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Through the beating centre of Scotland

Chiliad castles, lyrical moorlands, mysterious lochs, sacred abbeys, and sweeping mountains. From the long traditions of Scotland's clans and monarchs to Bonnie Prince Charlie'due south famed rebellions, the romance and intrigue of Scotland'southward countryside and traditions speak to all of u.s.a.. Our send, Lord of the Glens , is uniquely sized to transit the Caledonian Canal, which cuts through the middle of the Highlands, plus venture into the sea for a coastal exploration—offering the rare experience of a single trek to the myth and mystery at the middle of the highlands as well equally to wild, seldom-visited outlying islands.

Scotland aboard Lord of the Glens

Special Ships

Scotland's Highlands and Islands

Length

8 days

  1. Jun
  2. Jul
  3. Aug
  4. Sep

From

$nine,250

Prices are per person

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Highlights

Scotland aboard Lord of the Glens

Special Ships

five Things Yous Didn't Know: Scotland & the Inner Hebrides

Scotland comprises nearly 800 small islands, and effectually every bend are magnificent ruins, serene lochs, medieval monuments, and enchanting wildlife. Here are a few facts nearly thisbonnie land that simply might surprise y'all.

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Expedition Highlights

Detect secluded villages, ancient sites, verdant landscapes, and engaging people for an intimate perspective on Scottish life, by and nowadays. Trace history through the Highlands in the footsteps of saints and clan leaders. Stand among ancient monuments and feel the shroud of Scotland's civilization and history hang near the experience, the way the fog clings to the hauntingly cute moorlands. This is a land of ancient rituals, long-ruling clans, and royal graveyards full of monarchs. Explore Scotland and experience the state, continuously inhabited for some six grand years.

Discover

Observe Scotland

Trek Leader

Sail with a veteran expedition leader—the orchestrators of your experience. Many have advanced degrees and accept conducted research or taught for years. They have achieved expedition leader status because they possess the skills, experience, and the depth of cognition necessary to continually arts and crafts the best expedition possible for our guests.

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Naturalist/Certified Photo Teacher

Our naturalists, passionate nigh the geographies they explore (and return to regularly), illuminate each facet through their enthusiasm and knowledge. Our guests consistently cite the expertise and engaging company of our staff every bit fundamental reasons to repeatedly travel with united states.

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Historian

Our historians will share the stories, tumults, and triumphs of the people and places nosotros explore. Their colorful personalities and passion for history, from the minutiae to the large picture, make them engaging travel tour guides and companions.

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Absolutely everything was fantabulous. Staff, crew, naturalist, photographer, and trek leader. I learned a lot nearly my family's history.

Jill L.

Life Aboard

Traveling through Scotland's breathtaking countryside with its endless vistas and rare beauty gives you lot a spiritual lift. To compound this healthful effect, we add the luxury of comfort to the privilege of being there—with a quality of shipboard life and a philosophy of wellness designed to relax and rejuvenate body, heed, and spirit during your travels in Scotland.

Daily Expedition Reports

Lord of the Glens

Kyle of Lochalsh

Nosotros awoke to clear skies and light air with the sure prospect of a fine mean solar day ahead. Every bit we sailed "over the sea to Skye" during breakfast, out of Loch Nevis, with the boondocks of Mallaig on the mainland and the Isle of Eigg on our port quarter, we experienced infrequent visibility. An hr's sailing brought united states of america to the pierhead at Armadale on the Isle of Skye, the largest of the Hebridean islands, rich in history and with a varied mural that has fabricated it a mecca for hillwalkers. From our mooring, we could walk to the Clan Donald Centre, an excellent museum that offered a revision grade in some of the major themes in Scottish history covered on our voyage: the inflow of the Gaels from northern Ireland in the eye of the first millennium; the coming of Christianity, also from Ireland; the institution of the medieval thassalocracy, known as the Lordship of the Isles. There was time to enjoy the gardens, containing many specimens brought back to Scotland by the Scottish constitute hunters of the early nineteenth century. Over lunch we sailed between Skye and the mainland, navigating the treacherous tidal race of the Kyle of Lochalsh, the narrowest point betwixt Skye and the mainland where, earlier the Skye bridge was opened in 1992, a brusque ferry ride connected Skye with the mainland. In 1897 a railway was constructed from Inverness to Lochalsh—quite an engineering feat, specially in its latter stages, when the railway had to be chiseled through hard rock to enter the town. At Kyle, we had two afternoon options for activities. Ane group visited the much-photographed Eilean Donan Castle, the ancestral home of the McCrae clan, that was attacked from the sea during the short-lived Jacobite rebellion of 1719. A second group hiked on the trail in the direction of Plockton for spectacular views of the Cuillin Mountains. We gathered in the evening sunshine for a group photograph followed by our Farewell Dinner, enlivened by the piping in of the haggis and the traditional "Accost to the Haggis" equanimous by the Scots poet, Robert Burns. After dinner, we were entertained past two traditional musicians playing the dabble and the concertina. An entrancing cease to a wonderful voyage.

