Day trips by rail or bus October 2026

I think two centres would give more variety.

But looking at Inverness-
You could do-
Day 1 Culloden and Clava Cairns, by hourly bus;
Day 2- Fort George and Elgin by bus, return by train or the express bus;
Day 3- Highland Folk Museum by train or bus;
Day 4- Cairngorm, train, local or express bus to Aviemore, then bus;
Day 5- Fort William by express bus at 0710 then either Jacobite steam train, or express or local bus to Glencoe;
Day 6- train or Ember Bus to Wick or Thurso for John O'Groats by local bus
Day 7- Dornoch and Dunrobin Castle by a train/bus combo;
Day 8- Isle of Skye by the 0830 express bus, with time to visit Raasay by ferry, or Dunvegan or Trotternish by local bus, returning on the 1745 bus;
Day 9- Ullapool and the Summer Isles, out on the 0810 express bus, returning on the 1525 local bus.

( out of days, not ideas)

On the Thurso day you could continue on the evening ferry to Orkney, overnight on Orkney, full day next day on Orkney using local buses, overnight on the docked ship at Stromness, which sails at 0630 next morning.

Thanks so much for all the ideas! Will begin researching them immediately.

In addition to public transportation, there are also several tour companies that do 1 day group tours visiting several sights from both Glasgow and Inverness.

Rabbie's is often recommended on the forum. They use mini coaches with a maximum of 16 travelers.

From Glasgow by public transportation:

• Edinburgh
• Stirling Castle
• Loch Lomond

There are more places you could visit, but these are all within an hour or so by bus or train.

One place you may want to look into is Oban, a port town on the west coast. About 3 hours by bus or train from Glasgow. The journey itself is quite scenic. Oban is known for seafood, Oban whisky distillery and access to the Hebrides islands of Mull and Iona. It would make a lovely stay for a few nights. You could take the ferry from Oban to Mull to explore on your own or you could book a 1 day package tour with West Coast Tours to Mull and Iona.

Thank you. Oban sounds delightful.

You can also get to Oban from Inverness- hourly bus to Fort William, then 4 x a day bus Fort William to Oban, so although not a day trip it's a good way to make the transfer, maybe if you do the Jacobite, you could then do the leg on to Oban afterwards.
There is probably a weeks worth of trips you could easily do by public transport out of Oban- other islands alone (beside Mull and Iona) include Kerrera (by two different ferries), Lismore (which gets ignored by most on this forum, but is a great walking island and has Scotland 's smallest former Cathedral*), Coll, Tiree, Colonsay, Luing and Easedale (the island literally hollowed out by slate extraction).
Bus trips include the prehistoric sites at Kilmartin, Cruachan (the Hollow Mountain, also has a summer only station), Loch Awe and Kilchurn Castle, Bonawe Iron Furnace, Inverary and the Crinan Canal.
* If you count St Giles in Edinburgh as a Cathedral then by the same definition St Moluags on Lismore is one. Oban also has a real Cathedral, which many people miss.

Thanks again to all who reply.