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Holiday Cottages in Aviemore and the Cairngorms
The highest mountain, the deepest loch – this is the area for superlatives as well as great contrasts. Nairn’s golf courses or Dornoch Cathedral are as much a part of the area as the soaring rock walls of Ben Nevis or the trackless grandeur of Knoydart. This is big country – even at Inverness, there is still some way to go to the top of Scotland! With Inverness a natural route centre, the roads go off like wheel-spokes.
The Laidhay Croft Centre by Dunbeath, or Timespan at Helmsdale portray Caithness and Sutherland life. Along the seaboard of the north-west, curiously-shaped and oddly-named mountains – Arkle, Foinaven, Canisp, Stac Polly – stream white quartz down their slopes like snow. The north-west has special atmosphere all of its own. Browse our selection of holiday cottages in Aviemore and the Cairngorms and find your perfect holiday today with Discover Scotland.
Inverness, with all the trappings of a Highland capital, by way of shopping, dining, theatre and evening entertainments, is also the gateway to the Great Glen. Three lochs, including Loch Ness, are linked by the Caledonian Canal (Excellent cruising and waterspouts opportunities, as well as cycleways, walks and trails hereabouts – including the recently opened Great Glen Way, an official long-distance footpath linking east and west coasts).
At the south end of the Great Glen lies Fort William, like Inverness a natural route centre offering everything for visitors, including its nearness to Ben Nevis and also the Nevis Range ski centre, with its year-round gondolas sweeping up for views of ‘The Ben’ and around Lochaber. (Nevis Range also has Britain’s longest downhill mountain bike track.)
Great Glen touring can also be extended by looping through Glen Spean into Speyside with its many attractions, from watching ospreys at Loch Garten to enjoying a trip on the Strathspey Steam Railway, with magnificent Cairngorm views.
Peerless sea views out to the Small Isles, a softness in the air and some of the remotest tracts of land in all of the UK, are typical of the West Highlands. Ardnamurchan Point is the most westerly point in mainland Scotland and getting there is a scenic delight. Its lighthouse visitor centre is a good place to go whale-watching. Moidart to the north is Bonnie Prince Charlie country, adding further romance with the tale of the Jacobite adventurer who came ‘Over the Sea to Skye’.
No matter how you get there – by bridge or ferry – Skye, ‘the Misty Isle’ is a superb scenic experience. The view of the Black Cuillins from Eigol is one of the most spectacular images of Scotland. See the Cuillins again from Glen Brittle, with The Quiraing up in the Trotternish peninsula, and The Storr beyond Portree for more scenic spectacle. However, there are lots of other places of interest, from Dunvegan Castle to the Skye Museum of Island Life.
