Eight days from Edinburgh: the filming locations from Lallybroch to Castle Leoch, a day with your family's records, and the road north to Culloden.
The Outlander Trail & Scottish roots is an 8-day self-drive tour designed by Emily at The Kilted Unicorn, a local Scotland agency in Edinburgh. It visits the places that stood in for Lallybroch, Castle Leoch, Cranesmuir and Fort William, follows the story north to Culloden, and comes home by the Snow Roads and Royal Deeside. It also gives you a day in Edinburgh with the Scottish records, to look for your own people.
Most of the filming locations sit within an hour of Edinburgh, in West Lothian, Fife and Stirlingshire, so the first half of the trip is short drives and long visits. It is about 510 miles in all; only the last day, over the Cairnwell Pass, runs to four hours at the wheel. We book every night, the car, your seat at the ScotlandsPeople Centre and the entry fees.
Arrive and settle in. There is no car while you are in Edinburgh: you collect it on the morning of day 3. Walk down the Royal Mile to the Canongate and Bakehouse Close, the entrance to Jamie's print shop in season three, then eat in an Old Town pub from the list in your travel book.
Your seat is booked at the ScotlandsPeople Centre in General Register House, at the east end of Princes Street, from 9am. Parish registers, census returns and civil records of births, marriages and deaths are all searchable there. We ask for the names, places and dates you already have before you travel, so the day starts with a plan. Later, the National Museum of Scotland and its Jacobite collection.
Collect the car at Edinburgh Airport. Ten minutes away, Midhope Castle on the Hopetoun estate is Lallybroch, the Fraser home. Blackness Castle on the Forth is Black Jack Randall's Fort William, and Linlithgow Palace gave Wentworth Prison its corridors. Cross the Forth to Culross, the Cranesmuir of Geillis Duncan, and on to Falkland for two nights.
Start in Falkland itself, which played Inverness in the 1940s: the fountain where Frank sees the ghost of a Highlander, and Mrs Baird's guest house on the square. Falkland Palace is next door. Then Aberdour Castle, the abbey where Claire nurses Jamie at the end of season one, and Dysart harbour, the Le Havre of season two.
West to Doune Castle, Castle Leoch of the MacKenzies, and its great hall, where the clan gathers in season one. Five minutes on, the Deanston distillery played Jared Fraser's wine warehouse in Le Havre: the tour and a tasting are included. Then north up the A9 to Pitlochry for the night.
West along Loch Tummel to Kinloch Rannoch: the Craigh na Dun scenes were filmed on a hill near here, with stones built for the series. Over the moor to Newtonmore, where the Highland Folk Museum's 1700s township played a MacKenzie village in season one. Ruthven Barracks, burned by the Jacobites in 1746, stands just beyond. Inverness by evening.
Culloden first, where the Jacobite rising ended on 16 April 1746: give the moor and the visitor centre two hours, and find the clan stones, Fraser among them. The Clava Cairns, a mile away, are the site most often named as the inspiration for Craigh na Dun. Then the Snow Roads from Grantown-on-Spey, over the Lecht to Corgarff Castle, which the army made a barracks after Culloden. Ballater, on Royal Deeside, for the night.
Balmoral, the royal family's Highland home since Queen Victoria, opens its grounds and ballroom in spring, early summer and autumn; in between, we book Braemar Castle instead. Braemar is where the Earl of Mar raised the standard of the 1715 rising. Then the Cairnwell Pass, at 670 metres the highest main road in Britain, and down through Glenshee. Four hours at the wheel: plan an evening flight, or a last night in Edinburgh.
The route as driven, numbered by overnight stop. Coastline from Natural Earth, roads from OpenStreetMap. Hover a day to find it on the map.
Distances and times come from OpenStreetMap routing and leave out stops.
Accommodation is 4-star boutique as standard, with restored manors and castle hotels on the upper tiers. Every address is in your travel book rather than on this page: these are small places, and we book them for you.
| Stop | Nights | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Edinburgh | 2 nights | Boutique hotel or guest house in the centre |
| Falkland, Fife | 2 nights | Country inn or B&B in the Fife countryside |
| Pitlochry | 1 night | Victorian country house or guest house |
| Inverness | 1 night | Country house or guest house near the city |
| Ballater, Royal Deeside | 1 night | Victorian guest house or inn on the Dee |
April to October, when every location on the route is open. The Highland Folk Museum opens for the season only (in 2026, from 1 April to 25 October), Corgarff Castle from April to September, and Culross Palace closes in winter. Balmoral opened from 28 March to 9 August and again from 29 September in 2026; between those dates we book Braemar Castle. May, June and September are our favourites: long days and quieter castles.
The trip runs in winter too. The villages, Doune, Blackness, Linlithgow and Culloden stay open, the light is gone by four in the afternoon, and we replace the closed visits. Snow can close the Lecht and the Cairnwell, so your travel book gives the road round by the A9. The ScotlandsPeople Centre opens Monday to Friday all year, so we plan your arrival around it.
The Tattoo plays on the Castle Esplanade through August: in 2027, from 6 to 28 August. If one of your two nights in Edinburgh falls in those weeks, we book your seats when you confirm the trip. They sell months ahead.
From May to September, towns and villages across the Highlands hold their games: pipe bands, dancing and the heavy events. If one falls on a day of your route, we build it into that day.
Seasonal extras are not included in the price from which this tour starts: we book them for you and add them to your quote.
Most of the locations are within an hour of Edinburgh: Midhope Castle (Lallybroch), Blackness Castle (Fort William), Linlithgow Palace (Wentworth Prison), Culross (Cranesmuir), Falkland (1940s Inverness), Aberdour Castle and Doune Castle (Castle Leoch). The Highland Folk Museum at Newtonmore and Loch Rannoch are further north. This tour visits all of them, then Culloden.
Yes, from the outside. Lallybroch is Midhope Castle on the Hopetoun estate, west of Edinburgh. In 2026 it opened from 27 February, daily from 9am to 5pm, at £9.50 a person, and the ticket is in the price of this tour. The tower is a roofless shell, and the estate closes it some days for farming or filming, so we check before your day.
Yes. Day 2 is a full day at the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh, where the parish registers, census returns and civil records of Scotland can be searched. We book your seat on a weekday and it is in the price. Send us the names, places and dates you already have before you travel; if the records point to a parish on or near the route, we can add it.
No. The Craigh na Dun scenes were filmed on a hill near Kinloch Rannoch with stones built for the series, on private land. The Clava Cairns near Inverness, a Bronze Age site ringed with standing stones, is the one most often named as its inspiration, and this tour stops there on day 7.
Our Outlander day tour is one day from Edinburgh with a driver-guide, for one to eight travellers at £650 a party, and visits six locations near the city. This is an 8-day self-drive tour: the same locations at your own pace, plus Aberdour, Dysart, Deanston, the Highland Folk Museum and Culloden, a day with the Scottish records, and the Snow Roads home by Balmoral.
Full day
Day tour
Midhope · Linlithgow · Blackness · Culross · Falkland · Doune
Lallybroch, Castle Leoch and Outlander's Inverness in one day from Edinburgh.
Flat rate £650 1 to 8 travellers
10 days
Self-drive
Staff pick
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From £3,500 per person
8 days
Self-drive
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