HOSTELS IN INVERNESS, LOCH NESS, GREAT GLEN, NORTHEAST SCOTLAND

• Inverness--Capital of the Highlands, a delightful small city
• Moray Coast, Strathspey--Lovely wide open country with fine valleys and mountainscapes
• Great Glen--Long straight glen between tall mountain ridges and filled with lochs including Loch Ness!
• Far NE Scotland--Much delectable scenery of lochs, estuaries, hills, and boats to Orkney

The welcoming little city of Inverness is the capital of the Highlands and a main railway and coach terminus. It is a good place for a stopover, with a pleasant mixture of scenery, attractive buildings and historical interest. There is a good choice of hostels here, and a pub (advertised in the hostels) that encourages backpackers with live music every evening and sometimes scottish dancing.

In the shopping streets are three hostels. The Ho Ho hostel has a sociable common room; the owners have another hostel called the Long Lie-in, which has not been popular with reviewers, so if you want the sociability, make sure you stay in the main Ho Ho hostel.

The other two hostels both have a TV in the common room.

Up the steep hill past the castle, just 300m from the city centre, are two hostels:

You have to walk 2 km from the town centre to the SYHA hostel. The main road is boring, but there is a pleasanter way through residential streets:

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This area, between Inverness and Aberdeen, is Scotland's 'Big Country'. With open vistas and secluded valleys, well spaced small towns, and the great Cairngorm plateau in the background, it is excellent for touring. In most countries scenery like this would be a star attraction, but in Bonnie Scotland it's just average. Although not as impressive as the west, this area has a drier climate and there are fewer tourists. It's an excellent area for cycling, with mainly gentle gradients. The prevalence of distilleries will attract the whisky drinker.

Transport to the area

Frequent trains will bring you from the south to Aviemore, Inverness or Aberdeen. There are also buses, but only about 3 per day, from Glasgow or Edinburgh to each of these places.

Transport within the area

A train line runs through the area from Inverness to Aberdeen (7 per day plus one late-evening), and there are buses within the Aviemore area, but otherwise this vast area has very little public transport, so you need a car to tour. Alternatively, the Speyside Way is a marvellous walking trail with transport access at several points.

Hostels

There are several hostels in the Aviemore area, both SYHA and independent, and a few elsewhere.

AVIEMORE AND CAIRNGORMS

The approach route is by road or rail from the south across the Pass of Drumochter and down the upper part of Strath Spey. It's usually cloudy there, but the weather usually improves as you descend, and you will get a good feel for Scotland's 'Big Country' with its wide expanses of mountain, moor and forest. If you just want to speed through on your way to more exciting destinations, well that's fine, but do look out the window at the majestic views as you pass; and if you're not in a hurry, deviate from the highway and pass through two small one-street towns, Newtonmore and Kingussie. Better, stay a night or two in the area, there's loads of fine scenery for motoring, cycling or walking.

If you are bound for Fort William or Skye, Laggan in a beautiful broad valley with mountains all around, makes a good stopover. No public transport, but you could hitchhike here to do the fine walk over Corrieyarrock Pass to Fort Augustus on Loch Ness. You can stay at the friendly hostel:

Newtonmore has a train station and a Citylink bus stop; there are a few shops, and some restaurants (mostly expensive); one restaurant offers takeaway pizza but there are no takeaway shops. There are two hostels:

Click for hostel and area information

Kingussie (pronounced Kin-yussie) also has rail and bus connections. There is a fish-and-chips and a Chinese takeaway, and you have a choice of 2 hostels, one on each side of the main road:

For direct walking access to the Cairngorms, follow the tourist route to the ski slopes and stay at a mountain lodge, amid fine scenery and a base for hikes and many sports:

Aviemore

is the centre of the Scottish ski industry. There is not much to attract you here, but it is a good base for the area. You have a choice of 2 hostels: a large SYHA probably filled with groups travelling by coach, and a small new independent on a quiet street attached to a pub.

If you travel 15km from Aviemore towards Inverness, you can turn off the road to find a newly-built hostel attached to a bike shop. This is only convenient if you have a car, bike or are hitch-hiking, as there's no pubs or shops nearby:

SPEYSIDE

The River Spey flows through the broad friendly valley of Strathspey. Not far from Aviemore are Carrbridge, Boat of Garten and Nethybridge, where you are already starting to get away from the tour buses. These are served by 5 buses a day from Aviemore and also up to Cairngorm (none on Sundays). The following hostels are excellent bases for touring or for mountain walks, especially if you have your own transport, and accessible by public transport if you want to walk the Speyside way.

