Scotland: History & Heritage - Castles and landscapes, great cities and the Highlands

Leave the hotel on foot at 2.00pm for an orientation walk of Edinburgh. In the heart of the capital city the forbidding ramparts of Edinburgh Castle rise spectacularly from a volcanic plug. Fortifications date back to the 12th century. Despite its apparently impregnable position the castle changed hands frequently between the Scots and the English during the Wars of Independence. It is home to the Stone of Scone, used in the coronation of Scottish (and later English and British) monarchs. 

The National Museum of Scotland celebrates Scottish history and culture through thousands of exhibits including Celtic brooches, the ‘Scottish Maiden’ (a prototype guillotine) and the exquisite Mary, Queen of Scots Silver Casket, made by a French silversmith in the early 16th century. Mary also features in the National Portrait Gallery alongside likenesses of Robert Burns, Bonnie Prince Charlie and contemporary figures such as the actress Tilda Swinton. The Palace of Holyroodhouse, at the opposite end of the Royal Mile from Edinburgh Castle, is the day’s final visit. This predominantly 17th-century palace is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. A 16th-century tower houses the private apartments of Mary, Queen of Scots. 

Stirling Castle, Mary’s childhood home, is one of the biggest and most significant sites in Scottish history. It sits atop another volcanic outcrop. Monarchs were crowned here and sieges endured. The painstakingly restored Renaissance palace of James V is considered one of the finest historic buildings in Scotland. On the outskirts of Stirling, the site of the Battle of Bannockburn marks a landmark in Scottish history. Here it was that in 1314 forces commanded by Robert the Bruce defeated the English army under Edward II and Scotland entered a period of independence from England. The precise location of the battle is disputed but films and exhibits recreate the event and explain its significance.  

Now a ruin on a rocky promontory by the sea, St Andrews Castle is famous for its ‘bottle dungeon’ – a grim medieval prison – and two tunnels (a mine and counter mine) that represent a fascinating relic of medieval siegecraft. The 14th-century St Andrews Cathedral, once the centre of Scottish Catholicism, was ransacked during the Reformation and its stone re-used. The surviving walls and the impressive St Rule’s Tower indicate its once-colossal proportions, which would have been visible for many miles out to sea. Glamis Castle, the home of the Earls of Strathmore since 1372, is known from Shakespeare’s Macbeth and as the Queen Mother’s childhood home. It dates mainly from the 16th and 17th centuries, with Victorian-era additions, and is built in a traditionally Scottish, turreted style. The gardens feature soaring Douglas firs.

Near the Highland village of Crathie, the baronial Balmoral Castle was known as the favourite royal residence of Queen Elizabeth II and it was here that she died in September 2022. It has served as the Royal Family’s summer retreat since Prince Albert had it built for Queen Victoria in the mid-19th century. At Culloden in 1746, the last pitched battle on British soil, the claim of Stuart kings to the British throne was finally put down amid bloody slaughter. 

Fort George on the Moray Firth was built in the wake of Culloden for the army of George II and it’s still a British Army base. Within its massive ramparts, the Highlanders Museum is dedicated to the history of the Highland Regiments of the British Army. The picturesque tidal island of Eilean Donan and its reconstructed castle (the original was destroyed in the early 18th century during the Jacobite Risings), at the meeting of three sea lochs, is one of the most photographed places in Scotland. It also features in films such as Highlander. 

The ruined Armadale Castle overlooking the Sound of Sleat was formerly the home of the Macdonalds of Sleat, part of the Clan Donald. The museum there commemorates these ‘Lords of the Isles’ with a focus on the clansmen who started new lives in North America and Australia and their modern-day descendants. The Talisker distillery on Skye has been making distinctive single malt whiskies for nearly 200 years

Morning ferry from Skye to Mallaig before boarding the iconic Jacobite steam train to Fort William, taking in breathtaking Highlands scenery en route. Coach to Glasgow. First of two nights in Glasgow.

Based on the Glasgow University campus, the Hunterian is the oldest public museum in Scotland. The main Museum and Art Gallery feature unrivalled collections while the Mackintosh House is a recreation of the interior of world-renowned architect/designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow home.

The tour ends after breakfast.