What‘s Included

What To Expect

Reviews

• Thistle for the win!

  Maggie R,

  Jul 20, 2025

  - Viator

  5.00

  Wonderful experience even though it down poured on us. Rona with Thistle excursions was a wonderful host and ran our jackets and umbrella down to the gardens for us! The castle is beautiful and we were provided with great knowledge and narration throughout by our guide. I left my phone at the castle and Rona and our driver Sue coordinated with a fellow driver to get it back to the boat and saved the day! If I get to return to Scotland I will definitely use thistle again!

• This company takes great care of their guests!

  Kristin C,

  Jun 24, 2025

  - Viator

  5.00

  This company really paid attention to the cruise ship schedule and adjusted for last minute changes. I’d highly recommend them as very reliable. And the tour guide was amazing & buses were great quality & new! Wonderful experience with them!

• Great tour

  Robyn H,

  Jun 8, 2025

  - Viator

  5.00

  This excursion was fantastic with varied views around Inverness. Dunrobin Castle with its beautiful gardens, falconry display and area was well worth a trip. Dornoch was also a lovely little town to wander about. Black Rock Gorge was a great stop that was used in Harry Potter filming and as we had time we visited Glenmorangie distillery. Loved that we got to choose our last stop as we had time to fill. Well organised day with great communication before and during trip. Highly recommend. Loved the information sheet given as a guide to places we visited.

• Our guide & driver were...

  Patti s,

  May 13, 2025

  - Viator

  5.00

  Our guide & driver were great. The instructions about the best way to navigate each stop were helpful & precise. She gave us major historical facts about the area.

• Incomplete experience due to the guide

  Svetlana G,

  Sep 26, 2024

  - Viator

  2.00

  September 8, 2024 was a cloudy day with some light fog in the morning. We went to Dornoch first and Fairytale Dunrobin Castle last. It would be a better experience, due to the weather, if we went to the Dunrobin Castle first and enjoyed the museum and the Falconry Displays/Show at 11:30 and in the afternoon went to Dornoch. The tour guide made a decision to skip the Million $ view and instead to stop in the middle of nowhere with a view of a random field. She said she knows that the Million $ view would be too foggy and we wouldn't be able to see anything. She was wrong, by that time the fog cleared up and when we droved by the Million $ view the view was clear. The driver Kenny suggested to her to make a stop but she refused. Fairytale Dunrobin Castle was very nice but not enough time was given to see the castle, the castle museum and even the Falconry Display. The Falconry Display stats at 2:30 down in the Gardens and lasts 35-40 minutes. She told us to be back on the bus at 3:00. The hike from the Gardens back to the bus takes at least 15 minutes if you are fit. We ended up rushing through the castle, stopping at the toilets and going to the Gardens but were not able to see the Falconry Display since we had to be back on the bus at 3:00, even before the show ends. Also, we didn't have time to stop at the castle museum. Additionally, she didn't explain anything, such as, where the castle museum is and how far down in the Gardens is the Falconry Display and how long does it last. For some reason she clearly didn't want us to see it and/or the museum because we had plenty of time and ended up having an extra 50-60 minutes that she didn't know what to do with. After we left the castle she decided to take us to a whisky distillery, that was not a part of the itinerary, but when we got there it was closed. After that in her own words she took us on a wild goose chase going through random fields and stopping to see a stone that was not on the itinerary as well. The driver, who was very good, is a local and he said that he'd never been there. In conclusion, we didn't have a complete experience, as promised per itinerary purely due to the poor planning by the guide. We didn't book this tour and paid our money to stop in the random field instead of the Million $ view, chasing the wild goose, or to see the stone that we'd never heard about. Most likely we will not visit this part of the world again and are very disappointed with the experience. Because of the above, it was a poor value for us and we don't recommend it.