Whisky production and golf combine reasonably well, but they needn’t be glove perfect. The strongest correlation comes with the Highlands and Speyside. If you wished to include the Islay’s we’d need to set up a break-out of about 3 days, albeit Machrie Golf Course allows us to retain the quality. We shouldn’t overlook the numerous bottle collections and tasting experiences offered in Edinburgh, as well as the proximity of the Glenkinchie Distillery too (Johnnie Walker)

Duration

Typically about 9 nights

Features

Royal Dornoch, Castle Stuart, Cruden Bay, Royal Aberdeen, Nairn, Moray, Royal Burgess & the St Andrews New Course with the Balvenie, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, and Glenmorangie distilleries, plus the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh

Scotland has four ‘great’ salmon rivers. Our standard tour looks to utilise two of them, the Rivers Tweed and Tay. The former combines with North Berwick and Gullane, whilst the latter works with Gleneagles and Carnoustie

The other two, the rivers Spey and Dee are also perfectly viable and will combine relatively easily with Castle Stuart and Narin, as well as Royal Aberdeen and Cruden Bay respectively

Duration

Typically about 8 nights

Features

St Andrews, North Berwick, Carnoustie, Gleneagles, Gullane No1, and Panmure with salmon fishing on the River Tay and River Tweed

We wouldn’t necessarily pitch a ‘family holiday’ as it’s a little bit of an abstract concept. Families can come in many different shapes and sizes with age ranges and consequent areas of interest and demands. Family holiday’s are very often better addressed on a case by case basis but typically amongst them is a strong ‘outdoors’ presence which normally means ‘activities’ and basing ourselves around the Aviemore area, which is quite a good compromise for golf as well since it puts the likes of Castle Stuart, Nairn, Boat of Garten and Royal Dornoch in range. We can also weave Loch Ness into this cluster too with little difficulty, (persuading a monster to appear however will prove a lot harder)

If you wanted to give things an urban flavour, then Edinburgh is perfectly viable, but perhaps the real coup de grace would come from St Andrews, which has two sandy beaches and can actually work as a traditional family beach holiday (we won’t make any claims for the water temperature however!)

To some extent the ‘Harry Potter’ theme runs into the concept of a family holiday.

Scotland (or Edinburgh) is the birthplace of the book. The Elephant Coffee House is where the first two were written before JK Rowling had to seek a more private place to work. Edinburgh’s Victoria Street is the inspiration for Diagon Alley, and Greyfriars Kirk (a graveyard around the corner from the coffee shop) is where she took the names for some of the characters. Indeed, Voldermort is buried in Edinburgh!

In addition to this, we have a collection of film locations in the western highlands. Glen Coe is the location for Hagrid’s Hut. Loch Shiel the inspiration for the Black Lake (you can see the likeness). The island on which Dumbledores tomb is located is actually in the western end of Loch Eilt, and the arched railway viaduct at Glenfinnan also exists

We occasionally get this request and the synergy between Scotland’s golf courses and most interesting and historically significant castles is strong. Indeed, even the town of St Andrews has it’s own castle, but otherwise we can easily combine the following

Edinburgh Castle with North Berwick or Muirfield
Stirling Castle with Gleneagles
Culzean Castle with Turnberry
Glamis Castle with Carnoustie
Urquhart Castle with Castle Stuart
Dunrobin Castle with Royal Dornoch

To some extent a Castle tour is going to cross over the pages of the history book anyway, but we can probably omit a castle or two in pursuit of an understanding of history and how Scotland has evolved. As someone reputedly once quipped, ‘Scotland isn’t a country. It’s an argument’

The battlefield of Culloden should be included if possible, and being just 10 mins from Castle Stuart it’s normally very easy to do so.

Although it needn’t have a natural golfing partner, there is usually value to be had from including Glen Coe, scene of the 1692 massacre and Glenfinnan, scene of the 1745 Jacobite uprising

Stirling is another must and combines with Gleneagles. Not only is Stirling Castle the seat of the once might Stewart dynasty, the city is where two iconic battles were fought. The battle of Stirling Bridge (1296) is better known today as ‘Braveheart’ whereas Bannockburn (1314) is Scotland’s iconic victory over their English foes under the command of Robert the Bruce