After three nights on the Isle of Skye (which we would’ve loved to have been even longer), it was time to move on to our penultimate destination – Inverness.
That’s a 3.5 hour drive, but we knew it would take longer than that as we had a few places we wanted to stop at along the way. We couldn’t dawdle though, as we’d booked tickets for a fun whisky experience in the evening.
Here’s everything we got up to on our drive from Skye to Inverness (and a little of what we did in Inverness).
Loch Ness & Urquhart Castle
After stopping for a quick breakfast at Dunvegan Bakery & Coffee Shop, we continued on to Inverness. We stopped for a little while to take in some views of Loch Ness and to see if we could spot Nessie from afar.
Alas, we didn’t spot the Loch Ness Monster, but we could see Urquhart Castle. The castle is open to visitors, but we simply admired the view as we had to press on for a few other attractions we wanted to prioritize.
Drumbuie Farm B & B And Quila Cridhe Tearoom
The first of those stops was Drumbuie Farm B & B And Quila Cridhe Tearoom. After a quick lunch in their tearoom…
…we headed outside to feed the Highland cows on site. It’s only £5 (~$7) per person to feed the cows, so it’s good value if you’d like to have some kind of coo experience without paying substantially more for a full tour of a farm somewhere.
Check out this post for more about feeding Highland cows at Drumbuie Farm B & B and Quila Cridhe Tearoom.
The Loch Ness Centre
As you might expect, there are all kinds of Loch Ness-related experiences you can do in the area. Rather than going on a boat tour to look for Nessie, we decided to visit The Loch Ness Centre as it had great reviews online.
It wasn’t quite what I was expecting as I was picturing it being a bit more museum-like. However, I can see why it had such good reviews as it is an entertaining, interactive experience that’s worth the money. It’s £18.95 (~$25.50) for adults if you get your ticket on the day, but if you pre-book it’s only £13.95 (~$19) for adults. Children’s tickets are £15.95 (~$21.50) / £12.55 (~$17) respectively.
Great Glen Distillery
Next door to The Loch Ness Centre is Great Glen Distillery – the smallest distillery in Scotland. If you’re going to have a small distillery, you need a small still and sure enough – Great Glen Distillery had the smallest still I’ve ever seen.
The distillery produces several types of gin, with each one being available for a self-serve taste test.
AC Hotel Inverness
We had a couple of Marriott 35K free night certificates with no other plans to use them, so we used those for our stay in Inverness. We used them to book a couple of rooms at the AC Hotel Inverness, a lovely hotel that only opened a few years ago and so it still feels nice and new.
The free night certificates were both in Shae’s name and she only has Gold status with Marriott which doesn’t offer much in the way of benefits. That didn’t matter too much seeing as we were basically only using the hotel to sleep at rather than spending any proper time there. It also meant we weren’t eligible for breakfast, but with a Wetherspoons a couple of minutes away where we could get a cheap breakfast, that was fine too.
The location was fantastic as we had a great view of the River Ness from our room, plus it only took a few minutes to walk to our evening’s fun.
Highland Malt Whisky Experience
We’d needed to get to downtown Inverness in good time because we had tickets that night for the Highland Malt Whisky Experience at McGregor’s.
I’d come across it when researching things to do in Inverness and it sounded like it would be a lot of fun. The experience lasts for about 1.5 hours with a guided tasting of five Scotch whiskies from different distilleries in the Highlands.
What made the evening superb overall though was the entertainment. The owner of the bar – Bruce MacGregor – was running the experience that evening. He’s an excellent fiddle player who regaled us with songs and history from the Highlands.
There are a few people who lead the experience and provide the entertainment depending on the night of the week (they run it six nights per week). That means that rather than getting Bruce the fiddler player, you might get Kirsteen the Scots Gaelic singer, Davy the singer-songwriter or Stuart an accordion player and singer. I imagine that no matter who you get, it’ll be an incredibly fun evening.
Scotch & Rye
It was time for dinner at this point. MacGregor’s does serve food, but it was packed in the bar that night, so we decided to get dinner somewhere else. We didn’t have anything particular in mind, so we just walked around until somewhere caught our eye.
That somewhere ended up being Scotch & Rye. It was busy enough that we figured it must be good, but not so busy that we couldn’t get a table for four. The restaurant and bar has an American-inspired food and drink menu, with all kinds of whiskies, cocktails and more drinks-wise.
Creativity has gone into some of the cocktails. Shae ordered a Cotton Candy Cosmo which comes served with cotton candy (candy floss for fellow Brits) in the glass, with the Cosmopolitan then being poured over it.
I decided to go for a cocktail with whiskey in it. My Campfires In Caledonia cocktail came with Bulleit bourbon, smokey Monkey Shoulder whiskey, bitters, maple and orange oils served under a citrus dome. We both enjoyed our cocktails, but I decided to only have one of mine before moving on to something else.
Food-wise, Shae ordered their nachos and added pulled/shredded beef on top.
I got their Dirty Fries topped with BBQ pulled pork. This was very good (albeit with a sauce that was slightly too sweet even for my liking); I just wished it was served as an American-sized portion as I would’ve loved to have had even more.
Saga 2025 Trip To London, Liverpool & Scotland – All The Posts
Here are links to all of the posts in this series:
- Saga 2025: Trip With Friends To London, Liverpool & Scotland – An Intro
- Saga 2025 Day 1: London – Police Station Hotel, British Museum, Dinner In Darkness & Abbey Road
- Saga 2025 Day 2: Liverpool – Cavern Club, Hard Day’s Night Hotel, Cocktails & More
- Visiting The Kelpies In Falkirk, Scotland By Day & By Night
- Saga 2025 Day 3: Falkirk – Kelpies, World’s Only Rotating Boat Lift & More
- Saga 2025 Day 4: Drive From Falkirk To Fort William – Castles, Distillery, Monument & More
- Hotel Review: Inverlochy Castle Hotel In Fort William, Scotland
- How To Watch The Jacobite Steam Train On Glenfinnan Viaduct (Harry Potter Hogwarts Express Train)
- How To Find 6 Harry Potter Filming Locations Near Fort William, Scotland
- Jacobite Steam Train Review: What It’s Like Riding The Hogwarts Express
- Saga 2025 Days 5-7: Fort William – Harry Potter, Castles, Waterfalls, Mountains, Distillery & More
- Review of The Two Byres – Vacation Home On The Isle Of Skye, Scotland (Booked Via Cottages.com With Wyndham Points)
- Talisker Cask Draw & Tasting Experience – Fun, Tasty & Strong!
- The Three Chimneys Restaurant Review
- Saga 2025 Days 8-9: Isle Of Skye – Whisky, Fairies, Castles, Waterfalls, Views & More
- A Tearoom Where You Can Feed Highland Cows? Yes Please!
- Saga 2025 Day 10: Skye To Inverness – Coos, Castles, Nessie, Another Whisky Experience & More
- Saga 2025 Day 11: Inverness To Aberdeen – Standing Stones, Pyramid, Castle & More
- Saga 2025 Day 12: Aberdeen – Time Travel, Castles, Coos & More
[…] a fun evening in Inverness, it was time for us to head to the last destination of our trip to Scotland with our friends […]