15 best day trips from Inverness, Scotland

Inverness is the capital of the Highlands – and it’s the best place to base yourself for day trips into the Highlands.

Within an hour by car or train, you can be watching dolphins leap off the Black Isle, standing on the battlefield at Culloden, walking through ancient Caledonian pinewood in Glen Affric, or looking out across Loch Ness from the ruins of Urquhart Castle.

This is my locally-curated guide to 15 of the best day trips from Inverness. I’ve grouped them by direction so you can plan a logical itinerary, and I’ve included how to get there (with and without a car), what to do when you arrive, where to eat, and where to stay if you want to stretch the day into a weekend.

Day trips from Inverness – at a glance

• Easiest day trips by train (no car needed): Aviemore, Nairn, Elgin, Plockton, Dunrobin Castle
• Best for castles & history: Urquhart Castle, Culloden, Cawdor Castle, Fort George, Dunrobin Castle, Eilean Donan
• Best for wildlife: Chanonry Point for dolphins, Rogie Falls for salmon, the Cairngorms for reindeer
• Best for the Highlands feel: Glen Affric, Eilean Donan, Plockton
• Best day trips from Inverness for Outlander fans: Culloden and Clava Cairns
• Best for foodies and whisky: Speyside distilleries, the Black Isle
• Best with kids: Chanonry Point, the Cairngorms, Dunrobin Castle’s falconry
• Best in autumn: Glen Affric – see my autumn day trips from Inverness

More day trips: Days out in Scotland · from Edinburgh · Glasgow · Aberdeen · Perth · Fort William

Day tours from Inverness

Don’t want to drive? Here are two of my favourite day tours from Inverness. Find more of my favourite tours in Scotland in my complete guide.

West to Loch Ness and the glens

1. Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle

Loch Ness is an easy day trip from Inverness – it’s only half an hour away. The ruins of Urquhart Castle on the loch shore are the classic view, and a boat trip on the loch is the best way to take in its size.

• Visit: Urquhart Castle (Historic Environment Scotland, entry to the castle is £9 for adults or free with an Explorer Pass). A cruise on the loch from Dochgarroch or Drumnadrochit.
• Get there: 30 minutes by car to Drumnadrochit. Citylink and Stagecoach buses run along the loch from Inverness.

Read my complete guide to visiting Loch Ness.

2. Fort Augustus: the Caledonian Canal locks

At the southern end of Loch Ness, Fort Augustus is built around a flight of five locks on the Caledonian Canal, where you can watch boats climb their way up from the loch. Combine it with Urquhart Castle for a full Loch Ness day.

• Visit: The flight of locks in the middle of the village, and the Caledonian Canal Centre. Ride a Rib out on Loch Ness an experience the thrill of scooting up the loch 35mph with Cruise Loch Ness. Ride a RIB: £30 per adult with Cruise Loch Ness
• Walk: Along the canal towpath, or down to the loch shore.
• Eat at: The Lock Inn overlooking the canal or the Lovat Loch Ness Hotel.
• Get there: 1 hour by car down the A82. Citylink buses run from Inverness.
• Make it a weekend: stay at The Whitebridge Hotel Loch Ness or the Lovat Loch Ness.

3. Glen Affric: Scotland’s most beautiful glen

Glen Affric is often called the most beautiful glen in Scotland, and in autumn it’s unbeatable. It’s home to one of the largest remaining areas of ancient Caledonian pine forest, with the River Affric running through it.

• Walk: Dog Falls (2 miles, around 1.25 hours) and the Viewpoint Trail (1.45 miles, around 1 hour), or the full circuit of Loch Affric (11 miles).
• Also nearby: Glen Strathfarrar, where only 25 cars are allowed in each day.
• Get there: About an hour by car via Beauly and Cannich. There’s no public transport into the glen itself, so this one needs a car.
• Make it a weekend: Stay at Eagle Brae, near Beauly.

Read more: how to visit Glen Affric.

4. Eilean Donan Castle

Perhaps the most photographed castle in Scotland, Eilean Donan sits on its own island where three sea lochs meet, joined to the shore by a stone bridge. It’s a long day from Inverness, but a spectacular drive.

• Visit: Eilean Donan Castle and its visitor centre.
• Combine with: The Skye Bridge is 15 minutes further on if you want to set foot on Skye.
• Get there: Around 1 hour 45 minutes by car via Loch Ness and Glen Shiel. Citylink buses from Inverness to Skye stop at Dornie, beside the castle.

