Ireland and Scotland: Dublin, Belfast, the Highlands and Edinburgh

Arrive in Dublin

Dublin Airport to your hotel in the city centre, then an evening walk to St Stephen's Green

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Dublin
• Environ 30 min de route

Soir

Try to land by about 2 pm; if you would rather arrive a day early to sleep off the flight, we can book the extra night. In the late afternoon your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a first, easy walk: along the Liffey to the Ha'penny Bridge, an iron footbridge from 1816, through the narrow lanes of Temple Bar, past the front of Trinity and up Grafton Street to St Stephen's Green, a Georgian square opened to the public as a park in 1880 with money from the Guinness family. It is about an hour on flat pavements and a chance to learn names. Then we sit down to a welcome dinner and a short briefing on the twelve days ahead: two currencies, one ferry, one long Highland drive and what to pack for rain on both coasts.

Compris

• Private transfer from Dublin Airport (DUB)
• First walk with your guide: the Ha'penny Bridge, Temple Bar, Grafton Street and St Stephen's Green
• Welcome dinner and briefing

The Book of Kells, Dublin on foot and west to Galway

Dublin on foot: Trinity College, Dublin Castle and the GPO, then west on the M6 to Galway

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Galway
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

We walk to Trinity College for the first entry of the morning, before the queue builds, to see the Book of Kells, a gospel book made by monks around the year 800, with the exhibition Trinity runs while the Old Library's Long Room is under conservation; we see whatever is open that season. A local guide then takes the group through the city's story on foot: the upper yard of Dublin Castle, the seat of British rule in Ireland until 1922, Christ Church Cathedral from the outside, and the GPO on O'Connell Street, headquarters of the 1916 Rising.

Après-midi

Lunch is yours in town. At about 2 pm we leave for the west, about two and a half hours across the middle of the country on the M6, crossing the Shannon at Athlone. We reach Galway in the late afternoon, and your guide walks the group through the Latin Quarter to the Spanish Arch, where the River Corrib meets the bay. Later, if you like, the guide takes you to a pub with a traditional music session.

Compris

• The Book of Kells at Trinity College on the first entry
• Guided walk with a local guide: Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral and the GPO
• Drive to Galway with your guide
• Evening walk through Galway's Latin Quarter to the Spanish Arch

Activités en option

• A traditional music session in a Galway pub with your guide (drinks are your own)

The Cliffs of Moher and the Burren

Galway to the Cliffs of Moher, then Doolin, Poulnabrone and Kinvara, and back to Galway

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Galway
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Doolin, a village known for its music. In the afternoon we cross the Burren, a plateau of grey limestone pavement where Arctic and Mediterranean flowers grow side by side in the cracks, to Poulnabrone, a portal tomb more than 5,000 years old. We come back along Galway Bay by Ballyvaughan and Dunguaire Castle at Kinvara, reaching Galway by about 4:30 with the rest of the day free for the shops of Shop Street or a pint by the river.

Compris

• The Cliffs of Moher visitor centre and cliff paths, two hours
• Sit-down lunch in Doolin
• The Burren and Poulnabrone portal tomb
• Dunguaire Castle at Kinvara from the shore

Across Ireland to Belfast and Titanic Belfast

Galway across the midlands into Northern Ireland, then Belfast's Titanic Quarter

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Belfast
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

We stop for a sit-down lunch on the way and reach Belfast in the early afternoon. At about 3 pm we have a booked entry at Titanic Belfast, built beside the slipways of the Harland and Wolff shipyard where the Titanic was built and launched in 1911. Its galleries tell the story of the city's linen and shipbuilding boom as much as of the ship, and outside you can walk out onto the slipways where the Titanic and her sister Olympic stood.

Soir

Then we check in to our hotel in the city centre for two nights, and the evening is yours: Victorian pubs and the Cathedral Quarter are a short walk.

