Before reading this, make sure you’ve read the last post in this series about our trip to Mull and Iona. This post is actually the last in this series. This post is about our journey from Fort William to Drumnadrochit, where we stayed on our final night in the Highlands.
That morning, we got up early and left our place in Fort William and took a quick detour in the opposite direction we were heading to go to Glenfinnan. It’s a quick drive. We found a place to park, which was not that easy, since it was a prime time during the summer, which is high tourist season in Scotland. We then went up the trail, which is across the train tracks from the Glenfinnan train station – you walk across the tracks and through a bush and then there’s a path.
After a 20 minute walk or so, we were at the top of the hill, where we got the perfect view of the Glenfinnan Viaduct.
We had also looked up in advance that the old steam train runs twice a day across the viaduct. We timed it so the train would be passing within about 15 of our arrival.
The viaduct is famous because it was in the opening of the second Harry Potter movie, but it’s such a beautiful location aside from that. it’s very cool that the train still runs – looks incredibly picturesque with the mountains.
We then walked down the hill to the visitors center, which is on the other side of the viaduct.
At the visitors center, we got a hot drink and then we got the car and headed back up north. On the way back through Fort William, we got some good views of Ben Nevis, which is the tallest mountain in Britain.
Then we stopped in Fort Augustus for lunch – we sat outside and had sandwiches near the locks of the canal. The weather was beautiful and sunny. Unfortunately, since this was 2 years ago, I don’t have any more pictures from this day.
After Fort Augustus, we continued driving up to Urquhart Castle, which is right on Loch Ness. Since I had already been to Urquhart before, I let my family go without me and I rested in the car. If you want to see some pictures, I wrote about it in my post about my first day in Scotland ever.
That night, my parents went to a concert in Drumnadrochit and my sister and I had a chill night in, since we had been on the road for 10 days by that point.
The next morning, we returned our rental car in Inverness, and we got the train back down to Edinburgh with a stop for a few hours in Perth to see some family friends. And just like that, our road trip around Scotland’s Highlands and Islands was over.
If you want to read about the other parts of the trip, here’s an overview:
Day 1: Train from Edinburgh to Inverness. See Culloden Battlefield and Clava Cairns. Spend the night in Inverness.
Day 2: Drive from Inverness to Skye. See Eilean Donan Castle, Old Man of Storr, Kilt Rock, the Quiraing, Duntulum, Flora MacDonald’s grave. Spend the night in Portree.
Day 3: See Fairy Pools, Dunvegan Gardens, Fairy Glen. Spend the night in Portree.
Day 4: Drive to Elgol to get the ferry to see the Black Cuillin range. Drive to Ullapool via the mountain pass north of Applecross and Torridon. Spend the night in Ullapool.
Day 5: Drive to Thurso via the North Coast 500. See Scourie beaches, Durness and Smoo Cave. Spend the night just outside of Thurso.
Day 6: Day trip to Orkney. Drive to John O’Groats. Get pedestrian ferry to Orkney. Bus tour to see Kirkwall, Stromness, Skara Brae and Skaill House, the Ring of Brodgar, the Standing Stones of Stenness, and Scapa Flow. Spend the night outside of Thurso.
Day 7: Drive from Thurso to Pitlochry. See Pitlochry and stay with family friends.
Day 8: Drive from Pitlochry to Fort William with detours to see Loch Lomond, Inveraray Castle, Kilchurn Castle, Rannoch Moor, and Glencoe. Stay in Fort William.
Day 9: Day trip to Mull and Iona. Drive to Oban and stop at Castle Stalker. Take ferry to Craignure, Isle of Mull. Drive across Mull to Fionnphort. Take pedestrian ferry to Iona to see the Cathedral. Return to Fort William by the same route. Spend the night in Fort William.
Day 10: Drive to Glenfinnan to see the steam train cross the viaduct, stop for lunch in Fort Augustus, see Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness. Visit farm near Drumnadrochit. Spend the night near Drumnadrochit.
Day 11: Return car to Inverness. Train to Perth. Visit friends in Perth. Train to Edinburgh by dinner.
I’m really happy with our itinerary and the way the trip panned out. We got to see most of the highlights of the highlands and islands. Obviously, there was more we could have seen if we had had longer, but Scotland is relatively small and lots of cool things are really close together. I’m so glad my family was able to come over and celebrate my graduation and see Scotland together!
