Visit Culloden Moor and its visitor centre, where artefacts from both armies and an immersive battle theatre explain the Jacobites’ final charge. Outside, heather and clan stones mark the exposed ground where the battle was fought.

The fighting in 1746 lasted about an hour, yet its consequences profoundly affected Highland life. Exhibits and the quiet battlefield setting help connect the events of that day with the people who experienced them.

Insight Vacations

• 7 Dinner (D)
• 13 Breakfast (B)
• 1 Afternoon Tea (AT)

• Business class coach with extended leg room
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• Premium regional accommodation

• Dublin: Join your Travel Director for a warm and friendly dinner and an opportunity to get to know your fellow travellers.
• Kilmarnock: Visit Craufurdland Castle, home to the Craufurd family for over 800 years. Join the 29th Laird of Craufurdland and his wife for a guided look inside their historic residence before sitting down to afternoon tea: a cherished British tradition featuring finely cut sandwiches, scones with jam and cream, and a selection of sweet treats served with freshly brewed tea.
• Edinburgh: Enjoy a memorable dinner, reflecting on your journey in the company of newfound friends.

• Dublin: A stunning combination of cobblestone walkways, emerald-green lawns and 18th-century architectural gems, Trinity College is one of Europe’s elite universities and counts poet Oscar Wilde among its alumni. See the enchanting college campus and discover insights into its impressive history. Enjoy access to view the famous Book of Kells, an exquisite manuscript of the four gospels of the Christian New Testament, renowned for the intricacy, detail and majesty of the illustrations.
• Kildare:
  Horse racing is key part of Irish culture; and you’ll gain a rare insight into it on your visit to the Irish National Stud. Set in Kildare at the breeding ground of champions and the birthplace of legends, explore the foaling unit, museum and the stallions that continue to make racing history. As the only stud farm in Ireland open to the public, learn the insights of horse-racing at a site whose former visitors include queens and presidents. 
• Derry/Londonderry: There’s no better way to experience sightseeing than with one of Northern Ireland’s best storytellers, Ronan, as he takes you on a tour inside the city walls. See the Gothic Guildhall and the Georgian houses of Shipquay Street.

• Blarney: It is said that those who kiss the Blarney Stone, the famous stone of eloquence, are bestowed with the power to persuade, flatter and coax. Take your turn at giving it a peck knowing that the stone was sourced from 330-million-year-old limestone.
• Blarney: Your up close and personal encounter with the lush gardens of the Blarney Castle estate is brought to life on a guided tour with a senior gardener. On your stroll enhanced by your expert’s insights, learn about the arboretum’s rare trees, mystical Druid rock formations and the Bog Garden boasting three 600-year-old yew trees. 

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over an included welcome dinner in Dublin. Share a meal and get to know the people travelling with you through Ireland and Scotland.

Dublin’s tradition of conversation gives this gathering its character: stories exchanged around the table are as much a part of the evening as the food. It is a hosted introduction to the journey rather than a routine hotel meal.

Explore Dublin with a Local Specialist, following the River Liffey past the Custom House and seeing the Guinness Storehouse, Christ Church Cathedral and St Patrick’s Cathedral. At Trinity College, walk among courtyards that have welcomed scholars since 1592.

Enter the historic library to view the Book of Kells, a ninth-century manuscript whose illuminated pages are filled with intricate figures and knotwork. The visit connects the city’s streets and churches with a remarkable survival of early medieval scholarship.

Go behind the scenes at the Irish National Stud in County Kildare, learning about the breeding of racehorses where champions begin their lives. Explore the yards and discover the place horse racing holds in Irish culture.

Walk the adjoining Japanese Gardens, designed by Tassa and Minoru Eida to represent a soul’s journey through life. Curving paths, carefully composed planting and changing light offer a contemplative contrast to the working stud farm.

Discover Cork with your Travel Director on an orientation featuring Grand Parade, South Mall, City Hall and Cork Opera House. The River Lee’s two channels frame a centre of busy streets and imposing civic buildings.

