01 · Nine hours · from Inverness or Fort Augustus · All year, best in October
Glen Affric
5 photographs · Silent Glen
In short
The finest glen in Scotland, taken slowly — Dog Falls, the water at Affric before the wind gets up, and Plodda Falls on the way home.
How the day runs
Nine hours, four stops, and none of it fixed.
Open a stop for the detail, or show it on the map. The ones marked optional are offered on the day rather than fixed into it — take them or leave them.
-
Start You’ll be collected
From your hotel door in Inverness, and early enough to be up the glen before anyone else.
-
Pass by Beauly and Struy
The way out, up Strathglass — and not the way we come home.
Details CloseOut of Inverness along the firth to Beauly, then south-west up Strathglass past Struy, with the river beside the road most of the way. We come home the other side, through Glen Urquhart to Drumnadrochit, so the day is a loop rather than the same thirty miles twice.
- 01
Dog Falls 45 min
The first stop, and the first of the pinewood.
Details CloseA gorge on the Affric where the river narrows and drops through rock, with a footbridge over the top of it. There is a short loop through the pines from the car park if you want it, and a two-minute walk to the falls if you do not. It is also where the road stops running through farmland and starts running through forest.
- 02
River Affric car park 2 h 30
The heart of it, and the longest stop of the day. Public toilets here too.
Details CloseThis is what the day is for. Ancient Caledonian pinewood — the real thing, not plantation — standing over water that goes flat calm before the wind finds it. Paths run from the car park in every direction: a level loop of about a mile, a longer circuit round the loch, and hill days from the same spot if the legs and the weather agree. We decide on the morning. There are public toilets at the car park, which matter more than they sound — they are the last at the top of the glen and the last on the way back down.
- 03
Plodda Falls 1 h 15
Back down the glen and up the other side. A hundred and fifty feet, straight down.
Details CloseA Victorian viewing platform cantilevered out over the lip of the fall, so you look straight down the drop rather than up at it. The walk in is through Douglas firs planted in the 1880s, among the tallest trees in Britain. It is steep coming back up and the steps are wet more often than not.
-
Cougie — Highland pony trekking Optional
Booked ahead, and only if the day has room for it.
Details CloseHighland ponies from a croft at Cougie, at the end of a long track in the middle of nowhere. Not a pony ride round a field — riding out into the forest on the animal this country was worked with. It has to be arranged in advance and it adds real time to the day, so tell us when you enquire rather than on the morning.
- 04
Drumnadrochit 45 min
The village on the way home, and long enough to be a stop rather than a pause.
Details CloseDrumnadrochit sits where Glen Urquhart comes down to Loch Ness, and it is the last village before Inverness. We stop at the Loch Ness Hub in the middle of it — community-run, with a café and toilets — which is a better end to the day than a service station. If you want half an hour to walk round the village rather than sit down, that works too.
-
End Back at your door
Down Strathglass and over to Drumnadrochit, then half an hour back into Inverness with the light behind us.
Durations rather than times, on purpose. The order moves, stops get longer or get dropped, and the whole thing bends around the weather and around you — Dan will tell you on the morning what the day actually wants to be.
Map and imagery by Google, which sets its own cookies.
The next five days at Glen Affric
Met Office ·
Forecasts this far out are a shape rather than a promise, which is the whole reason the day is not fixed until the morning.
Highlights
- Ancient Caledonian pinewood — self-seeded, not planted, and the largest fragment left in Scotland
- The water at Affric flat calm, before the wind finds it mid-morning
- Plodda Falls from the Victorian platform out over the lip of the drop
- Thirty miles of dead-end road, with the good part at the far end
- Most of the day spent out of the car rather than looking through its windows
What’s included
In the price
- Collection from your door in Inverness or the surrounding areas, and back there at the end
- The car to yourselves for the whole day — one party a day, nobody else aboard
- Dan driving and guiding, for the nine hours
- All mileage and charging
- Free cancellation up to 48 hours before, for a full refund
Not included
- Lunch and drinks. There is no shop, no café and no signal for most of the day, so bring what you want with you or we stop for it on the way out.
- Boots and waterproofs. The glen runs its own weather and it is reliably colder at the top than at the car.
