Lord of the Glens – 8 day cruise Inland Waterways and Idyllic Isles

Travel under own arrangement to Inverness (rail/air connections can be arranged on request). A coach transfer is provided from Inverness Airport (approx. 1300hrs) or Inverness city centre (approx.1430hrs) to Kyle of Lochalsh, where we embark the MV Lord of the Glens. Alternatively you may travel independently to Kyle, via the scenic railway line from Inverness.
In the evening we will be joined by members of the crew for a welcome reception before dinner and moor for the night here in Kyle.

After breakfast we depart by coach on an excursion to Eilean Donan Castle. This must be one of the most photographed castles in Scotland, with its impossibly romantic setting on Loch Duich. The beginnings of Eilean Donan Castle reach back into the early mists of time - evidence of a pictish fort was found in vitrified rock uncovered during excavations, some of which has been kept for visitors to see.
Returning to the ship in the afternoon, we sail via the narrows at Kyle Rhea and the Sound of Sleat to Inverie in Loch Nevis, one of the most remote locations in Scotland with a famous pub which can only be accessed by boat. We moor at Inverie overnight.

Enjoy your breakfast. We depart for Armadale on the Isle of Skye, where we visit the Clan Donald Centre and the Museum of the Isles. During lunch we sail to the tiny island of Eigg, where you get a sense of what life is like for the 90 or so people who live on this island, which came into community ownership in 1998. After exploring the island, later we sail around Ardnamurchan Point, the most westerly point of mainland Britain, and into the Sound of Mull to arrive at Tobermory on the Isle of Mull.  We moor in Tobermory overnight.

After breakfast we have free time in Tobermory, whose most famous and striking feature is the row of brightly painted houses that lines the waterfront, originally built by the British Fisheries Company for £20 pound each to house its workers. Later we sail down the Sound of Mull to Craignure, the main ferry port of Mull, and depart by coach for a visit to the Isle of Iona, the last resting place of some 50 Scottish Kings and the place where St Columba introduced Christianity to Britain. The tiny island has a unique sense of peace and tranquillity. Later we return by coach to the vessel at Craignure, and overnight here.

Enjoy your breakfast. In the morning and sail across the Firth of Lorne to Oban, where we have a walking tour of the town and (if you wish) up to McCaigs Tower, dominating the skyline of the town with great views over the bustling harbour and back towards Mull. We then sail north into Loch Linnhe, a long fjord carved out by the last ice age. Keep an eye out for Castle Stalker, set on its own island, which featured in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We arrive at Corpach and the southern entrance to the Caledonian Canal and in the afternoon we depart by train along part of the West Highland railway, travelling over the impressive Glenfinnan Viaduct, which found world-wide fame after it appeared in the Harry Potter films. We return to Corpach, where we moor for the night.

After breakfast we ascend Neptune’s Staircase, an impressive flight of eight inter-connected locks that lifts the vessel 103 feet above sea level to Banavie. We then sail through peaceful Loch Lochy and Loch Oich and various man-made sections of the Caledonian Canal, which was started in 1803 to plans produced by Thomas Telford following survey work by James Watt thirty years earlier. By the time the canal finally opened in 1822 it had taken 17 years and cost £840,000, but instead of the 20 foot depth in Telford's plans, the canal when it initially opened was only 14 feet deep, too shallow for many of the increasingly large ships being built at the time. A second phase of construction was then undertaken between 1844 and 1847 and what emerged from this was the canal originally proposed by Telford. The irony was that by the time the canal was finally complete, steam ships could make the passage around Scotland much more easily than the sailing ships in whose era it was designed.  We moor overnight in Fort Augustus.

After breakfast we negotiate the series of six inter-connected locks that runs through the centre of Fort Augustus the town and continue on a cruise that takes us the length of Loch Ness. This most famous of Scottish lochs is 23 miles long, a mile wide and up to 600ft deep, which is a lot of water in which to hide if you are a monster! Whether ‘Nessie’ is a relic from the age of dinosaurs or just a carefully cultivated myth remains to be seen, but keep a careful look out just in case! On the way we pass by the ruins of Castle Urquhart, which provides the perfect photo opportunity.
In the afternoon, having arrived at the northern end of the Caledonian Canal in Inverness, we depart by coach on an excursion to the National Trust for Scotland’s Visitor Centre at Culloden, the scene of the last battle fought on British soil in 1746, and the Clava Cairns, a group of exceptionally well-preserved burial cairns that were built about 4000 years ago.
In the evening we enjoy a farewell reception and dinner, and moor here in Inverness overnight.

Following breakfast we disembark. A coach transfer is provided to Inverness city centre (approx. 0930hrs) and Inverness Airport (approx. 1000hrs).  Alternatively you may return home independently.