custom tour Scotland

your personalised private tour and short breaks

A custom tour gives you the chance to custom build your own personalized independent tours or short breaks in Scotland. If visiting Edinburgh why not also explore St. Andrews, visit a distillery in Perthshire or get a feel for the Scottish Highlands? Dally a while off the main routes and take in some local folklore?

Tours can give you an overview of Scotland, or a particular area or topic. Recent small group tours have included St. Andrews (golf, castle, cathedral, beaches, eateries, shops and all) and the enchanting villages of the East Neuk of Fife with their varied fishing harbours, crow-step gabled houses, pottery and art studios, the strategically important Stirling Castle and eerie Castle Campbell and distilleries such as Edradour, Bunnahabhainn and Bruichladdich. In the more distant past, tours have even included the Lake District, the Cotwolds and York.

These tours can be peppered with off-the-beaten track visits including a Gardens Tour, organic farms and shops (e.g. the 'Pillars of Hercules'), early church sites and open air Christian places of worship, boat trips, low and high level walks, roped cliff walks, tours underground into tunnels and souterrains, blackhouse villages, trips to see Pictish stones, Iron Age brochs, tours of Fairy Pools and Fairie Glens, visits to places connected to literary, artistic and musical figures

We can arrange many cultural tours and events including tours from Celtic Connections and the Edinburgh Festival, as well as vegetarian food options.

grand tour of the UK

Harks back to the age when 'respectable' folks did a grand tour of Europe , to further their education and broaden their horizons.

This tour starts at your place of choice (even in London) and takes in as much of the UK as is required. From corn dollies in Norfolk to the vaults of York Minster, from punting on the Cam to wandering Fountain's Abbey and Studley Royal, from the English folk scene to the cultural delights of contemporary Newcastle, this tour can augment your travel north to the border. Going over the border we pay special attention to the respective histories and folklores of Scotland and England, and how these relate to the story of Britain.

This personalized tour can finish anywhere in Scotland (or England) and can include free day and multi-day stop-offs at 'destinations' en-route such as the perennial favourite cities of York and Edinburgh. This tour can be tailored to include drop-offs at ferry points for Orkney and Shetland. (8 Days +)

footprints of the early Scots tour:

Day One : Leave Edinburgh at 8.30am for majestic Loch Lomond ; via Inveraray to lunch wholesome and tasty food at Kilmartin House. Visit the standing stones at Temple Wood and Dunadd Fort (with a footprint and a font that marks this early capital of the Scots). To Oban, and the ferry to the Isle of Mull; stay at the highly cherished Argyll Hotel on the Island of Iona or the homely Seaview Bed and breakfast.

Day Two : A tour of Iona Abbey, the cradle of Celtic Christianity, followed by a leisurely half day boat trip to Staffa. Travel in the footsteps of Sir Walter Scott, and Mendelssohn to name but a few who were inspired by the island with its famous Fingle's Cave, and a panoply of puffins and seals. Stay second night on Mull or Iona.

Day Three : Leave Mull for glorious Loch Awe and Loch Tay; enter verdant and mysterious west Perthshire, search for the elusive Cave of Caerbannog; stay at the hideaway, Ardeonaig Hotel .

Day Four : Explore west Perthshire including visiting Europe's oldest living tree; find the evidence of the footsteps of the early Celtic Christians as they moved across this artery of Scotland, from Iona to Dunkeld. Visit Dunkeld Cathedral at the ancient pre-Christian confluence, and drink from one of the sacred healing wells around the old 'city'. Visit Meigle and Abernethy, ancient Pictish Christian sites.