COAST TO COAST - NORTH ROUTE
Your riding ability
On our long distance rides we will be travelling many miles a day in the saddle, riding up and down hills and over rough terrain so you must be capable of riding in a balanced manner for your horses sake! Our horses health and happiness is always a priority to us and because of the long days in the saddle, we require all riders to be competent in riding with a light seat (i.e posting the trot and light seat in canter) to minimise stress on the horses back. We will be crossing rivers, galloping along beaches and may need to jump small natural obstacles, like ditches or fallen trees - nothing too big, but you need to be a capable rider and able to control a horse at speed. It is also important that you are practised in leading a horse over difficult terrain as there may be times when this is necessary. We require all our riders to be at a walk/trot/canter level.
Get to know a little about the trails and our minimum age/experience requirments
Before You Book Your Holiday
Your riding ability
On our long distance rides we will be travelling many miles a day in the saddle, riding up and down hills and over rough terrain so you must be capable of riding in a balanced manner for your horses sake! Our horses health and happiness is always a priority to us and because of the long days in the saddle, we require all riders to be competent in riding with a light seat (i.e posting the trot and light seat in canter) to minimise stress on the horses back. We will be crossing rivers, galloping along beaches and may need to jump small natural obstacles, like ditches or fallen trees - nothing too big, but you need to be a capable rider and able to control a horse at speed. It is also important that you are practised in leading a horse over difficult terrain as there may be times when this is necessary. We require all our riders to be at a walk/trot/canter level.
Get to know a little about the trails and our minimum age/experience requirments
Before You Book Your Holiday
7 days riding, 6 nights accommodation
COAST TO COAST - NORTH ROUTE
7 days riding, 6 nights accommodation
COAST TO COAST - NORTH ROUTE
7 days riding, 6 nights accommodation
OUTLANDER RIDE
Option 1: 6 days riding, 1 day sightseeing, 6 nights accommodation
Option 2: 6 days riding, 4 days sightseeing, 9 nights accommodation
Riding Difficulty: Intermediate (click for more information)
Approximate Distance Covered: 100 Miles
The listed price includes accomodation, meals (B, L, D).
This ride is based on the fabulous series of books by Diana Gabaldon which are set in the Highlands. These breaks offer a mixture of riding through the real Highland landscape in which the stories are set and days spent out of the saddle, visiting the 'must see' places associated with the story that we simply can't get to on horseback! Even if you are not a fan, or have never read these fantastic books, this is still a great ride, visiting some iconic places with stunning scenery in great riding country.
We have two options for this ride as we realise that some may have already spent time in Edinburgh when arriving in the UK and some may have not, so we have an extra day and a half sightseeing including Doune castle (location of Castle Leoch in the Starz TV series) and sites in Edinburgh in Option 2, which we believe will give you the best Outlander experience possible.
Day One
Dores to Whitebridge: 20 Miles
This ride starts just outside Inverness and we will return you to Inverness at the end of the ride. Leaving Inverness, we ride high above Loch Ness - looking out for Nessie as we ascend the Cadha a’ Ghille Bhain, the Fair Haired Lad's Pass. Riding through Fraser lands on the south side of the loch we get stunning views over the loch, down towards Urquhart castle. We then ride on, passing below the pine clad crags where the Dunbonnet hid and Fergus lost a hand.
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Day Two
Whitebridge to Fort Augustus: 14 Miles
Riding on through Fraser lands with fantastic, far reaching views over the Great Glen, we descend to Fort Augustus which is site of the old barracks at the head of Loch Ness.
Day Three
Fort Augustus to Tomich: 23 Miles
This days ride sees us ride through the quaint lochside town of Fort Augustus before heading high again for fantastic views over the surrounding landscape. We descend briefly for lunch, following an old military road built by General Cauldfield. Our path then takes us along an old drovers road, high into a vast landscape of peat and heather with stunning views over the hills towards Kintail as we ride over the pass. We follow this track past multiple lochs before making our way through the forest and towards Tomich.
