Puffin Express: Monarch Tour

MONARCH TOUR and
LOCH NESS

Suggested duration of trip: 9 hours
Available any day of the year
Price - see Private Tours for a general guide to prices for private trips, apply to us with time of year you wish to travel for an exact quotation.

Click on thumbnail, above, for a more detailed map of this and other itineraries. The green line is the outward journey of the Monarch tour (ignore direction of arrows!) and the pink line - MONARCH - is the return leg

This tour visits many of the sites used in filming the TV series Monarch of the Glen and a few sites used in filming Mrs Brown.
An extremely fine scenic and historical tour, even if you have no interest in movie or TV locations!

We head south from Inverness towards the south side of Loch Ness, following in the footsteps of many famous visitors, including (in 1773) Dr Samuel Johnson and his biographer, James Boswell.

Fine views of the loch and stops near its shore - there are no touristic exhibitions on this side! We stop at Boleskine Burial Ground and visit the stone with three deep indentations, allegedly from musket balls fired at a Highlander who had angered Hanoverian soldiers. Just above this graveyard we get glimpses of Boleskine House (right), where a century ago Aleister Crowley practised 'magick'. More recently the house was owned by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.

View north-east up Loch Ness from near Fort Augustus

At the south end of Loch Ness we cross to the west side of the Great Glen. We pass Invergarry where Englishman Thomas Rawlinson is supposed to have invented the kilt in its present form. The Well of the Seven Heads Memorial tells - in English, French, Gaelic or Latin! - about a grim episode of Highland history - click on picture to left for a close-up of the heads and the fist holding them with its knife. Further south we stop at the Commando Memorial (right), one of the most famous war memorials in Britain. Just beyond here is Spean Bridge, most southerly point of today's trip. If the weather isn't so good we stop here for lunch, otherwise we'll head north-east to Cille Choirille Church (below right), which featured in Hector's funeral and Archie's/Lexie's non-wedding in the last episode of the 2001/02 Monarch series.

Cille Choirille Church - built in the 15th century and restored in 1932 - is a fascinating building in its own right, surrounded by graves going back hundreds of years. On fine days we picnic in the vicinity of the church - click on the thumbnail, below, to get some small idea of the view from this lunch-spot.

The tall stone to the right of the church commemorates Iain Lom, the bard and avenger responsible for the seven decapitated heads at 'The Well'

Twenty minutes after leaving the church we come in view of Ardverikie House, the castle of the TV series. Like Boleskine, this is a strictly private house - and besides it's busy for half this year with filming of the 7th (?) series! - but we see it across the loch on all but the murkiest of Highland days. Just beyond the loch we see the gate lodge (below, left)

and shortly after that stop for a little time to walk to Pattack Falls (above). After leaving here we stop at 'MacKechnie's Stores' (right) and continue to Newtonmore and Kingussie, Strathspey villages which feature in various epsiodes of 'Monarch'.
At Aviemore we turn east to 'Glenbogle' railway station where Archie arrived some years ago with a return [round-trip] ticket - second half still unused! (Glenbogle Station is on the Strathspey Steam Railway Line, please visit their site for more information on their services.)

Then we return to Inverness.

Another 'Monarch' site:click here.