04 · Ten hours · from Fort William or Fort Augustus · All year
The Road to the Isles
4 photographs · Silent Glen
In short
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.
How the day runs
Ten hours, six stops, and none of it fixed.
Show any stop on the map to see where it is.
-
Start You’ll be collected
Half seven, because Glenfinnan is a lost cause by ten.
- 01
Glenfinnan monument 1 h
The better half of the stop, and the half most people skip.
- 02
The viaduct 30 min
Twenty-one arches on a curve, before the car park fills. It fills.
- 03
Loch nan Uamh 20 min
Where the Prince landed and where he left. A layby, a cairn, and the sea.
- 04
Arisaig 45 min
White shell sand, and Eigg and Rum sitting on the horizon.
- 05
Mallaig 1 h 30
Lunch on the harbour. Langoustines if the boats have been out.
- 06
Camusdarach 1 h
A path over the dunes and no sign telling you what it is.
-
Pass by Loch Eilt
-
End Back at your door
East down the glen, 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 Arisaig
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
- Glenfinnan before the car park fills, and it fills
- Twenty-one arches on a curve, and the monument most people skip
- The road west until it runs out at Mallaig
- White shell sand at Arisaig, with Eigg and Rum on the horizon
- Camusdarach — a path over the dunes and no sign telling you what it is
What’s included
In the price
- Collection from your door in Fort William or Fort Augustus, 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 ten hours
- All mileage and charging
- Free cancellation up to 48 hours before, for a full refund
Not included
- Lunch on the harbour at Mallaig. Langoustines if the boats have been out, and worth the wait if they have.
- Anything ticketed at the sites themselves, Glenfinnan’s visitor centre among them. Say when you enquire and we will price the day with it or without.
- Shoes you do not mind getting wet sand in, for Camusdarach and the dunes.
The day
The long one
Forty miles of road between Fort William and Mallaig, and almost every one of them is worth stopping for. It changes character three times: forested glen, then bare rock and lochan, then white sand with the Small Isles laid out across the water as though they had been put there by mistake.
We leave at half seven, because Glenfinnan is the busiest car park in the west Highlands by ten and nearly empty at half eight.
Glenfinnan, done properly
Everyone comes for the viaduct. Twenty-one arches on a curve, built in concrete in 1898 by a man who had never built anything in concrete before.
The monument at the head of Loch Shiel is the better half of the stop and most people skip it. It marks where the standard was raised in 1745, at the head of a sixteen-mile loch with mountains falling straight into it. If you were going to stand somewhere and start a war, you would struggle to pick better.
If the steam train timing works out we will say so. We will not build the day around it — it is late as often as not, and the day is better than the train.
If the train is the reason you are coming, though, do not book this one. Book Chasing the Jacobite, which is built around the timetable and goes looking for it two or three times in a morning. It runs June to late October and it moves at a pace to match. This day runs all year and never hurries.
The sands
Arisaig is where the road meets the sea properly. The beaches are white because they are crushed shell rather than eroded rock, and the water over them goes turquoise on a bright day and pewter-green on a dull one. Both are worth the stop.
Camusdarach is the one worth walking to. A small car park, a path over the dunes, and no sign telling you what it is.
Mallaig is a working fishing harbour that happens to have a ferry terminal attached. On the days the boats have been out it is the best seafood on the west coast. We phone ahead.
What this day is not
It is not six stops and a schedule. A hundred and fifty miles in ten hours leaves room, and we would rather spend forty minutes at one beach than eight at four. Tell us on the morning what you actually want.
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.
Glen Affric
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.
From Inverness or Fort Augustus · All year, best in October
Book this tour
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 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