Highland Bus tour: Experience Outlander, Culloden, Castles, and Loch Ness in One Day

Experience the best of the Scottish Highlands on our Highland Bus tour. Explore Outlander locations, visit Culloden, discover castles, and search for Nessie at Loch Ness. Book now!

Duration: 8 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Culloden Battlefield - The tour will visit the Culloden Battlefield, the site of the Jacobites’ significant loss during the 1746 uprising. This was the final battle fought on British soil. If time permits, guests will have the opportunity to walk on the battlefield. Depending on the tour schedule, there may be a drive-by instead of a stop.
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What's Included
  • Entrance to Inverness Castle included in the booking price.
  • Note: Inverness Castle is currently closed for refurbishment.
Additional Information

This bus tour from Invergordon features highlights from Outlander, Culloden, Castles, Loch Ness & Nessie! It packs in a lot for one day’s tour and is very affordable and good value for money. Entrance to castle is INCLUDED. Our website contains full details of all tours and booking.
Our tours are specially put together after taking feedback from YOU. We…

Location
Port Office
Shore Road
In 2025 the cruise ships will dock at Quay West. Passengers disembark and get onto a shuttle bus which takes them to our meeting location on Shore Road. We are the first stop. All the independent tour guides wait there so look for our Thistle Guides.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.5
(299 Ratings)
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Krissy_s
Aug 10, 2025
Great sampling of the highlands - So many great things to see! Our guide was very knowledgeable. In retrospect, I would have rather had more time at Culloden and skip Loch Ness. Great excursion, though!
Review provided by Viator
James_w
Aug 8, 2025
Great Local Tour Guide - Our tour guide was terrific. She had extensive local knowledge and was very enthusiastic! She was the best!
Review provided by Viator
Joyce_r
Aug 8, 2025
Great day! - Super day and our guide Lorraine was so knowledgeable and fun. Got to see so much and no line waiting. Others on our ship on the big bus tours only went to 2 places whereas we covered 6+. The Castle is incredible, beautiful gardens and nice cafe for a quick lunch. Loch Ness was very windy but still fun to see. Thanks to Lorraine for making the day relaxed and special!!
Review provided by Viator
Kirsten_p
Jul 28, 2025
Beautiful Scottish Highlamds - It is a relaxed bus tour of the Scottish highlands with time to explore Inverness, Cawdor castle and Culloden Battlefield
Review provided by Viator
Jorge_p
Jul 28, 2025
A superb experience! - A well-organized tour with very interesting stops. We were sorry that we could not enjoy more time in the city of Inverness and did not make a stop at the tourist center of Loch Ness. However, Cawdor Castle was a wonderful visit and we had the opportunity to visit a farm to photograph the typical cows of the Highlands!
Review provided by Viator
Anthony_e
Jul 27, 2025
Our trip was excellent... - Our trip was excellent our guide Mo was very knowledgable about the area and provided us with an informative commentary as we passed through. She was very friendly about the sites we visited. My family thoroughly enjoyed the day.
Review provided by Viator
Jennifer_m
Aug 8, 2025
This was basically a good... - This was basically a good tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. However, we started late due to the organizers’s disorganization. Due to a late start and road construction which the tour could do nothing about, our tour was cut short to get us back to the ship on time. Cawdor Castle was amazing and the Battle of Culloden was very interesting. It would have been nice to pass by Lick Ness.
Review provided by Viator
Jerold_w
Jul 31, 2025
Mostly pluses - This tour was mostly very good, visiting some important sites in Scotland. However it ran late and one minor stop was missed. I personally also found Cawdor Castle to be ok, but after enough castles it's hard to get excited about one more. To balance that, I found Culloden battlefield more interesting than I expected.
Review provided by Viator
Janette_b
Aug 8, 2025
Slow start missed half the attractions. - Bus was late then waited for one couple who never showed up. So got us off to a bumpy start. Very disappointed not seeing Clava Cairns, lock ness or those adorable Scottish cows. If I had known I would I was going to miss those I would not have booked this tour. They kept on blaming traffic for our loss of services. However there was no urgency to time management on the tour director's part. We were bus 23 on this day and had George in the pink hat give us our tour. He was very knowledgeable about the attractions we did see. I just felt there was some lack of urgency counting heads and getting ready to go to the next attraction. Which was my frustration with missing 50% of the scheduled itinerary. Traffic was bad but I feel that can't be 100% of the blame. Honestly don't even advertise it as an outlander tour. We saw the castle as outlander big deal. I feel some compensation should be given for the missed attractions. Having George downplay and not acknowledge the attractions we missed was not appreciated. Very disappointing!
Review provided by Viator
Culture46668772088
Jul 24, 2025
Invergordon Tour Was Miserable - On July 16, 9 of us family went on a 34 passenger bus for an 8 hour tour. The driver and tour person knew that the A/C and ventilation system was not working when they picked up the vehicle. That day the temperature was extremely hot and the bus was over a 100 degrees F inside and the windows were not the type to be opened. By noon all 34 people were suffering from the heat. They raced to get us back to the port by 2pm. They sincerely apologized for what we had to endure, and said that Thistle Company knew that this mechanical problem had happened the day before and just let it be used for our tour. We talked to two ladies on the ship that evening and they had requested a full refund. My 85 year old father in law who paid for the 9 of us thruTrip Advisor called customer service department that evening on the ship and asked for some compensation for the misery we had to endure. He got an email back saying that they would review what had happened. So far no response. If they would have told us that the A/C and fan was not functioning and the windows do not open, no one would have gone on this tour. The tour guide and driver said it was shameful what Thistle Tours did to us.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
From $174
up to 15 guests
1 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).