Compris

• Drive from Galway to Belfast with your guide
• Sit-down lunch on the way
• Titanic Belfast, with a booked entry, and the slipways

The Giant's Causeway and the Antrim coast

Belfast to the Giant's Causeway, Dunluce Castle and Carrick-a-Rede, then back by the Antrim coast road

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Belfast
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Ballycastle. The afternoon is the slow way home: the Antrim coast road past Cushendun and Carnlough, with the sea on one side and the Glens of Antrim opening inland.

Soir

We are back in Belfast by about 5:30, and the evening is free.

Compris

• The Giant's Causeway and its visitor centre, about two hours
• Dunluce Castle from the clifftop viewpoint
• Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, with a timed ticket
• Sit-down lunch in Ballycastle
• The Antrim coast road by Cushendun and Carnlough

Belfast's murals and the ferry to Scotland

Belfast's Falls and Shankill roads, then the ferry from Belfast to Cairnryan and the Ayrshire coast to Glasgow

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Glasgow
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Soir

A local guide meets us at 8:30 for a walk of about 90 minutes through the side of Belfast that visitors are often unsure how to ask about: the murals and memorials of the Falls Road and the Shankill Road, and the peace wall between them, where some gates are still closed at night, with the history of the Troubles told by someone who grew up with it. The ferry terminal is about ten minutes away, and we check in an hour before our late-morning sailing to Cairnryan, about two and a quarter hours down Belfast Lough and across the North Channel, the narrow sea between Ireland and Great Britain, into Loch Ryan. Lunch is yours on board. On the Scottish side we drive about two hours up the Ayrshire coast, with Ailsa Craig, the granite island that supplies curling stones, out in the Firth of Clyde, then inland to Glasgow. We reach our hotel in the centre in the late afternoon, and your guide takes an early-evening walk through George Square and the Merchant City up to the Necropolis beside Glasgow Cathedral.

Compris

• The Falls and Shankill murals and the peace wall with a local guide, about 90 minutes from 8:30
• Ferry from Belfast to Cairnryan
• Drive up the Ayrshire coast to Glasgow
• Evening walk with your guide: George Square, the Merchant City and the Necropolis

Loch Lomond, Glencoe and Glenfinnan

Glasgow to Luss on Loch Lomond, then Rannoch Moor, Glencoe, Fort William and Glenfinnan

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Fort William
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Glencoe village. In the afternoon we drive past Fort William to Glenfinnan, at the head of Loch Shiel, where a monument marks the raising of Bonnie Prince Charlie's standard in 1745 and the 21-arch railway viaduct, finished in 1901, curves across the glen behind it.

Soir

We are back in Fort William, at the foot of Ben Nevis, by about 5:30, with the evening free.

Compris

• Luss on the shore of Loch Lomond
• Rannoch Moor and the drive through Glencoe
• Glencoe Visitor Centre and the Glencoe Lochan trails
• Sit-down lunch in Glencoe village
• The Glenfinnan Monument and viaduct viewpoint

Loch Ness, Eilean Donan and over the bridge to Skye

Fort William to the Commando Memorial and Fort Augustus on Loch Ness, then Glen Shiel, Eilean Donan and Portree

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Portree
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal by the canal. In the afternoon we turn west through Glen Shiel, between steep grassy ridges, to Eilean Donan, a castle on a tidal island where three sea lochs meet, rebuilt in the early 20th century on medieval ruins; we go inside. Then it is over the Skye Bridge and up the island under the Cuillin at Sligachan to Portree, our base for two nights, by about 5:30.

Compris

• The Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge
• The Caledonian Canal locks at Fort Augustus
• Boat trip on Loch Ness, about an hour
• Sit-down lunch in Fort Augustus
• Eilean Donan Castle, inside
• The Skye Bridge and the Cuillin at Sligachan

The Old Man of Storr and the Quiraing

Portree to the Old Man of Storr, Kilt Rock and the Quiraing, then back by Uig

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Portree
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

We leave Portree at 8:15 to be at the Old Man of Storr, a pinnacle of basalt below the cliffs of the Trotternish ridge, by about 8:30, before the car park fills and while the morning light is on the rock. The path to its foot is about 3.8 km there and back with some 300 m of climb and takes around two hours; you can also stay below and watch from the shore of Loch Leathan. Up the coast, Kilt Rock and the Mealt Falls drop straight into the sea. At Staffin a single-track road climbs over the ridge to the Quiraing, a vast landslip, still slowly moving, where pinnacles and hidden flat tops stand under the escarpment.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal at Uig, where the ferries leave for the Outer Hebrides. We come back across the island to Portree by about 2:30, and the afternoon is yours: the coloured harbour houses, a walk up the Lump for the view, or nothing at all.