Hear how a settlement associated with St Finbarr developed through Viking and Norman periods into a prosperous merchant city. Cork’s layered history lends meaning to its long-standing nickname, Rebel Cork.

Choose your experience at Blarney Castle: climb the medieval tower to kiss the Blarney Stone, traditionally said to grant eloquence, or join a senior gardener for a guided exploration of the castle estate.

The garden option reveals rare trees, ancient yews, the Bog Garden and rock formations associated with local folklore. Both choices bring you close to Blarney’s distinctive blend of medieval heritage and enduring legend; you select one of the two included activities.

Get to know Killarney with your Travel Director before settling into a traditional horse-drawn jaunting car. A local jarvey guides the carriage along familiar lanes and towards Killarney National Park.

Shopfronts and church spires give way to mountain views and the gentle rhythm of hooves. The jaunting car remains a distinctive way to experience the town’s connection to the surrounding lakes and parkland.

Explore the Slea Head route around the Dingle Peninsula, where Atlantic surf breaks below cliffs and views reach towards the Blasket Islands. See a landscape marked by ancient beehive huts and early Christian sites.

Ring forts and Ogham stones recall centuries of Gaelic settlement, while the offshore islands were home to an Irish-speaking community until their evacuation in 1953. This coastal experience pairs striking scenery with traces of lives shaped by the sea.

Walk the paved paths at the Cliffs of Moher and look across the Atlantic from rock faces rising as high as 214 metres above the water. Visit the exhibition centre and hear your Travel Director’s insights into the cliffs’ geology and wildlife.

Part of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, the cliffs reveal successive layers of ancient sediment above a restless sea. Their scale and exposed setting make this a close encounter with the forces that shaped the western coast.

Explore Galway’s historic heart, visiting the Lynch Memorial Window and seeing St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, the Spanish Arch and Eyre Square. Your orientation brings the city’s medieval streets and stories into focus.

St Nicholas’ has served its community for centuries, while the weathered Spanish Arch stands near the River Corrib’s outlet to Galway Bay. Together, these landmarks evoke a port city shaped by trade, local legend and Atlantic connections.

Discover Sligo with your Travel Director on an orientation of its streets and landmarks, with the River Garavogue running through the town. Learn how the surrounding lakes and mountains entered the imagination of poet W. B. Yeats.

Medieval history and literary associations meet in this compact western town. Views of Yeats Country give a sense of the landscapes that inspired some of Ireland’s best-known poetry.

Walk Londonderry’s 17th-century walls with local storyteller Ronan, looking across rooftops from ramparts lined with historic cannon. Hear accounts of siege, survival and divided loyalties that give the city’s streets their deeper context.

The tour also takes in the Gothic Guildhall and Georgian houses along Shipquay Street. Local storytelling makes the preserved fortifications more than a viewpoint: they become a way to understand the city’s complex past.

Walk among the basalt columns of the Giant’s Causeway on Northern Ireland’s Antrim Coast. More than 40,000 interlocking pillars form stepped surfaces beside the sea, where waves surge through gaps in the dark stone.

This UNESCO World Heritage Site was formed by volcanic activity around 60 million years ago. Its striking geometry has also inspired the legend of the giant Finn McCool, giving the shoreline both a geological and a storytelling heritage.

Walk through Ballygally with your Travel Director, following the gentle curve of the bay where pale sand meets the Irish Sea. Take in the cottages, shoreline and open views along the Antrim Coast.

Set between cliffs and water, this small coastal village offers a quieter perspective on Northern Ireland’s northeastern shore. The walk gives you time to notice the salt air and changing light that define the bay.

Meet the 29th Laird and Lady of Craufurdland for a guided look inside their family castle near Kilmarnock. Hear about a residence associated with the Craufurd family for more than 800 years.

Sit down inside the castle for afternoon tea, with finely cut sandwiches, scones and sweet treats served alongside freshly brewed tea. The hosts’ personal welcome makes this an intimate encounter with Scottish family heritage and a cherished dining tradition.