5. Plockton by the Kyle Line

The Kyle Line from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh is one of the great railway journeys in Britain, running west across the Highlands to the coast. Get off at Plockton, a pretty village on a sheltered bay, where palm trees grow along the shore thanks to the Gulf Stream.

• Visit: Plockton’s harbour and shoreline. Seal-watching boat trips run from the village in summer.
• Eat at: The Plockton Inn (who also have rooms if you want to stay the night)
• Get there: Train from Inverness to Plockton, around 2 hours 20 minutes. There are only a few trains a day, so plan your return before you set off.

North to the Black Isle and Easter Ross

6. The Black Isle and Chanonry Point – view dolphins from the shore

The Black Isle isn’t an island at all – it’s a peninsula just across the Kessock Bridge from Inverness – but it has one of the best wildlife experiences in Scotland. At Chanonry Point, between Fortrose and Rosemarkie, the Moray Firth narrows to a channel, and bottlenose dolphins come in close to the shore to feed. You can stand on the beach and watch them.

• Visit: Chanonry Point for the dolphins. The best time is on a rising tide, roughly an hour or two after low tide, when the fish are pushed through the channel. Then walk along the beach to Rosemarkie.
• Walk: From Rosemarkie up the Fairy Glen, a short wooded walk to two waterfalls.
• Eat at: The Plough Inn in Rosemarkie, a small pub with a virtually intact early 20th-century front room.
• Get there: 25 minutes by car over the Kessock Bridge. Stagecoach buses run from Inverness to Fortrose and Rosemarkie.

Read more: things to do around the Moray Firth and the best places to see wildlife in Scotland.

7. Cromarty – a perfectly preserved Georgian fishing town

At the very tip of the Black Isle, Cromarty is one of the best-preserved small towns in Scotland, with Georgian merchants’ houses and fishermen’s cottages in narrow lanes. It’s also the birthplace of the self-taught geologist and writer Hugh Miller.

• Visit: Hugh Miller’s Birthplace Cottage (National Trust for Scotland) and the Cromarty Courthouse museum.
• Walk: Up to the South Sutor headland for views across the Cromarty Firth, where oil rigs are often moored.
• Get there: 40 minutes by car. Stagecoach buses run from Inverness.

8. Strathpeffer and Rogie Falls – a Victorian spa town and leaping salmon

Strathpeffer grew up as a Victorian spa town, where visitors came to take the sulphurous waters, and its grand hotels, pavilion and pump room are still there. Just up the road, Rogie Falls tumbles through a wooded gorge beneath a suspension bridge – and from late summer into autumn, you can watch salmon leaping the falls.

• Visit: The Pump Room in Strathpeffer, and the Highland Museum of Childhood in the old station building.
• Walk: The short woodland walk from the Rogie Falls car park to the suspension bridge.
• Get there: 30 minutes by car.

9. Dornoch – a cathedral town and a beach

A small, handsome sandstone town on the Dornoch Firth, with a 13th-century cathedral, a long sandy beach and one of the most famous golf courses in the world.

• Visit: Dornoch Cathedral, and the beach and dunes at the edge of town.
• Eat at: Dornoch Castle Hotel, which has one of the best whisky bars in Scotland.
• Get there: 1 hour by car up the A9. There’s no station in Dornoch itself; buses run from Inverness.
• Make it a weekend: Stay at the classic Royal Golf Hotel, Dornoch or the stunning Dornoch Station. Book into the beautiful Balloan House or stay at Albatross B&B Dornoch.

10. Dunrobin Castle – a French fairytale castle on the coast

Dunrobin looks like it’s been transplanted from the Loire Valley, with pointed turrets above formal gardens that run down to the sea. It’s the seat of the Earls and Dukes of Sutherland and one of the largest houses in the Highlands.

• Visit: Dunrobin Castle, its gardens and the falconry displays. Open seasonally, usually from spring to autumn – check before you go.
• Get there: 1 hour by car up the A9, just north of Golspie. By train on the Far North Line to Dunrobin Castle station, a small request stop at the castle gates.
• Make it a weekend: stay on the Sutherland Estate beside the castle at Dunrobin Cottages.

Read more: the North Coast 500 and how to visit Golspie and Dunrobin Castle.

East towards Nairn and Moray

11. Culloden Battlefield and the Clava Cairns

Just 15 minutes from the city centre, Culloden is where the Jacobite Rising ended in 1746, in the last pitched battle fought on British soil. The visitor centre is excellent, and walking the moor itself, with flags marking the lines of the two armies, is a sobering experience.

