DESTINATIONS SCOTND | UK & IREND


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The Scottish Highlands are a place steeped in history and raw natural beauty, discovers Rachel Roberts on an escorted tour with Great Rail Journeys


’m having a distinctly David Attenborough moment. It’s 6am and as I brush my teeth, the unmistakable Scottish landscape passes by


outside the small window of my Caledonian Sleeper cabin.


Native creatures, including red deer, sheep and


shaggy-haired Highland cattle shelter from the morning drizzle in among the scrappy bracken and thick heather which carpet the vertiginous mountainsides. It’s all the more surreal because, as part of the Castles and Wildlife of Scotland escorted tour with Great Rail Journeys, we’d boarded the luxury Caledonian Sleeper train (Tried & Tested, page 54) at Euston in the heart of the London metropolis the previous evening. The train is part of rail transport franchisee Serco’s new £150 million fleet. After sampling delicious dishes in the sleek dining carriage – including award-winning haggis sourced from Cockburn’s of Dingwall (spicy!) and Scottish cheeses such as Mull of Kintyre Blue (tangy!) – we’d retired to our compact but modern cabins and been


SCOTND BY SEA


Stevie, our friendly coach driver for the next few days, drove us a short distance to the marina for our first experience – a definite selling point for agents. The Moray Firth, which flows from Inverness into the North Sea, is home to more than 200 bottlenose dolphins, plus grey and common seals, and harbour porpoise. Nature-loving clients will be delighted to discover they don’t have to travel thousands of miles for a dolphin-spotting opportunity. Dolphin Spirit Tours is one of the operators offering excursions, and although the mammals, which can ²


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rocked gently to sleep as the train sped its way through the dark night. About 11 hours later, a gentle tap on my cabin door had signalled the arrival of breakfast and our arrival into Inverness, a city huddled on the northeast coast and known as the capital of the Highlands. It’s here that the seven-night tour officially begins, although our condensed version sampled the highlights.


26 SEPTEMBER 2019


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