2km from Carrbridge on a quiet road is:

Just outsdie Boat of Garten is:

Nethybridge is a pleasant village. Just 2km from there, 300m of track and a gate leads you to the 'most unique' hostel in Britain, on the edge of woodland in grounds with its own duckpond, with moorland walks from the hostel and views of the Cairngorms. It's simple accommodation, but fully comfortable with hot showers and a wood fire. Don't come here if you're in a hurry! It only holds 8 so is often full, but you can camp in the grounds:

The Speyside Way is a several-day hike through a range of excellent countryside. Hostels that lie close to it are:

Tomintoul is a small open-plan town amid glorious open scenery. A new hostel in an old school has just opened there:

THE REST OF THE AREA

There's no hostels and little public transport, but arm yourself with a map and take a car tour -- it's all nice. Elgin is a large town on the rail line.

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The Great Glen is an antique version of the San Andreas fault. Millions of years ago the northwest of Scotland slid southward relative to the southeast. The fault is no longer active, but you can't mistake it -- a dead straight line from Fort William to Inverness, cutting the highlands in half, with a string of lochs along it including the most famous of all -- Loch Ness. This area is scenic but has a sombre feel about it when the cloud lies low and cuts off the tops of the hills. It may even feel a little eerie, just as if a monster is about to jump out of the loch....

Buses run along the Great Glen from Fort William to Inverness every 2 hours, and there are several on Sundays.

Hostels

There is a cluster of hostels at Fort William in the Ben Nevis area. Then there is a sequence of hostels along the Great Glen:

Drumnadrochit, a village with an inordinate amount of tacky nessie-related stuff but with a bus service to Inverness and Cannich, has a good hostel:

On the other side of Loch Ness (3 buses a day from Inverness) is Foyers:

Cannich and Glen Affric

From Inverness there are 3 buses a day (2 Saturday, none Sunday) to Cannich. Cannich is a flat and plain village, but it lies close to glorious scenery including a long walk up lovely Glen Affric to the West Coast, and on the edge of Britain's biggest wilderness area. So it is a good base or starting point, and it has 2 hostels in adjacent low buildings.

Glen Affric Hostel (a former hotel) is currently closed.

At Tomich, 3 miles farther, is:

Beyond Cannich, Glen Affric is regarded by some as Scotland's finest glen. After a long walk (21 miles) you reach a very remote hostel:

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The far northeast corner of Scotland, north of Inverness, is easy to explore, thanks to a good train service and hostels within walking distance of train stations. The scenery is very varied and interesting, sometimes exceptionally beautiful, with woods, fields, hills, mountains and sea lochs. Only the final stretch, a desolate plain, is boring.

Transport

Trains leave Inverness 3 times a day (at 0725, in the late morning and the mid-evening) and take 3.5 hours to reach Thurso or Wick on the north coast. At Thurso you can connect with a once-daily ferry to Orkney. There is also one bus a day from Inverness at 1330 to Wick, returning from Wick at 1115; in summer the bus continues to John o'Groats to connect with a summer-only ferry to Orkney.

Hostels

The land starts verdantly, with pleasant small towns such as Dingwall. Four miles from Dingwall station is the spa town of Strathpeffer in a wooded valley.

A few miles farther, but about 3 miles from the nearest station, is a bunkhouse on a caravan park:

As you go north, you reach the county of Sutherland, which means southern land -- work that one out. The scenery becomes steadily more hilly, with roads over heather moorlands and views of nearby and distant mountains. You'll be glad you came this far when you reach the fantastic

The scenery round here is gorgeous. Farther up the rail line, still amid fine scenery, is a hostel AT the station, where you will eat and sleep in former railway carriages (First Class at that!):

If you go inland from here you reach Lairg, Scotland's most northerly inland town, which has a pleasant lakeside area but otherwise seems to be laid out without planning, with pleasant older houses mixed in with ugly business buildings. Drive or cycle farther north and the scenery becomes more desolate, with isolated mountains.

Helmsdale, a small town on the coast, has a station and a hostel:

The country then gradually levels out, and the last stretch of mainland Scotland is a desolate plain. The train divides, and you have a choice of going to Thurso or Wick. Thurso is a small town on the north coast with 3 hostels, and ferries leave from nearby Scrabster for Orkney.

Wick is a pleasant small town on the east coast. From Wick there are 3 buses a day to John o'Groats. There are also 4 buses a day from Thurso to John o'Groats. Although this collection of buildings is thronged with tourists, its only reason for a visit is that it is believed, wrongly, to be the northernmost point of the mainland, and because ferries leave there for a choppy crossing to Orkney (summer only). There is a hostel 3 miles from John o'Groats, but the bus from Wick passes the door:

At this most uninspiring corner of Scotland there is just one attraction: the ferry to Orkney.

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