Five minutes away, the Clava Cairns are a group of Bronze Age burial cairns and standing stones, around 4,000 years old – and the inspiration for the stones at Craigh na Dun in Outlander.

• Visit: Culloden Battlefield and Visitor Centre (National Trust for Scotland) and the Clava Cairns (Historic Environment Scotland, free).
• Get there: 15 minutes by car. Stagecoach buses run from Inverness to Culloden.

Read more: Outlander filming locations.

12. Cawdor Castle and Nairn

Cawdor Castle is forever linked with Macbeth, whose title of Thane of Cawdor comes from the village – although the castle itself was built centuries after the real Macbeth. It’s still lived in, and its gardens are some of the loveliest in the Highlands. Round off the day on the long sandy beach at Nairn, ten minutes away.

• Visit: Cawdor Castle and its gardens. Open seasonally – check before you go.
• Eat at: The Cawdor Tavern in the village.
• Get there: 25 minutes by car. Nairn has a station on the Inverness to Aberdeen line (around 15 minutes by train).

In October, the Cawdor Patch runs one of the Highlands’ best pumpkin patches in the village – see my guide to pumpkin patches in Scotland.

13. Fort George: an 18th-century fortress on the Moray Firth

Built after Culloden to keep the Highlands under control, Fort George is one of the most impressive artillery fortifications in Europe – and it’s still a working army barracks. Walk the ramparts, which run for almost a mile, and look out for dolphins in the firth below.

• Visit: Fort George (Historic Environment Scotland).
• Get there: 25 minutes by car.

14. Elgin and Speyside: a cathedral and whisky country

Elgin Cathedral, once known as the Lantern of the North, is one of the most beautiful ruins in Scotland. From Elgin, you’re on the edge of Speyside, home to around half of Scotland’s malt whisky distilleries.

• Visit: Elgin Cathedral (Historic Environment Scotland), then a distillery tour in Speyside.
• Get there: 1 hour by car along the A96. Direct train from Inverness to Elgin, around 40 minutes. ⚠ If you’re visiting distilleries, go by train and use a tour or taxi – or nominate a driver.

Read more: my complete guide to things to do in Speyside (that aren’t just whisky)

South into the Cairngorms

15. Aviemore and the Cairngorms

Aviemore is the gateway to the Cairngorms National Park, and it’s only 40 minutes from Inverness by train. Meet Britain’s only free-ranging reindeer herd, walk round Loch an Eilein and its island castle, or take a steam train on the Strathspey Railway.

• Visit: The Cairngorm Reindeer Herd at Glenmore, 15 minutes from Aviemore. The Strathspey Railway steam trains.
• Walk: Around Loch an Eilein (3 miles, flat), one of the prettiest low-level walks in Scotland.
• Get there: 40 minutes by car up the A9. Direct train from Inverness to Aviemore, around 40 minutes.
• Make it a weekend: Stay at the Lazy Duck at Nethy Bridge.

> Read more: things to do in Aviemore and the Cairngorms.

Day trips from Inverness without a car

Several of the day trips above are easy without a car. The best by direct train are:

• Aviemore for the Cairngorms (40 min direct)
• Nairn for the beach and Cawdor (15 min direct)
• Elgin for the cathedral and Speyside (40 min direct)
• Plockton on the Kyle Line (2 hours 20 min direct)
• Dunrobin Castle on the Far North Line (request stop)

And by bus:

• Loch Ness, Drumnadrochit and Fort Augustus along the A82
• The Black Isle for Chanonry Point, Fortrose and Cromarty
• Culloden
• Eilean Donan, on the Citylink route to Skye

When to visit

• Spring (April–May): longer days, fewer visitors, and the castles and attractions reopening after winter.
• Summer (June–August): the long northern evenings, with daylight until almost 11pm in June, and the best chance of dolphins at Chanonry Point. The busiest time, especially at Loch Ness and Eilean Donan.
• Autumn (September–October): my favourite season for day trips. Autumn colour in Glen Affric, salmon at Rogie Falls, and fewer crowds. See my best autumn day trips from Inverness.
• Winter (November–March): snow on the hills and the chance of the northern lights. Several castles and attractions close for the winter – including Cawdor and Dunrobin – so check before you travel.

Day trips from Inverness: frequently asked questions

Love from Scotland x

Read more

• Things to do around the Moray Firth
• How to visit Glen Affric
• Things to do in Aviemore and the Cairngorms
• The North Coast 500
• Outlander filming locations
• Day trips from Edinburgh
• Day trips from Glasgow
• Day trips from Aberdeen
• Scotland in autumn