Castles in Scotland: Which to Visit and Which Tour to Book

Castles on volcanic rock

Both Edinburgh and Stirling sit on crag and tail formations, plugs of hard dolerite left by volcanoes around 350 million years ago and shaped by glaciers. The rock gave the castles cliffs on three sides and a single gentle approach, which is why both survived so many attacks. It also caused problems: water had to be drawn from a 34-metre well at Edinburgh, and it often ran out during sieges.

Because the ground does the defending, both castles read as much from the outside as inside. Build your day around the approach, not just the rooms.

Ruins, reconstructions and palaces

Scottish castles come in three states and you should choose by taste. Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle are roofed and furnished, with the Crown Jewels and the Stewart palace respectively. Urquhart is a romantic ruin blown up in 1692, worth it for the loch view from the Grant Tower. Eilean Donan is a 20th-century rebuilding of a 13th-century castle destroyed in 1719.

If you want interiors, the city pair wins. If you want landscape, the Highlands pair wins. Many travellers do one of each, which is exactly how our day tours are built.

Who runs them

Edinburgh, Stirling and Urquhart are in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, the public body formed in 2015 that looks after more than 300 properties. That matters practically: tickets are online-first, summer slots sell out, and conservation work can close parts of a site. Check the castle's own site before you travel for any closures, since the official sources gives no fixed closure schedule for individual buildings.

Choose Edinburgh Castle if

You want the icon. There has been a royal castle on Castle Rock since the 11th century and it remained a royal residence until 1633. It holds the Honours of Scotland, the oldest regalia in the British Isles, in the Royal Palace, alongside the early 16th-century Great Hall and St Margaret's Chapel, the oldest building in Edinburgh at around 900 years.

Guided walks with entry make it simple: the Little Fish Tours history tour at from $52 and the Somos Escocia walking tour at from $55 both fit the official minimum of two hours with time left over. The One O'Clock Gun and the views from the battlements come free.

Choose Stirling Castle if

You want the palace. Stirling was the favoured royal residence before the union of the crowns, where Scottish kings and queens were crowned, including Mary Queen of Scots in 1542. The Royal Palace and Great Hall were restored, and the Great Hall in particular is the largest medieval hall in Scotland.

It guards what was until the 1890s the lowest crossing of the River Forth, which is why eight sieges were fought over it, from Stirling Bridge to Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1746. The Stirling Castle admission ticket from $25 includes the audio guide and a short introductory tour, and you can reach it by train from Edinburgh in about an hour, uphill to the esplanade from the station.

Or do both in a day

Three coach tours from Edinburgh combine Stirling with the Kelpies and Loch Lomond, so you never handle the logistics. The Timberbush Loch Lomond, Stirling and Kelpies tour at from $65.91 leaves tickets to buy separately, while the Timberbush Kelpies version with Stirling option at from $76 and the Hairy Coo day at from $79 let you add the castle and a cruise. The Hairy Coo day is our pick if everyone in the party is 7 or older, because the castle stop is the heart of it.

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness

Urquhart sits on Strone Point above Loch Ness, 21 km south-west of Inverness. The ruins date from the 13th to the 16th centuries and the five-storey Grant Tower is the most intact piece. It played its part in the Wars of Scottish Independence, was raided repeatedly by the MacDonald Earls of Ross, and was partially destroyed in 1692.

The shortest visit is the Jacobite Loch Ness cruise and Urquhart Castle trip from Inverness at from $76, three and a half hours with the castle ticket and cruise both included. From Edinburgh, the Timberbush Loch Ness and Glencoe tour at from $91 is a 12.5-hour day, and you should book the option with the cruise and castle ticket if Urquhart is the point. Adult entry on its own would be $18.72 (£14) online, paid on top where a tour does not include it.

Eilean Donan and the Skye road

Eilean Donan stands where Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh meet, a kilometre from Dornie. The original 13th-century castle was a Mackenzie stronghold, and Royal Naval ships destroyed it in 1719 after the clan's involvement in the Jacobite rebellions. Lieutenant-Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap rebuilt it in the 20th century, which is why it looks so complete in photographs.

Every tour that reaches Skye stops here. The Timberbush Skye and Eilean Donan day from Inverness is from $92 over 12 hours, with castle entry as an optional extra. The Highland Explorer small-coach version at from $97.95 has the strongest reviews at 4.9 and a multilingual guide. For the full west coast, the Hairy Coo three-day Skye and Highlands tour at from $241 adds Glencoe and Loch Ness with nights in Inverness, entry fees not included.

Glencoe without a castle

Glencoe has no castle, yet nearly every Highlands tour crosses it, and you should not skip those tours on that account. The glen is the backdrop to the massacre of 1692, the same year government troops blew up Urquhart behind them, and the landscape explains why the Great Glen was worth fortifying at all. The Hairy Coo Glencoe, Loch Ness and Pitlochry day at from $66.66 and the Rabbie's 16-seat minicoach with cruise at from $139.77 both thread it.

South-west: Stirling and Loch Lomond

About an hour to Stirling, then on to the loch. This is the easiest coach day from the city and the one we would give a first-time visitor. The meeting points matter: Timberbush departs from Castle Terrace, the Hairy Coo from the Burns Monument on Regent Road.

Check the departure location on your booking, they are 15 minutes' walk apart.

North-west: Loch Ness and Glencoe

A 12 to 12.5-hour day through Glencoe to Loch Ness, with Urquhart Castle as an add-on. It is long. Bring food and check whether your coach has a toilet on board: the Hairy Coo day has none on board and none at the departure point, so plan ahead.

North: the long road to Skye

Skye and Eilean Donan from Edinburgh is realistically a three-day trip. The one-day version from Inverness works far better, which is why we split the Highlands across two bases. Take the train or a tour to Inverness, then the Isle of Skye and Eilean Donan day tour the next morning.

South-east: over the border to Alnwick

Nine hours to Holy Island, the Northumberland coast and Alnwick Castle, the filming castle used as Hogwarts. The Timberbush Holy Island and Alnwick day at from $88 makes the castle entry an optional extra, and the castle is seasonal, reopening in March after its winter closure. Holy Island crossings depend on the tide, so the itinerary moves with the water. For more beyond Scotland, see our castles in England guide and the Alnwick Castle page.

When tickets sell out

Edinburgh Castle tickets often sell out far in advance in summer and once they are gone online there are no walk-up tickets at the gate. Urquhart Castle has the same warning for summer. The fix is a guided tour with the entry included, because the operator holds the admissions: all four Edinburgh Castle walking tours here carry the ticket in the price.

Book at least a few days ahead in July and August, our estimate, and earlier for the Tattoo period when the city fills.

Read what the price includes

Day tours split into two kinds and the difference is real money. On some, entry is in the price, like the Jacobite cruise and Urquhart day at from $76. On others, tickets are options or paid on the day, like the Timberbush Stirling and Kelpies day at from $65.91, where attraction tickets are not included. Where a tour does not include entry, you pay the castle's own gate price on top, for example Stirling Castle entry from $25 with the audio guide and introductory tour.

Add it up before you compare the headline fares, not after.

Who can join

Age limits vary by operator, not by castle. The Hairy Coo days require children of 7 or older, Timberbush takes children from 4, and the small-coach Skye day from Inverness starts at 5. None of the Edinburgh Castle walks suit wheelchair users on the cobbled route.

If anyone in your group has restricted mobility, the Stirling Castle ticket with self-drive access is the gentlest option, though note the 160 m cobbled approach with a gradient up to 1:9.