‘Gaelic Guides’ is based in Inverness – a great location as a base to see some of the best of what Scotland and the Highlands has to offer. We will arrange a new, comfortable vehicle and take you on a stress-free trip for a half-day, a full day or longer.

The Highlands are iconic – often undeveloped and unspoiled – with a view around every corner. But it’s hard to get the full benefit if you are driving an unfamiliar vehicle, on unfamiliar and sometimes challenging roads. We truly believe that using our services as a ‘driver guide’ will give everyone in your group the best opportunity to keep their eyes on the scenery – and not on the road! This makes for a more relaxing – and safer – trip.

While our suggested tours are based on travelling by car from Inverness, they can also be as active, or as gentle as you like. As mentioned in the ‘biography’ page, Donald has a hillwalking qualification, allowing him to escort groups in all except the most challenging terrain, but if you want to see the Highlands from the roadside – that’s fine too. There’s still plenty to look at! If you’d like to hear a Gaelic song, or a tune on the pipes as we’re travelling along, that’s not a problem – just ask.

Our preference is to speak to clients, find out what their own interests and plans are, and then to design a special, personalised trip to meet as many of these as possible. Please get in touch, let us know your thoughts – are there any things you really want to fit in? We’ll reply quickly with a suggested itinerary. The Highlands are so varied that there is an opportunity to look at a whole range of different subjects; family history and clan heritage; natural history and wildlife; highland games and bagpiping; wartime heritage – the list could go on and on.

We also understand though, that our knowledge of where to go, and what to see might be the best way forward. In that case, we suggest specific trips – based from Inverness:

• Loch Ness circuit: Drumnadrochit>Invermoriston>Fort Augustus>Whitebridge>Foyers>Dores
• Culloden & its aftermath: based around the battlefield and locations around Inverness
• Strathspey & Loch Ness: Carrbridge > Strathspey > Aviemore/Loch Morlich > Spean Bridge > Loch Ness > return to Inverness
• Eilean Donan: Loch Ness > Kintail/Loch Duich > Eilean Donan Castle > Kyleakin and the Skye Bridge > Lochcarron>return to Inverness
• Gairloch & the west: Ullapool >Destitution Road > Gruinard > Aultbea > Gairloch > Loch Maree
• Sutherland & the north west: Ullapool > Elphin > Scourie > Lairg > Bonar Bridge > Evanton > Inverness

Why not use these as ‘starter’ and then tailor them to fit your own interests? If you let us know, we can make suggestions.

We also pride ourselves on our flexibility. If you’d like to book a trip, but need to get from ‘A to B’ as part of your holiday – let us know. For example, if you are travelling onwards from Inverness – by ferry from Ullapool, Skye or Scrabster – let us know, and we can build a trip around the one-way journey.

If you’d like longer trips – two or more days, to places like the Western Isles, again let us know and we can build an itinerary for you.

This is your trip to the Highlands. We want you to go home feeling that you’ve really ticked all the boxes, managed to do and see all the things you’d hoped, and feeling that you have a better sense of Scotland and the Highlands. We will go out of our way to try and make this happen, so be sure to let us know what’s on your wish list.

If you’re travelling as a family, don’t let that put you off. Donald has two children of his own, and has worked with other groups of young people. We’re happy to work around the needs of a family, and would be delighted to introduce young people to the Highlands, the Gaelic language and the music.