Gardens & Landscapes of the Scottish Highlands by Canal Boat

You will be met at Edinburgh Airport and transferred to your hotel.

This evening, enjoy a Welcome Dinner to meet your fellow travellers and Botanical Guide. Stay Two Nights: InterContinental Edinburgh the George Hotel or similar (D)

This morning, visit the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queen's official residence in Edinburgh. Explore the palace and its gardens, which features a Jubilee Border, originally planted with silver plants in celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, as well as two Wentworth Elms, a species thought to be extinct until recently. Next, visit the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, which boasts a collection of over 13,000 different plant species from around the world. (B)

Depart Edinburgh for Aberdeen. Along the way, we call in on Glamis Castle to explore the castle and gardens which were the inspiration for Shakespeare's Macbeth and the childhood home of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. We continue on to Crathes Castle, Garden & Estate. Here we will explore the magnificent 16th-century castle, with its intricate maze of turrets, towers, oak panels and painted ceilings. Wander through the historic walled garden and admire its striking yew hedges, planted in the early 18th century. Stay: Aberdeen, Norwood Hall Hotel or similar (B/D)

This morning, visit Pitmedden Garden, which includes almost six miles of clipped box hedging, sculptures and parterres. The garden is a masterpiece of intricate patterns and fragrant flowers. Take time to explore the National Museum of Rural Life, which brings the agricultural past to life. Continue to Inverness, where we take a tour of the botanic gardens, whose grounds feature formal gardens, ponds, a tropical house, the cactus house and a wildflower meadow.

It's then time to board our hotel barge, the Spirit of Scotland. Enjoy a Champagne Welcome on board and perhaps take an early evening stroll to the sea locks with wonderful views over the Moray and Beauly firths. Stay Six Nights: Spirit of Scotland (B/D)

Our first cruise will take us up the Muirtown Lock flight and through the Tomnahurich Swing Bridge, with an option to walk alongside River Ness to Dochgarroch, a hamlet at the head of Loch Ness.

After lunch onboard, pay a visit to Cawdor Castle, immortalised in Shakespeare's “Scottish Play”, Macbeth. Its tasteful gardens have been listed among the top 100 in the UK. The castle contains a superb collection of tapestries, pictures and furnishings, and the Dowager Countess of Cawdor still lives there for part of the year. Enjoy a tour of the property's extensive garden, escorted by the Head Gardener. If time allows, we will then take a tour of Clava Cairns, a prehistoric burial site dating back to 2,000 B.C. It was also the setting for the TV series Outlander. (B/L/D)

This morning enjoy a visit to Abriachan Garden Nursery, set on the shores of the loch. The garden has a mix of native and exotic plantings. Explore the woodland garden here, which has winding paths that lead up the hillside, where you'll enjoy stunning views over the loch. We then set sail through Loch Dochfour and across Loch Ness, passing Urquhart Castle along the way and navigating closely beneath its spectacular 13th century ruins.

We then continue our cruise to the village of Foyers. Here we can visit the Tomatin Distillery to learn more about whisky production. The more active may prefer to take a woodland walk to the Falls of Foyers. (B/L/D)

Cruise to Fort Augustus, situated at the southern end of the loch. Here we visit the private Highland Club, a spectacular and exclusive set of residences, formerly a 19th-century Benedictine monastery. Here we are treated to a falconry and birds-of-prey demonstration on the banks of Loch Ness. The majesty of these swooping birds set against a backdrop of the expansive Scottish Highlands is a sight to behold.

Afterwards, there will be time to explore the pretty village of Fort Augustus before returning to our ship for lunch. Our cruise then takes us up the “flight of locks” and then on to our mooring at Kytra where a Highland Piper may greet us with a stirring rendition of traditional Scottish music.

This evening we dine ashore at a local restaurant. (B/L/D)

Today we make an early start for a drive through dramatic scenery to the west coast to visit the Attadale Gardens, set in the grounds of a castle with woodland, Japanese and herb gardens, as well as magnificent vistas of the mountains. We have lunch at a local restaurant that offers traditional highland fare, before returning to the barge. We then take a late afternoon cruise through pretty Loch Oich and cruise tree-lined Laggan Avenue to our mooring on the canal. (B/L/D)

On the final leg of our voyage today, we cross Loch Lochy to Gairlochy, where we rejoin the canal and continue on to Moy Bridge, the last fully hand-operated bridge on the waterway. From here it is a short cruise to our mooring at Banavie beneath Ben Nevis. After lunch on board, we head to Arisaig and the Wild Woodland Garden of Larachmhor, created by eccentric entrepreneur John Holms in the 1920s, with later support from the Edinburgh Royal Botanical Garden. The garden is famed for its 200 varieties of rhododendrons.

This evening, enjoy a Farewell Dinner to celebrate this special journey through Scotland. (B/L/D)

This morning, we disembark the Spirit of Scotland and make our way back to Edinburgh. Along the way, we stop at Cluny House Gardens, created by Bobby and Betty Masterton. The Masterton's had a particular interest in Himalayan plants, which thrive in the conditions prevalent here. See Tibetan cherry trees, as well as the blue poppy (meconopsis). We arrive back in Edinburgh, where our journey concludes, at around 5.00pm. (B/L)