Lord of the Glens

Tobermory & Inverie

We woke in Tobermory to a showery day, with the morning to explore this colorful waterfront town. Despite the rain, a group walked out to a nearby lighthouse, following a trail through the Celtic rainforest, with moss, lichen, and ferns coating the trees along the fashion. Our endpoint was a picturesque Stevenson lighthouse, designed by the family of Robert Louis Stevenson. Those who didn't accept the walk spent the morning shopping in boondocks, perusing offerings from chocolates to books. Our afternoon sail was a wee chip rough, but our views were spectacular as we rounded Ardnamurchan Point, the most westerly point on mainland Scotland where an Egyptian-fashion lighthouse stands on the rocky shore. Though the helm tried, we unfortunately couldn't put in at the Isle of Eigg due to the winds and waves. We did go a good view of Eigg, with its imposing meridian named An Sgurr (Gaelic for "The Rocky Crag") dominating the island'due south skyline. An Sgurr was formed around 50 1000000 years agone during a volcanic menstruation. A flow of lava filled an ancient riverbed and the surrounding stone afterward eroded downwards, leaving the summit as it stands today. Subsequently viewing Eigg, we ventured straight to Inverie, on the Knoydart peninsula, our berth for the night. Inverie is a small village accessible only past foot or boat, and has the feel of a distant, inaccessible island. The pelting let up, and the evening light made for wonderful atmosphere as we disembarked to stroll along the shore. A few even ventured into the Erstwhile Forge Inn, the almost remote on mainland Scotland. As dinner was served, a local bagpiper played a few traditional tunes, and thus ended another eventful day aboard Lord of the Glens .

Lord of the Glens

Iona

The loftier winds of yesterday that had led to widespread ferry cancelations in the Hebrides had died away, enabling usa to venture out of the sheltered anchorage of Oban bay to make for the Isle of Mull, the 2nd largest of the Inner Hebridean islands and one with an exceptionally long, highly indented coastline. It is an island celebrated for its wild fauna, golden and white-tailed eagles, shorebirds, and rich marine life, including minke whales, orcas, and seasonal basking sharks. We disembarked at Craignure and drove in a long diagonal across the island, along a single-track road with passing places, to Fionnphort where we met the ferry for Iona. Iona has allegorical significance in northwest Europe. Information technology was there in 563AD that Columba brought Celtic Christianity to Scotland from Ireland. He established a monastic customs on the island that was famed for its learning and its craftsmanship. The Book of Kells, one the treasures of modern Ireland that is today housed in the library of Dublin's Trinity College, was produced on Iona and taken to Kells Abbey in Ireland to preserve it from Viking raids in the eigth century. We walked to the restored Benedictine abbey, passing one of Great britain's all-time-preserved mediaeval nunneries and one of Thomas Telford's 'Parliamentary Kirks' on the way, to view St Martin's Cross. In situ since the eighth century, this is the original Celtic Cross from which all others derived their distinctive blueprint. Nosotros also explored the abbey, its curtilage, a museum of loftier crosses, and numerous craft shops. A highlight of the day was a performance in the abbey by the Doric String Quartet, part of the 2019 Mendelssohn on Mull Festival. Subsequently a hearty dejeuner at the St Columba Hotel, we took the ferry back to Fionnphort and recrossed the Isle of Mull, passing the island's two munroes, Ben Talla and Ben Mhor, both meeting the requirement of being more than 3,000 feet tall. Detouring to Duart, we visited the ancestral pile of the Clan Maclean, a filmset of a Scottish castle perched on a rocky crag strategically situated overlooking the Audio of Mull. We took a tour of the castle, complete with a prisoner in the dungeon, sound effects, and a stroll around the site that includes a burial ground for Hanoverian soldiers billeted at Duart later the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. Then we drove to Tobermory to rejoin the ship. Before dinner, we heard a lively presentation from a fellow member of staff of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust.

