European Classic Cruise - Scotland

Guests are met at Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness and transferred by private chauffeured minibus to Scottish Highlander. Champagne Welcome and if you wish, an early evening stroll to the sea lock with wonderful views over the Moray and Beauly Firths. Then perhaps savour one of the hotel barge’s many single malts before your first dinner on board.

Your first cruise will take you up the Muirtown lock flight and through Tomnahurich swing bridge, with an option to walk alongside River Ness to the hamlet of Dochgarroch. After lunch on board, you will visit the Glen Ord distillery, founded in 1838 on the Black Isle by the Mackenzies of Ord. You will be given a fascinating description of the maturing and aging process of their whiskeys, each with its distinctive characteristics, followed by a special tasting of several single malts, including The Singleton. Dinner on board.

This morning you will enjoy Cawdor Castle, forever immortalized in Shakespeare’s “Scottish Play”, Macbeth. The picturesque gardens have been listed as being amongst the top 100 in the UK. The castle contains a superb collection of tapestries, pictures and furnishings and the Dowager Countess of Cawdor still lives there for part of the year. Then you will visit Culloden Moor, scene of the last major battle on British soil in 1746. If there is time, you will end your tour at the Clava Cairns, a pre-historic clan chieftain burial site dating back to 2,000 B.C. Later, you will cruise through Loch Dochfour and down Loch Ness, where en route we visit Urquhart Castle, mooring right below its spectacular ruins, before continuing your cruise to Fort Augustus. Dinner on board.

After breakfast, we visit the private Highland Club, a spectacular exclusive set of residences and a former 19th century Benedictine Monastery. Here we are treated to a falconry and birds of prey demonstration** on the banks of Loch Ness, and the majesty of the swooping birds against the backdrop of the sweeping Scottish Highlands is not easily forgotten. There is time to explore the pretty village of Fort Augustus before lunch on board, after which your cruise takes us up the “flight”, as the locals call it, at Fort Augustus and then on to your pretty mooring at Cullochy. This evening we are given a tutored private whisky tasting at charming The Glenmoriston Arms Hotel, followed by dinner in the hotel restaurant.

This morning’s cruise can be partially walked as we cross the very scenic Loch Oich, perhaps stopping en route for a spot of fishing, and onto the pretty Laggan Avenue. As we approach Laggan, your Highland Piper may greet us with a stirring rendition of traditional Scottish music. After lunch on board we take in some of the finest scenery Scotland has to offer as we drive to one of its best known and most photographed castles, Eilean Donan, which has featured in movies such as “Highlander” and James Bond’s “The World Is Not Enough” and overlooks three sea lochs. Dinner on board.

Today, your final cruise will see us pass through Moy Bridge, the last fully hand-operated bridge on the canal, before mooring at Banavie beneath Ben Nevis and a stroll from Neptune’s Staircase leading down to Loch Eil. After lunch on board, your tour today takes us to the Ben Nevis Distillery for a tour and private tasting of several single malts. Captain’s Farewell Dinner and of course, the opportunity to enjoy another wee dram or two.

After breakfast, guests are transferred by private chauffeured minibus to their choice of location in Inverness.