Soir

Tonight we eat together, Skye seafood in Portree.

Compris

• The Old Man of Storr in the early morning
• Kilt Rock and the Mealt Falls
• The Quiraing
• Sit-down lunch in Uig
• Seafood dinner in Portree

The long road from Skye to Edinburgh

Portree over the Skye Bridge to Glen Shiel, Spean Bridge and Newtonmore, then the A9 by Drumochter and Pitlochry to Edinburgh

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Edinburgh
• Environ 5.5 h de route

Soir

Skye is a long way from Edinburgh by any road, and splitting the drive would mean another single night in a Highland hotel; we would rather give you two nights in Edinburgh. So we leave Portree at 8:30 and break the day into three. The first leg runs back over the Skye Bridge and through Glen Shiel to the viewpoint above Loch Garry, where we stop for coffee. The second crosses by Spean Bridge and Loch Laggan to a sit-down lunch at Newtonmore in the Spey valley. After lunch the A9 climbs over the Drumochter Pass, at about 460 m the highest point of the road, and drops to Pitlochry, where we stretch our legs on the walk to the salmon ladder at the dam. Then it is Perth, the Queensferry Crossing over the Firth of Forth and Edinburgh by about 5:30, with dinner your own.

Compris

• Drive from Skye to Edinburgh with your guide, in three legs
• Coffee stop at the Loch Garry viewpoint
• Sit-down lunch in Newtonmore
• Pitlochry and the dam's salmon ladder

Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile

Edinburgh on foot: the castle, the Royal Mile, St Giles' and down to Holyrood

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Edinburgh

Matin

We walk up to Edinburgh Castle for the first entry of the morning, at 9:30, before the tour groups fill the Esplanade. The castle stands on the plug of an extinct volcano, and inside are St Margaret's Chapel, from the 12th century the oldest building in the city, the Great Hall, Mons Meg, a siege gun of 1449, and the Honours of Scotland, the crown, sceptre and sword of state. From the ramparts you look north over the New Town to the Firth of Forth. Late in the morning a local guide walks the group down the Royal Mile, into the closes and wynds behind it, past St Giles' Cathedral with its crown spire, and down the Canongate to the Scottish Parliament and the gates of the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Après-midi

The afternoon is yours: the National Museum of Scotland is free, Princes Street Gardens lie below the castle, or you can climb Arthur's Seat.

Soir

In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner together.

Compris

• Edinburgh Castle on the first entry, with the Honours of Scotland
• The Royal Mile, the closes and St Giles' Cathedral with a local guide
• The Canongate to the Scottish Parliament and Holyrood
• Farewell dinner

Activités en option

• The Palace of Holyroodhouse, inside
• The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo on August evenings

Depart Edinburgh

Your hotel in Edinburgh to Edinburgh Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

The trip ends after breakfast. If your flight is later in the day, the morning is yours: Calton Hill for the view down Princes Street to the castle, a walk through the Georgian streets of the New Town, listed with the Old Town as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, or Dean Village beside the Water of Leith. Edinburgh Airport (EDI) is about 13 km west of the centre, roughly half an hour by road, and a driver takes you there at the time that suits your flight. Edinburgh has some direct summer flights to North America and year-round connections through London, Dublin and Amsterdam; a flight after about 11 am avoids an early rush. Your guide says goodbye at the hotel. If you want more time, stay on: we can add nights at the same hotel, and Stirling Castle or St Andrews are easy day trips by train from Waverley station.

Compris

• Private transfer to Edinburgh Airport (EDI)