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Scotland's Islands and Highlands: Travel Details

This is a quick and handy source for details on the sights, hotels, tour guides and restaurants featured in the "Scotland's Islands and Highlands" show. For much more (and updates), see this year's edition of Rick Steves' Great Britain guidebook.

Oban's Whisky Distillery

The 200-year-old Oban Whisky Distillery produces more than 14,500 liters a week. They offer serious and fragrant 45-minute, £4 tours explaining the process from start to finish, with a free, smooth sample and a discount coupon for the shop. The exhibition that precedes the tour gives a quick, whisky-centric history of Scotland. This is the handiest whisky tour you'll see, just a block off the harbor and better than anything in Edinburgh (July–Sept Mon–Fri 9:30–19:30, Sat 9:30–17:00, Sun 12:00–17:00; April–June and Oct Mon–Sat 9:30–17:00, closed Sun; March and Nov Mon–Fri 10:00–17:00, closed Sat–Sun; Feb Mon–Fri 12:30–16:00, closed Sat–Sun; closed all of Dec-Jan; last tour always 1 hour before closing — tel. 01631/572-004).

The Studio Restaurant

The Studio is a small, tightly packed restaurant with '70s decor, featuring serious, first-class Scottish cooking (£13 for a full Scottish meal until 18:30, £15 for 3-course meal after 18:30, or a pricey à la carte menu, April–Oct nightly 18:00–22:00, closed Nov–March, reservations recommended, uphill at intersection of Craigard Road and Albert Road, tel. 01631/562-030). It has fine steaks, trout, and a prawn-and-clam chowder that hits the spot on a stormy day.

Iona and Mull Bus Tour

Here's the game plan: You'll take a ferry from Oban to Mull (40 min), ride a Bowman's bus across Mull (75 min), then board a quick ferry from Mull to Iona. The total round-trip travel time is 5.5 hours and all of it is incredibly scenic. Buy your set of six tickets — one for each leg — at the Bowman's office in Oban (£30, no tours Nov-March, book 1 day ahead in July-Sept, bus tickets can sell out during busy summer weekends, office open daily 8:00-18:00, 1 Queens Park Place, a block from train station, tel. 01631/566-809 or 01631/563-221, www.bowmanstours.co.uk). 

Upon arrival in Mull, you'll find your tour company's bus for the entertaining and informative bus ride across the Isle of Mull. All drivers spend the entire ride chattering away about life on Mull. They are hardworking local boys who make historical trivia fascinating — or at least fun. Your destination is Mull's westernmost ferry terminal (Fionnphort), where you'll board a small, rockier ferry for the brief ride to Iona. Unless you stay overnight (see below), you'll have only about two hours to roam freely around the island, before taking the ferry-bus-ferry ride in reverse back to Oban.

Glencoe Folk Museum

The huggable Glencoe and North Lorn Folk Museum, staffed by enthusiastic volunteers, is filled with humble exhibits gleaned from the town's old closets and attics (which come to life when explained by a local). When one house was being rethatched, its owner found a cache of 200-year-old swords and pistols hidden there from the British Redcoats after the disastrous battle of Culloden (£2, Mon–Sat 10:00–17:30, closed Sun, tel. 01855/811-314).

Prince Charles

Bonnie Prince Charlie (1720-1788) — The Battle of Culloden Moor (April 16, 1746) marks the end of the Scottish Highland clans and the start of years of repression of Scottish culture by the English. At the center was the charismatic, enigmatic Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Charles Edward Stuart, from his first breath, was raised with a single purpose — to restore his family to the British throne. His grandfather was King James II, deposed in 1688 by Parliament for his tyranny and pro-Catholic bias. In 1744, young Charlie crossed the Channel from exile in France to seize the throne for his father. He landed on the west coast of Scotland and rallied support for the "Jacobite" cause (from the Latin for "James"). Though Charles was not Scottish, many Scots joined the Stuart family's rebellion out of resentment for English domination.

Bagpipes droned, and "Bonnie" (handsome) Charlie led an army of 2,000 tartan-wearing, Gaelic-speaking Highlanders across Scotland, seizing Edinburgh. Now 6,000 strong, they marched south toward London, and King George II made plans to flee the country. But the anticipated support for the Jacobites failed to materialize (both in England and from the French), and Charles reluctantly retreated to the Scottish Highlands, with the English on his heels.

They faced off at Culloden Moor on flat, barren terrain that was unsuited to the Highlanders' guerrilla tactics. Scots brandishing broadswords and spears were mowed down by English cannons and horsemen. In less than an hour, the English routed Charles' army, but that was just the start. They spent the next weeks methodically hunting down ringleaders and sympathizers, ruthlessly killing, imprisoning, and banishing thousands.

Charles fled with a £30,000 price on his head. He escaped to the Isle of Skye, hidden by a woman named Flora Macdonald (her statue is outside the Inverness Castle), who dressed him in women's clothes and passed him off as her maid. Legends persist that Charles and Flora had a romantic fling during their week together on the run. Flora was arrested and thrown in the Tower of London before being released and treated like a celebrity.

Charles escaped to France. He spent the rest of his life wandering Europe trying to drum up support to retake the throne. He drifted into short-lived romantic affairs and alcohol, and died in obscurity in Rome.

The Battle of Culloden was the end of 60 years of Jacobite rebellions, the last battle fought on British soil, and the last stand of the Highlanders. From then on, clan chiefs were deposed; kilts, tartans, and bagpipes became illegal paraphernalia; and farmers were cleared off their ancestral land, replaced by more-profitable sheep. Scottish culture would never recover from the events of the year called "the '46."