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Day Four
Tomich to Glen Affric to Tomich: 18 Miles
We spend a day exploring Glen Affric and the trail we ride on was the old road west, linking the Mackenzie lands on the West and the Fraser lands on the East coasts. This road is shown on maps of the 1700's. In Diana's Outlandish Companion, this is the area where Lallybroch would be situated and we see a potential contender! There are plenty of great opportunities today for some breathtaking canters.
Day Five
Tomich to Struy: 10 Miles
We ride on the Eskdale road, where Jamie surrendered himself to the redcoats. Today is a shorter ride with lots of important spots for fans of the books. Guests can take a well earned break this afternoon!
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Day Six
Struy to Muir of Ord: 18 Miles
We pass Erchless Castle, seat of the clan Chisholm as we ride over the hills on another ancient track part of the network of old drove roads, which takes us to the hills above Muir of Ord and Beauly where we finish the ridden part of our trip with a beautiful view over Mackenzie and Fraser lands.
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Day Seven (Sightseeing)
Culloden, Urquhart Castle, Clava Cairns
We head back towards Inverness, for a day of sightseeing, including a visit to Urquhart Castle and Culloden Moor, where we join a tour of the battlefield and visit the clan stones. We also visit the fantastic new exhibition, which is full of interesting memorabilia with interactive characters and an immersion theatre where you can experience first hand what it was like to be in the middle of the action at Culloden. Then we visit the stone circle at Clava Cairns with it's cleft stone and time permitting, as many other interesting lesser known sites associated with the series of books as we can squeeze in.
This will be the last night for those who have selected Option One of the tour.
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Price: 3028 GBP
Option 2: Doune Castle and Edinburgh
Everything as listed in the Outlander ride option 1 above, but also including visits to the Highland Folk Museum, Ruthven Barracks, Doune Castle.
Day 1 – We visit Ruthven Barracks, wander through the Highland Folk museum which was used as location for the township scenes in ‘Rent’, explore the castles used during filming of the series such as Lallybroch and Castle Leoch. Wander the historic streets of Inverness, Beauly and Falkland (where they filmed 'Inverness' scenes) in search of your very own Jaime Fraser, perhaps whilst sipping a wee dram. Our tours are perfect for fans of the the series as well as lovers of Diana Gabaldon bestsellers as we not only visit the filming locations but also the locations referenced in the books.
Day 2 – Today we continue our castle odyssey and venture to a 15th century fortress which was used as Fort William in the series. Stand on the stone flags of the courtyard where Jamie was flogged by Black Jack Randall and search for the window where Jamie makes his daring ascent to rescue Claire. From here, we head North to the quaint historic town of Culross which posed as Cranesmuir, home to Geillis Duncan and scene of the infamous witch trials. The antiquated cobbled streets are also home to the herb garden where Claire and Geillis gathered medicinal herbs. We will also visit Hopetoun House, with was used as a location for several key scenes. Time permitting we will also visit some other interesting locations relating to the tale. We head back to our accomodation where we will have an evening of traditional entertainment.
Day 3 – Wander the Royal Mile in search of A. Malcolm’s print shop and visit Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh Castle and other places with Outlander references on the ‘Mile’ and some other special locations too – we like to keep some places we visit a surprise!
Price: 3930 GBP
Price based on sharing a twin or double room - single rooms may be available (but cannot be guaranteed) at an extra cost of 400GBP for the 7 day and 520 GBP for the 10 day however if you are travelling alone and willing to share a room, we often have other riders doing the same who are happy to keep costs down by sharing with another lone traveller of the same sex and wherever possible we try to match sharers by age etc too. Payment can be made by cheque, bank transfer or credit/debit card via PayPal below. Please contact us if you require our bank details for transfer.
Please email or phone us to check availability on the ride before paying deposits.
