How to Go on a Scottish Highlands Tour? Hogwarts Express, Scottish Mountains, Bagpipe Sounds
- Buse Sümer
- Aug 19, 2024
- 4 min read
The cloudy, mystical atmosphere, castle-like stone houses at every turn, and of course, the natural beauty of Scotland, particularly the Highlands. Scotland and its famous Highland region are places we’ve all seen in movies and wondered, "Where are these magical places?" I’m sure you’ve been curious about the filming locations of Harry Potter, Braveheart, and even The Lord of the Rings and, brace yourself, Game of Thrones. Now it’s time to find out 😊
This post will be about the Highland region and the Glenfinnan, Fort William, & Glencoe Day Tour I participated in. First of all, to visit Scotland, you’ll need a UK visa. If you’re wondering how to apply for this visa and what the cost is, I invite you to read our article titled "How to Apply for a UK Visa." Let’s say you’ve got your visa and tickets. Now it’s time to plan! In my opinion, two days are ideal for an Edinburgh + Highland tour, but if you want to visit Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, or even head over to London, you should definitely set aside at least a week :)
Here’s how I chose this tour: I researched online and on blogs but found very little information, which is actually why I decided to write this blog. In the end, as a Harry Potter fan, I chose the Glenfinnan, Fort William, & Glencoe Day Tour through ‘Get Your Guide.’ The company I chose is a large firm that operates tours throughout Scotland: Timberbush Tours. You can either check out the tours on the company’s official website or, like I did, purchase them via Get Your Guide. The reason I chose this option was the 10% discount for first-time users of their mobile app. Additionally, there’s a 100% refundable cancellation option until a certain date.
Tur Rotası
This tour from Edinburgh starts at 7 AM and ends at 7 PM, lasting a total of 12 hours. We were ready at 6:45 AM in the city center, waiting for our bus. Fortunately, during the summer months, there are white nights, and it gets light at 4 AM 😊 We boarded our 44-seater bus at 7:00 AM with the sandwiches and snacks we prepared the previous day. We were the only Turks, and everyone had very different accents! Our guide, David, charmingly chatted with everyone and introduced the Scottish kilt. Our first stop, an hour later, was ‘Callander’ for breakfast. Here, there’s a place where you can either buy breakfast or eat what you brought. The garden overlooks the vast Scottish highlands and smells like manure :)
After a half-hour breakfast break, our second stop was ‘Glencoe,’ a photo stop along the way where an old Scottish man plays the bagpipes all day 😊 This stop offers a view of the mountains known as the Three Sisters Mountain. The famous, dramatic Glen has been featured in many films, such as James Bond's Skyfall, and some scenes from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were filmed here.
After taking photos and drone footage, we quickly boarded the bus. Throughout the journey, our guide told us stories, shared the history of the kingdoms, and discussed the films shot here. It felt like listening to a fairy tale, creating a peaceful atmosphere. If the weather is clear and you can see all the mountains, the music and storytelling make you feel like you’re in a medieval movie scene.
Even though the narration made us forget the length of the journey, we were hungry, so we stopped for lunch in Fort William. This is a Scottish town at the foot of Loch Linnhe. Of course, there’s a gift shop and a restaurant. Their homemade soups were highly praised (as a Turkish person who makes tarhana, I found it a bit overrated 😊).
And now, the magical moment I chose this tour for… Glenfinnan. We climbed a small hill to see the Hogwarts Express! Of course, the train here isn’t exactly the Hogwarts Express (it’s the Jacobite Steam Train), but this is the exact route the train takes! And also, the Black Lake, where the Triwizard Tournament was held in the movie, is located here. Done yet? No! Do you remember Buckbeak? Well, the lake and the viaduct are where Buckbeak flies as well.
I must admit, I didn’t think we’d actually see the train while on the small hill we climbed to see the viaduct because the tour mentioned that the train schedules were subject to change due to another company and hadn’t been running for a long time. Also, our guide mentioned that they hadn’t seen the train for the last six months. We were planning to spend our half-hour break here taking photos and enjoying the view (Drone filming is prohibited).
Our guide David suggested we take photos with the Harry Potter robe, glasses, and wand he brought along, so we had a bit of fun 😊 Just as we were finishing up, we heard a choo-choo sound! The train passed by exactly at 13:24, as scheduled, using all its grandeur. We watched in silence with huge smiles on our faces. There were hundreds of people below us, and some had even camped here days in advance! It was a very impressive and unforgettable moment. The train faded into the distance, and we happily descended 😊 The Harry Potter section in the gift shop below was amazing, and they even had the Chocolate Frogs that Harry and Ron ate on the train.
Of course, I won’t talk about the prices—you can imagine they were quite high 😊
It was time to head back to Edinburgh. Before leaving the Highland region, we had two more stops; one was a bonus: We tried to see some Scottish cows! We did, but they were quite far away; for someone coming from New York, it might be a wow moment, but for us, it wasn’t that exciting—just cows :) However, the environment they live in is incredibly beautiful; I’m not sure if ours have such vast pastures. Our second and final stop was Pitlochry village. In my VLOG, I described it as ‘Villa Town’The area is filled with small Scottish houses and is a popular tourist spot. Of course, we couldn’t leave without trying the whiskey-flavored ice cream from the corner ice cream shop, and we loved it, even though I’m not a fan of whiskey. You can also enjoy a cup of their famous coffee here if you wish.
VLOG coming soon!
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For the video and photos I shared about the tour, check out: Instagram/buseninrotan
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