Explore Glasgow with your Travel Director, taking in its broad streets and Victorian architecture. Pause at George Square among statues and civic buildings, and see St Mungo’s Cathedral, whose dark stone recalls the city’s medieval origins.

Glasgow’s streets also speak to its industrial past, when shipyards along the Clyde helped make it a major centre of trade and engineering. The orientation introduces the contrasts that give Scotland’s largest city its character.

Take in Highland scenery beside Loch Lomond’s wooded shores and beneath the steep ridges of Glencoe. Hear about the 1692 killing of members of Clan MacDonald, an event inseparable from the glen’s history.

At the World War II Commando Memorial near Fort William, pause by the bronze figures and look towards Ben Nevis when conditions allow. The experience brings together mountain scenery, clan history and a place of remembrance.

Cruise the dark waters of Loch Ness, watching forested shores and historic landmarks, including Aldourie Castle, pass by. Hear tales of reported sightings while looking across one of Scotland’s most storied lochs.

Stretching roughly 37 kilometres through the Great Glen, Loch Ness reaches depths of about 230 metres. Peat darkens its water and limits visibility, helping to sustain the mystery of Nessie alongside the loch’s geological story.

Explore Inverness with your Travel Director, taking in the River Ness and views of Inverness Castle. Get a sense of the streets and riverside setting of this Highland city.

The River Ness links the city to Loch Ness and has long shaped its role as a gateway to the Highlands. Your orientation places Inverness’s landmarks in that wider landscape of waterways, routes and Highland history.

Explore Uile-bheist distillery in Inverness, learning how whisky and beer traditions meet modern craft. See the distilling process and taste a signature creation while hearing Highland stories and folklore.

Built with sustainability at its core, Uile-bheist is working towards net-zero operations by 2030. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience offers a close look at both the flavour and the environmental choices behind a contemporary Highland distillery.

Spend time in St Andrews, looking across the Old Course, widely regarded as the birthplace of modern golf. Walk towards West Sands Beach, the broad shoreline featured in the opening sequence of the film Chariots of Fire.

Sea air, historic university buildings and open links give this coastal town its distinctive setting. The visit offers a chance to appreciate both its golfing heritage and the landscape beyond the greens.

Explore Edinburgh with a Local Specialist, seeing Princes Street, the Scott Monument, the Georgian New Town and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Follow the historic Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle for a guided visit.

Inside the fortress, see the Honours of Scotland—the Scottish Crown Jewels—and Mons Meg, a massive 15th-century cannon. The route reveals the contrast between the Old Town’s closely packed streets and the New Town’s planned elegance.

Watch the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo on selected August departures, when performers gather on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle. Hear massed pipes and drums carry across the open-air setting as the castle rises above the performance.

Military music, precision display and Scottish cultural traditions come together in a spectacle staged for a limited season. This included experience applies only to selected departures; check your departure details for availability.

Join your fellow travellers for a hosted farewell dinner in Edinburgh, sharing food and wine as you reflect on experiences across Ireland and Scotland. The meal features modern Scottish cooking.

Conversation with the group gives the evening its warmth and purpose, offering a chance to revisit favourite places and stories together. It is an included shared dining experience rather than an unhosted evening meal.

Try a hands-on falconry experience in Dingle, raising a gloved arm as a trained bird of prey returns to you. Watch its movement at close range and experience the careful handling involved in working with these birds.

Falconry is a centuries-old practice built on the partnership between bird and handler. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Visit Dingle’s oldest public house for a local tipple, live music and stories passed between tellers. Listen as musicians play in the close-knit atmosphere of a traditional Irish pub.

The experience brings together two enduring parts of Irish social life: conversation and music shared in the room rather than from a stage. This optional evening is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Experience a Scottish dinner and ceilidh in Edinburgh, with the opportunity to taste peppery haggis and enjoy traditional music and dancing. The evening offers an energetic introduction to a communal Scottish celebration.

A ceilidh brings people together through music and participatory dance, giving the meal a lively cultural setting. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.