The Highlands, Scotland — Bella Via Travels
Scotland
The Highlands
The landscape that defines Scotland
The Highlands are Scotland at its most uncompromising — a landscape of enormous scale and extraordinary beauty that has been shaping the imagination of travellers for three centuries.
The Great Glen cuts the Highlands in two, running from Inverness to Fort William along a geological fault line that holds Loch Ness, Loch Oich and Loch Lochy. The road along its southern shore is one of the great drives of Scotland — and the mountains that rise on either side are among the finest in Britain.
Glencoe is the most dramatic of the Highland glens — a narrow valley flanked by the Three Sisters and the Aonach Eagach ridge, with a history of massacre that adds a particular weight to its beauty. The road through it is unforgettable in any weather, but in winter, with snow on the peaks and mist in the valley, it is something else entirely.
Bella Via designs Highland journeys that go beyond the obvious circuit — stays in converted shooting lodges, mornings on deserted beaches on the north coast, evenings in distilleries where the whisky is made in the same way it has been for two hundred years.
“The Highlands are not a place you visit once. They are a place you keep returning to, looking for the version of them you have not yet found.”
What to Expect
The Bella Via Experience in The Highlands
Glencoe
One of the most dramatic glens in Scotland — a narrow valley of extraordinary beauty with a history that gives it a particular emotional weight.
The North Coast 500
A 500-mile circuit of the northern Highlands, taking in sea stacks, sandy beaches, ancient brochs and some of the emptiest landscape in Europe.
Cairngorms National Park
Britain's largest national park — a high plateau of ancient Caledonian pine forest, red squirrels, ospreys and the highest mountains in the UK outside Ben Nevis.
Speyside Whisky Trail
The greatest concentration of whisky distilleries in the world, set along the River Spey — from Glenfiddich and Macallan to smaller, lesser-known producers.
The Highlands reward those who slow down and stay long enough to understand them. We will help you find the journey that does them justice.