Guests are met at the Glenmoriston Townhouse Hotel in Inverness and transferred by private chauffeured minibus to Scottish Highlander. Champagne Welcome and perhaps an early evening stroll to the sea lock with wonderful views over the Moray and Beauly Firths. Dinner on board

Your first cruise will take you up the Muirtown lock flight and through Tomnahurich swing bridge, with an option to walk alongside River Ness to the hamlet of Dochgarroch. After lunch on board, you will visit the Glen Ord distillery, founded in 1838 on the Black Isle by the Mackenzies of Ord. You will be given a fascinating description of the maturing and aging process of their whiskeys, each with its distinctive characteristics, followed by a special tasting of several single malts, including The Singleton. Dinner on board.

This morning you will enjoy Cawdor Castle, forever immortalized in Shakespeare’s “Scottish Play”, Macbeth. The picturesque gardens have been listed as being amongst the top 100 in the UK. The castle contains a superb collection of tapestries, pictures and furnishings and the Dowager Countess of Cawdor still lives there for part of the year. Then you will visit Culloden Moor, scene of the last major battle on British soil in 1746. If there is time, you will end your tour at the Clava Cairns, a pre-historic clan chieftain burial site dating back to 2,000 B.C. Later, you will cruise through Loch Dochfour and down Loch Ness, where en route we visit Urquhart Castle, mooring right below its spectacular ruins, before continuing our cruise to Fort Augustus. Dinner on board.

After breakfast, there is time to explore the pretty village of Fort Augustus before the cruise takes you up the “flight” and then on to a pretty mooring at Cullochy. After lunch on board, you can take a gentle drive through stunning scenery to see the Falls of Foyers, set in a dramatic gorge leading to Loch Ness and made famous in a 1787 poem by Robbie Burns. This evening you will have dinner ashore at a local restaurant.

This morning, you will take in some of the finest scenery Scotland has to offer as you drive to one of its best known and most photographed castles, Eilean Donan, which has been featured in movies such as “Highlander” and James Bond’s “The World Is Not Enough” and overlooks three sea lochs. The afternoon cruise today can be partially walked as you cross the very scenic Loch Oich, perhaps stopping en route for a spot of fishing, and onto the pretty Laggan Avenue. As you approach Laggan, our Highland Piper may greet you with a stirring rendition of traditional Scottish music.

Your final cruise today will see you cross Loch Lochy, passing Gairlochy, where there is the option to visit the Clan Cameron Museum. Continue on to Moy Bridge, the last fully hand-operated bridge on the canal to moor at Banavie beneath Ben Nevis and a stroll from Neptune’s Staircase leading down to Loch Eil. After lunch on board, the tour today takes you to the mystical battlefield of Glencoe, famed for one of the darkest days in Scottish history. Alternatively, you can enjoy some breath-taking panoramic views on a cable car ride to the summit of Aonach Mor mountain. If time permits, you can also visit the ruins of Old Inverlochy Castle.  Captain’s Farewell Dinner on board.

After breakfast, guests are transferred by private chauffeured minibus to their choice of location in Inverness.