Scotland for Three Generations

A journey of 11 nights for the whole family, from Edinburgh Castle before opening time to the western Highlands. Pony picnics, wild swims and a walk in the woods with the ghillies of the Fife Arms, a Picasso and a Lucian Freud on its walls, dolphins and Highland cattle around Inverness, then a helicopter over Skye from Fort William.

Length: 11 nights
Pace: Four stays
Style: Family, multi-generational, wildlife, castles, helicopter
Route: Edinburgh to Braemar to Inverness to Fort William and Glencoe

EdinburghThree nights
BraemarThree nights
InvernessTwo nights
Fort William and GlencoeThree nights

A stone castle on a dark volcanic rock under a blue sky.

Days 1 to 4 · three nights

Edinburgh

Met at the aircraft door. A private visit to Edinburgh Castle before it opens, Crown Room included, then St Giles' Cathedral and its Thistle Chapel, and hands-on sessions in Scottish crafts and heritage. After the Palace of Holyroodhouse closes to the public, a private tour can be arranged, with time to explore on your own and rooms not usually open. A private morning tour of the Royal Yacht Britannia at Leith with a personal guide. Afternoon tea in the Palm Court, and for the grown-ups a dram in SCOTCH, the hotel's bar of more than 500 Scottish whiskies.

Where you stay

The Balmoral, a Rocco Forte Hotel

The Balmoral stands at 1 Princes Street, where Edinburgh's Old Town meets the New, under its landmark clock tower. Family rooms and suites sit alongside Number One for Scottish cooking, Brasserie Prince, afternoon tea in Palm Court, SCOTCH with more than 500 malts, and the Irene Forte Spa.

Autumn trees on a slope above a still loch between mountains.

Days 4 to 7 · three nights

Braemar

North through Fife, stopping at a farm with a wildlife hide. A day with the hotel's ghillies: a walk in the woods, a wild swim and a sauna, and a pony picnic luncheon in the Victorian and Edwardian manner. The complimentary art tour at 4 p.m. leads through a collection of 16,000 paintings, antiques and commissions, from Picasso's 1953 portrait of Françoise Gilot in the drawing room to a Lucian Freud above the lobby sofa, followed by afternoon tea. A kilted ranger can lead a Highland safari through the culture, nature and history of Deeside. On certain autumn dates, Balmoral Castle opens a selection of its rooms to guided tours of 12 people.

Where you stay

The Fife Arms

The Fife Arms is in Braemar in the Cairngorms National Park, with 47 rooms and more than 16,000 paintings, antiques and commissioned works. There are family suites and activities through the seasons, ghillies who lead hikes and wild swims, and the Clunie Dining Room and Flying Stag pub.

The pillared Georgian entrance of Rocpool Reserve, lit at dusk. — Photo: Rocpool Reserve

Days 7 to 9 · two nights

Inverness

Out to the Black Isle for a walk with a ranger among Highland cows, and a private fast boat along the Cromarty coast looking for dolphins, seals and seabirds. At the Culloden battlefield, a workshop on Jacobite soldiering lets the family handle replica 18th-century weapons and tools and dress in period tartan. Cawdor Castle, the castle known from Macbeth, can open for a private tour followed by afternoon tea.

Where you stay

Rocpool Reserve

Rocpool Reserve is a restored Georgian mansion in the centre of Inverness, looking over the River Ness, and its dining is for residents only. A glass of Prosecco and afternoon tea greet guests, tasting spoons follow in the early evening with drinks from the cocktail bar, and the lounge menu runs through the day.

The castle beyond a still loch, snow on the mountains behind. — Photo: Inverlochy Castle Hotel

Days 9 to 12 · three nights

Fort William and Glencoe

Down the Great Glen to Fort William. A helicopter over Skye and the mountains of the west, a day in Glencoe and Glen Etive with a local guide in a privately chartered Land Rover, off the beaten track for history, geology and wildlife, and the steam train over the Glenfinnan Viaduct, or rowing on the castle's loch and clay pigeon shooting, before the drive to the airport for home.

Where you stay

Inverlochy Castle Hotel

Inverlochy Castle is a 19th-century castle three miles from Fort William, in the foothills of Ben Nevis, where Queen Victoria spent a week in 1873. Rooms are in the castle or the walled garden, Seasgair is the restaurant, and the grounds are set up for rowing on the loch and clay pigeon shooting.

Arranged on request

Inside Balmoral Castle

On certain dates in the autumn opening, guided tours through a selection of rooms at Balmoral, limited to 12 people a tour.

Picasso and Freud at the Fife Arms

The complimentary art tour at 4 p.m. daily, through a collection that includes Picasso's 1953 Femme assise dans un fauteuil and Lucian Freud's A Painter, Redheaded Man No. II.

A pony picnic with the ghillies

Pony picnic luncheons in the Victorian and Edwardian manner, and off-road drives across the Invercauld Estate with the Fife Arms' ghillies.

The cellar at the Fife Arms

For the adults, a tutored wine tasting in the wine cellar led by the head sommelier, or four drams at Bertie's.

Holyroodhouse after closing

A private tour of the Palace of Holyroodhouse after public closing hours, with time to explore on your own and rooms not usually open.

A soldier's life at Culloden

On the battlefield, a family workshop on Jacobite soldiering, handling replica 18th-century weapons and tools and dressing in period tartan.

Subject to availability.

Ways to make it yours

A day on the Corrour estate by train from Fort William: walking in 70,000 acres of wilderness, rowing or canoeing on Loch Ossian, and lunch at the restaurant in the country's highest railway station, reached only on foot or by train.
A day on the Isle of Skye by road and ferry from Fort William.
Blair Castle and a day cycling in Highland Perthshire.

This is a sample. The hotels, the pace and the order are where we start, not where we finish: every journey is designed around the people taking it.

Made around you

Most travel is bought. This is designed.

Before anything is booked, we talk: who is travelling, how you like to spend a morning, and the hotel preferences below the obvious, from the kind of bath you like to the time you wake and how much daylight you need in a room. You see options where options matter and clean recommendations where they don't.

The same person remains your point of contact from the first reply to the trip after next. No handovers. No team.