independence, Wallace and Bruce, were largely fought around these walls. Inside, the Renaissance royal apartments have been restored to how they would have looked when the court lived in them.
On the history option the inside visit takes about an hour and a half. From the ramparts you get the panorama north into the Highlands, which explains the whole geography of the day in one look.
Castle Leoch
Built at the end of the fourteenth century for Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, and one of the best-preserved medieval castles in the country. It plays Castle Leoch of the MacKenzies in Outlander, Winterfell in the Game of Thrones pilot, and the French castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The audio guide is partly narrated by Sam Heughan.
The admission is worth it even if you have watched none of the above. The medieval kitchen and the great hall are preserved to a degree you rarely see. Doune is also a stop on our Outlander filming locations day, if the screen trail interests you more than the lochs.
National park
The Trossachs are a small range of wooded hills and water that marks the line between Lowlands and Highlands. Walter Scott wrote about them and the Victorians arrived in numbers, which is how the area got its nickname, the Highlands in miniature. Aberfoyle is the gateway village and the natural lunch stop. A few miles on, Loch Katrine has supplied Glasgow's drinking water since 1859, which is why no public road runs along its northern shore and why the water looks the way it does. Scott set The Lady of the Lake on this loch in 1810. The sailing aboard the SS Sir Walter Scott is one of the quietest hours you can spend in Scotland.
The sailing ticket is not included in the flat rate, around £19 per person, paid on the day. If the weather allows, stay on the rear deck. The light is better there.
The largest loch
Loch Lomond is the largest stretch of fresh water in Great Britain by surface area, and the Highland Boundary Fault runs straight through it: farmland on one side of the line, mountains on the other. Luss, on the west shore, is a row of stone cottages covered in roses with an open view of the Munros dropping into the water.
There is a short walk along the shore to the medieval church. If the rain comes in, and it often does, the village café is the right answer.
The route stays the same. What changes is how long we spend where. You pick the angle when you book and your driver-guide adjusts on the day.
No meeting point to find, no bus to catch, no early walk across town with a bag. Your driver-guide comes to your hotel, B&B or apartment in the morning and brings you back to the same door at the end of the day.
We also collect from Leith Cruise Terminal, the South Queensferry cruise dock and Waverley station. If you are staying outside central Edinburgh, tell us at booking and we shift the timing rather than asking you to travel in.
Give us the exact address and a phone number that works abroad. You get a WhatsApp message the evening before with the precise pick-up time.
The £650 covers the van and the driver-guide for the full day, for one to eight travellers. Entry tickets and the Loch Katrine sailing are not included and are paid on the day.
Flat rate, not per person. Whether you are one or eight, the day costs £650. Entry tickets and the sailing are not included and are paid on the day.
All prices in GBP. Contracts and payments in GBP through Stripe. Foreign currency equivalents shown alongside are indicative only.
"What I like about this day is the contrast. Stirling is solemn, a castle built to hold a country together. Luss is the opposite, roses on stone and a loch you could sit in front of for an hour. Two Scotlands before dinner. My own favourite moment is the Loch Katrine sailing in the early afternoon, when the boat is quiet."
Seven questions we hear most. For anything else, our full FAQ page covers the UK ETA, driving, tipping, insurance and payment.
History and castles is the one most people book, and it balances the inside visits at Stirling and Doune against the landscape stops. Nature and the sailing suits families with children and anyone who came for open country. Photography and film is built for Outlander and Game of Thrones viewers, and for photographers. If you are unsure, say so and your driver-guide adjusts on the day.
No. We recommend it, but it is optional and the ticket, around £19 per person, is paid on the day. If the weather turns or your party would rather not, we swap it for a walk along the shore and more time at Luss.
The Outlander day stays west of Edinburgh, in West Lothian and Fife, among the castles and villages used for filming. This day heads north-west into the national park, with far more variety of landscape: lochs, mountains and a sailing. They share one castle, Doune. Plenty of people do both over two days.
Yes. The sailing on Loch Katrine, the two medieval castles and the freedom of the village at Luss work well from about six upwards. Tell us the ages at booking and we shorten the stops and add more outdoor time.
£650 for the whole party, one to eight travellers. The price does not change with the size of your group: the same £650 whether you are two or eight. Entry tickets are not included, around £17 per adult at Stirling Castle and £10 at Doune, nor is the Loch Katrine sailing at around £19 per person. All prices in GBP.
Between three and a half and four and a half hours across the whole day, depending on how many inside visits you choose. The history option spends longer at Stirling and Doune and therefore less time driving; the nature option covers a little more ground. The longest single stretch is the run down the west shore of Loch Lomond, and it is the best part of the drive, so nobody minds it. There is no leg over an hour and a half.
We go anyway. Scotland in the rain has its own quality, and the Trossachs in particular. Your driver-guide shifts the balance towards castle interiors, cuts the exposed walks and knows where the good cafés are. We do not cancel for weather. Free cancellation on your side applies up to 7 days before the date, with the full terms in our Booking Terms & Conditions Section 12.4.