Outlander Ride
(aka Eastern Explorer Ride)

6 days riding, 7 nights accommodation, 1 days sight-seeing

This ride starts just outside Inverness and visits places associated with the famous Outlander series of books by Diana Gabaldon! Even if you are not a fan, or have never read these fantastic books, this is still a great ride, visiting some iconic places with stunning scenery in great riding country!

Leaving Inverness, we ride high above Loch Ness - looking out for Nessie as we go! Riding through clan Grant lands, we visit the stone circle at Corriemony before heading into beautiful Glen Affric, heart of Fraser lands, with it's ancient pine forest, many of which are hundreds of years old. Some nice grassy tracks to caner on beside the loch and stunning scenery - Glen Affric is famous as being one of the most beautiful glens in Scotland, and the track we ride on is the old road west, which was shown on maps of the 1700's.

We ride on the Eskdale road, where Jamie surrendered himself to the redcoats, then past Erchless Castle, seat of the clan Chisholm over the hills on another ancient track which takes us to the hills above Muir of Ord and Beauly.

We take a day off from riding, to give the horses a rest, and allow usto visit the places we can't get to on horseback - like Culloden Moor and the Clava Cairns - the stone circle with it's mysterious split rock! We also take time to visit Beauly and pass the site of Beaufort castle (it's a private house now, so we can't visit!) which was built on the site of Dounie Castle, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovats residence, which was destroyed after Culloden. We also travel to Strathpeffer, to Castle Leod, which is the seat of the clan MacKenzie.

We pass from Fraser to Mackenzie lands and ride through the forests beside loch Garve - famous for it's 'water-horse'. Then we head north through Strathvaich on another ancient 'road' leading to the crofting community of Ardgay and Bonar Bridge.

There will be plenty of opportunities for faster riding through the forest sections of this ride and on the wide sandy estate tracks, but due to the nature of the trails, the hill sections are mostly ridden at walk, with short spells of trot - whichever pace is most appropriate - however, our horses and ponies are used to tough terrain and very fit, so even at walk, they cover a lot of ground very quickly. In the hills it's nice to ride at a pace that allows us time to appreciate the stunning scenery!

You need to be a confident rider, comfortable up to canter.

This is a new ride for 2012

 

 

 

Price: 1090 GBP