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

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Dublin

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

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Dublin
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Dublin Airport (DUB), about 10 km north of the city, where a driver meets you in arrivals for the ride to our hotel within walking distance of Trinity College. 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

   Temps libre : Free until the late-afternoon walk

   Activité : About an hour on foot on flat city pavements.

2. Jour 2 : 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

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Galway
   Détail du jour 2

   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. 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)

   Temps libre : Lunch free in Dublin; evening free in Galway

   Activité : About 3 hours on foot in Dublin and an hour in Galway, on flat pavements and cobbles.

   

3. Jour 3 : The Cliffs of Moher and the Burren

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

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

   We leave Galway at about 8:15 and drive south through Gort and Ennistymon, about an hour and a quarter, to reach the Cliffs of Moher soon after the visitor centre opens, before the day-tour coaches from Dublin arrive. The cliffs rise to about 214 m above the Atlantic and run for some 14 km; from the path north of the centre you look along the headlands to O'Brien's Tower, and on a clear day out to the Aran Islands. We give the cliffs a full two hours. 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

   Option plus facile : Stay on the paved paths and viewing platforms by the visitor centre and spend time in the Atlantic Edge exhibition.

   Option plus active : Walk the cliff-top path south from the visitor centre towards Hag's Head and back, about an hour and a half on a narrow, sometimes muddy path.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon and evening free in Galway

   Activité : If the cliff paths close for high wind, we use the visitor centre and the sheltered viewing platforms.

4. Jour 4 : Across Ireland to Belfast and Titanic Belfast

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

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

   Today is the longest drive on the Irish side, about 300 km and three and three quarter hours on the road, so we leave Galway at 8:30 and break it in two. The route runs east and north through the lake country of the midlands and crosses into Northern Ireland without a border post: the road signs switch from kilometres to miles, and from here you pay in pounds sterling. 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. 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

   Temps libre : Evening free in Belfast

   Activité : About two hours on your feet at Titanic Belfast, indoors and level, with lifts.

   

5. Jour 5 : 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

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Belfast
   Détail du jour 5

   We leave Belfast at 8 and take the fast inland road north, about an hour and a quarter, so we are at the Giant's Causeway by about 9:15, ahead of most coaches. About 40,000 basalt columns, many of them six-sided, step down into the sea here, formed as lava cooled some 50 to 60 million years ago; the site was listed by UNESCO in 1986. The walk down from the visitor centre is about 1 km on a paved road, and a shuttle bus runs it if you prefer. Along the coast we stop above the ruins of Dunluce Castle on its cliff, then walk the coastal path to Carrick-a-Rede, a rope bridge about 20 m long and 30 m above the sea, strung to a small island once used by salmon fishermen. 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. 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

   Option plus facile : Take the shuttle bus down to the stones and back, and watch the rope bridge from the cliff path instead of crossing it.

   Option plus active : Climb back up from the Causeway by the Shepherd's Steps and the cliff-top path, about 3 km with 162 steps, for the view down onto the columns.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Belfast

   Activité : Carrick-a-Rede is about 1 km each way on a cliff path with steps, and closes in high wind; if it does, we stay longer at the Causeway and Ballintoy harbour.

6. Jour 6 : 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

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Glasgow
   Détail du jour 6

   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

   Temps libre : Evening free in Glasgow

   Activité : The murals walk starts at 8:30 so we can check in for the ferry an hour before sailing; the sailing time is confirmed with your final itinerary. The crossing can be lively in a westerly wind.

7. Jour 7 : Loch Lomond, Glencoe and Glenfinnan

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

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Fort William
   Détail du jour 7

   We leave Glasgow at 8:30 and are on the shore of Loch Lomond within the hour at Luss, a village of slate-roofed cottages with a pier looking up the loch to Ben Lomond. Then the road climbs into the Highlands: past Crianlarich and Tyndrum and across Rannoch Moor, a wide bog of lochans and heather, before it drops into Glencoe between Buachaille Etive Mor and the Three Sisters. At the National Trust for Scotland visitor centre we hear the story of the massacre of February 1692, when soldiers lodged with the MacDonalds turned on their hosts, then walk the short trails around Glencoe Lochan. 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. 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

   Temps libre : Evening free in Fort William

   Activité : The Jacobite steam train crosses the Glenfinnan viaduct in summer; if the timetable lines up with our visit, we walk up to the viewpoint to watch it pass.

8. Jour 8 : 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

   • Environ 3.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Portree
   Détail du jour 8

   A short drive north brings us to the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge, which looks south to Ben Nevis, at 1,345 m the highest mountain in Britain, if the cloud lifts. We follow the Great Glen along Loch Lochy to Fort Augustus, where the Caledonian Canal steps down into Loch Ness by a flight of five locks in the middle of the village. From here we take a boat trip of about an hour out on Loch Ness, about 37 km long and more than 220 m deep, said to hold more fresh water than all the lakes of England and Wales together. 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

   Temps libre : Evening free in Portree

   Activité : Eilean Donan has narrow stairs and uneven floors inside.

   

9. Jour 9 : The Old Man of Storr and the Quiraing

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

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Portree
   Détail du jour 9

   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. 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. 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

   Option plus facile : Stay on the lower path or the Loch Leathan shore at the Storr, and walk only the first, level stretch of the Quiraing path.

   Option plus active : At the Quiraing, walk the path out under the escarpment towards the Prison and back, about an hour and a half on narrow, rough ground.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free in Portree

   Activité : The Storr path is steep, stony and often wet; wear boots or shoes with grip.

10. Jour 10 : 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

    • Environ 5.5 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
    • Nuit : Edinburgh
    Détail du jour 10

    This is the one long day of the trip, about 380 km and five and a quarter hours of driving, and we say so plainly. 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

    Temps libre : Evening free in Edinburgh

    Activité : About five and a quarter hours of driving with three stops. A private trip can add a night on the way to split it.

11. Jour 11 : 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
    Détail du jour 11

    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. 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. 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

    Option plus facile : Spend the afternoon at the National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street, free to enter, or in Princes Street Gardens.

    Option plus active : Climb Arthur's Seat from Holyrood Park, 251 m, about two hours up and down on steep, rough paths, for the view over the city and the Forth.

    Temps libre : Afternoon free

    Activité : About 3 to 4 hours on foot in the morning, on cobbles, slopes and castle steps.

12. Jour 12 : Depart Edinburgh

    Your hotel in Edinburgh to Edinburgh Airport

    • Environ 30 min de route
    • Petit-déjeuner
    Détail du jour 12

    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)

    Temps libre : Morning free until your transfer

    Activité : Book a flight leaving after about 11 am, or add a night.

Faune et météo : Weather changes by the hour on both sides of the sea, so the guide keeps the order of a day flexible. Carrick-a-Rede closes in high wind and cliff paths can close in a gale; we spend longer at the Causeway or the Cliffs visitor centre instead. Seabirds, puffins among them, nest on the Cliffs of Moher from about April to July. Midges bite in the western Highlands and on Skye from about June to September. In June Skye has light until after 10 pm.

• Dublin1 nuit
• Galway2 nuits
• Belfast2 nuits
• Glasgow1 nuit
• Fort William1 nuit
• Portree2 nuits
• Edinburgh2 nuits