Lord of the Glens

Corpach & Oban

We left the Caledonian Canal and ventured into the sea, passing through the last lock of the trip. For the balance of our week nosotros volition be sailing through saltwater, exploring the Inner Hebrides on our way over to the Kyle of Lochalsh. As we traveled from Corpach to Oban forth Loch Linnhe, we were still within the Great Glen Fault, though beyond the stretch of the culvert. Equally we sailed to our day'south destination of Oban, we heard a talk on the different populations that came into the country and the advent of Celtic Christianity to Scotland, preparing us for our eventual trip to Iona. At midday, we arrived at the humming town of Oban in a outburst of cute sunshine. Oban is a ship hub and service area for the region. Ferries, trains, and buses meet hither, and shops and stores provide for the surrounding surface area. Shortly after arriving in Oban, a distillery bout was offered—a wonderful adventure to learn almost the creation of Scotland's iconic whisky. The distillery is ane of the oldest in Scotland, established in 1794. The buildings remain much the same as they were in the 1890s when the business was renovated and updated. The bout ended with a delicious sample. It was a windy day, with blustery breezes raising whitecaps on the bounding main. But the lord's day was out, and so it was a good afternoon to explore the town. A few walkers ventured upward to McCaig's Tower. Also known as McCaig's Folly, the construction looks similar a ruined Roman coliseum. The building was constructed past the wealthy banker John Stuart McCaig starting in 1895 but was left unfinished upon McCaig'southward death in 1902. Before dinner, there was more than whisky on the schedule, along with a tasting led by a local expert. With clear skies and drifting clouds, information technology was an atmospheric evening to stop the twenty-four hours.

Lord of the Glens

Glenfinnan

Over breakfast we bandage off at the superlative of the flight of locks in Fort Augustus in sunshine and heavy showers, completing our transit of the Caledonian Canal. Although we were held upward at Laggan Locks which were under repair, we enjoyed a few presentations by staff as we advanced forth the culvert to its highest indicate at Loch Oich before crossing the shallow Loch Lochy over lunch. By early afternoon we had arrived at the top of Neptune'south Staircase—an impressive flight of 8 locks that lowers the culvert down to the Atlantic sea lock at Corpach. We overnighted in the Corpach basin beneath the smashing massif of Ben Nevis, the highest mount on mainland Britain. Our afternoon activities were centered on Glenfinnan where a National Trust for Scotland visitor center was established to commemorate the place where 'Bonnie' Prince Charlie first raised his standard on the Scottish mainland at the start of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. Today the site has been re-branded to gloat Harry Potter, for the railway viaduct backside the center is the one over which the Hogwarts Express travels in the movies. I group took a longer hike which approached the viaduct from above before passing beneath it to render to the company center. A gentler walk was offered from the center itself over a boardwalk viewing wetland flora: birch, willow, alder, and a diversity of ferns. So much rain had fallen over the past week that whole sections of the boardwalk were underwater. After dinner we were privileged to hear a presentation by Alasdair Gibson, the Glenfinnan estate director who enthralled and amused past turns with his accounts of deer stalking on the estate.

Scotland is a land of chiliad castles, beautiful moorlands, sacred abbeys, and sweeping mountains, and our unique ship—sized to sail a canal through the Highlands and able to venture to wild coastal islands—lets you lot meet it every bit few can.

Sven-Olof Lindblad

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Scotland aboard Lord of the Glens

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