- Pony trekking at Cougie, which is arranged and paid separately and has to be booked well in advance.
The day
The finest glen in Scotland
People say that about Glen Affric often enough that it has stopped meaning much, so here is what is behind it. Most Highland glens were cleared and then planted with spruce in straight lines. Affric was not. What stands there is native Caledonian pinewood — Scots pine and birch, self-seeded, descended in an unbroken line from the forest that covered this country after the ice.
There are roughly eighty fragments of it left in Scotland. This is the largest and the best of them.
Why a whole day for one glen
Because it is thirty miles of dead-end road and the good part is at the far end. An operator running Affric as a half-day gets you to the car park, gives you forty minutes and drives you back, which is a long way to go for forty minutes.
We take the whole day and spend most of it out of the car. That is the difference, and here it is the only difference that matters.
The water
Loch Beinn a’ Mheadhoin and Loch Affric both go flat calm early and stay that way until the wind finds them, usually mid-morning. Getting there before that happens is worth the alarm — the reflection off still water under the pines is the photograph everyone comes for, and by eleven it has gone.
Plodda on the way home
Plodda Falls sits on the other side of Strathglass, so it is not on the way to anything. We take it on the return leg, when the light has come round and the gorge is lit rather than in shadow.
The platform juts out over the top of the fall. If heights are not for you, say so and we will take the lower path, which looks up at it instead and is arguably the better view anyway.
What to bring
Boots, or at least something you do not mind getting wet. Layers — the glen runs its own weather and it is reliably colder at the top than at the car. There is no shop, no café and no signal for most of the day, which is rather the point.
Book now
Tell us the week. We’ll tell you the weather.
Every day is quoted individually — party size, pick-up point and how far you want to go. Expect a reply from Dan within a working day, and a written itinerary before you pay anything.
Thank you. Dan will reply within a working day.
silentglentours@gmail.comThe other days
If this one is not quite it.
Chasing the Jacobite
The train everyone photographs, from the places the photographs are taken. A day that moves: one sighting at Glenfinnan promised, and two or three if you are quick back to the car.
From Fort William or Fort Augustus · June to late October
Book this tour
Loch Ness, the whole way round
Urquhart Castle in the first hour it opens, lunch and a walk at Dundreggan, and back up the single-track east shore that the coaches cannot use.
From Inverness or Fort Augustus · All year
Book this tour
The Road to the Isles
West until the road runs out, taken at its own pace — Glenfinnan before the car park fills, Arisaig, the white sands, and langoustines on the harbour at Mallaig. All year, and nothing to catch.
From Fort William or Fort Augustus · All year
Book this tour
The east shore
The single-track side of Loch Ness, which coaches cannot use and most hire cars will not. Foyers, the moor road, and Dores beach at the end of it.
From Fort Augustus or Inverness · All year
Book this tour
Skye, the Fairy Pools and Talisker
The long way to Skye and a different road home — Glen Shiel, Eilean Donan, the Fairy Pools under the Black Cuillin, Talisker at Carbost, and back through Lochcarron and Achnasheen rather than the way you came.
From Inverness, Fort Augustus or Fort William · Best April to September
Book this tour
Applecross and the Bealach na Bà
The Bealach na Bà from sea level to the top in six miles of hairpins, a walk at the summit, and down the far side to the inn at Applecross for lunch on the shore. Back over the pass, or the long way round the coast.
From Inverness, Fort Augustus or Fort William · Best May to October
Book this tour
Wester Ross, from Invergordon
Built around a ship’s day in port and run for anyone else who wants it — Corrieshalloch Gorge, the pink sand at Gruinard, Gairloch, and the old pinewood at Beinn Eighe, home over Glen Docherty. Twelve hours, and the clock is the point.
From Invergordon, Inverness or Fort Augustus · Best April to October
Book this tour
Glen Coe and Glen Etive
Down the A82 into Glen Coe for the Three Sisters and the Kingshouse, then off it entirely — twelve miles of single track down Glen Etive to the sea, past the corner every Bond film crew has stood on. A waterfall first, if you fancy the climb.
From Fort Augustus or Fort William · Best April to October
Book this tour