Tour 3

Tour 3 : Boat of Garten – Inverness – Culloden Moor – Cawdor Castle – Forres – Elgin – Grantown on Spey –Boat of Garten

History is the order of the day today. Starting with Culloden Moor – that most bloodstained of battlefields where the last hope of the Jacobites fell before the Government guns. Drink in the atmosphere. Look at the sadness of the mass clan graves and reflect on what changes where wrought in the Highlands as a result of the misadventure of the ’45. Only a stone’s throw down the same road you can reach Cawdor Castle – traditionally connected with MacBeth (although actually built long after his death). Enjoy a stroll through the castle itself and its beautiful series of rooms or just wander around the equally intriguing gardens.

From Cawdor it is off to Nairn and then Forres – always worth a drive through in summer because of its award winning floral displays. If castles are your ‘thing’ you should also consider Brodie Castle a few miles before Forres. The castle is famous above all for its daffodils – you mention the type they have it. Nearby Brodie Country Fair is worth a stop for coffee or for just a browse. Then it is onto Elgin – marvel at the towering ruins of the once great cathedral so cruelly burnt by the Wolf of Badenoch and enjoy a wander down its main street before leaving this, the capital of Moray, for the return trip to Boat of Garten. Your drive alongside the Spey on the A95 is the perfect opportunity for a visit to a distillery – be it household names like Glen Grant, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet or Glenfarclas or one of the many others on the Speyside whisky trail.

If you did not go to Cawdor Castle you must stop at Ballindalloch Castle – still the family home of the Macpherson Grants. This delightful little castle has everything – gorgeous furniture, wonderful porcelain and paintings, a charming garden on the banks of the River Spey, a coffee house with cakes to make your mouth water but above all that sense that you can only get from a much loved and lived in family home.

Your next step along the A95 is Cromdale and then the purpose built (1776) little town of Grantown on Spey – capital of Strathspey. Continue on the A95 back to Boat of Garten.