Superlatives are, quite simply, inadequate when describing the scenery which defines the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
HAME Tours is a completely independent company, we have no affiliation with or sponsorship from any other entity.
We guarantee you that any facility we may visit on your trip, whether it be shop, exhibition, restaurant or hostelry, has no fiscal relationship with us and we do not receive any commissions or gratuities from them to induce us to try to influence where you visit.
Although our Tours pages make suggestions as to itineraries, HAME Tours does not operate preset schedules and we customise all trips to suit the interests and wishes of the visitor. Talk to us, tell us what interests you – whether it be seeing the homelands of your ancestors or checking out whisky distilleries or whatever else – and we’ll give you suggestions as to what you might enjoy visiting.
We simply love the landscape, culture and music of our beautiful country and want to share it with you to make your visit one filled with cherished memories.
As the founder member of the North’s first design and public relations agency, Dynam Marketing, his involvement in the origination and distribution of the publication “Explore” for the Highlands and Islands Development Board, further qualifies him to be your guide.
He is a singer, well known in folk music circles. As your tour progresses Andrew will include songs and references to their relevance in a tapestry which illustrates the links between musical culture and historical legacy.
He is a member of the Clan Donald Society and has always had an avid interest in researching the history of the Highlands. Andrew is a lifelong activist and campaigner for the restoration of Scottish National Sovereignty.
Landscape
“Majesty”, “beauty” and “grandeur” are all appropriate but those descriptions alone fail to convey, for instance, the atmosphere and sense of deja vu one feels when driving through Glencoe.
In the long shadow of the mountain Buachaille Etive Mor (“the Great Shepherd of Etive”) one can almost taste the tragedy of that hauntingly beautiful place. Here treachery was enacted, not that long ago, forever leaving an indelible stain on the wonderful tradition of Highland Hospitality.
Experience the sense of wonder at climbing the Bealach Nam Bo (“the Pass of the Cattle”). This, the longest stretch of one in three gradient in the British Isles, rises one thousand feet in a mere mile and a half from the shores of Loch Kishorn over the Tornapress Hill to lovely Applecross. With the chance of driving through low cloud on the way emerge, hopefully, into bright sunlight to view the breathtaking panorama of that part of the western seaboard, the Cuillin Hills of Skye, The Torridon Mountains and, on a clear day, the Hebrides beyond.
Understand why George Gordon (Lord Byron) was moved to write his epic song Dark Lochnagar, “England, thy beauties are tame and domestic to one who has ranged o’er those mountains afar”. [There is a lochan (“small loch”) of the same name but the song refers to the mountain.]
Here in his native Aberdeenshire he, and Queen Victoria in her travels, marvelled at the brooding mountain, she deciding to make her Highland home at Balmoral in what became known as Royal Deeside.
People
“Scotland’s greatest exports”, it is often said, “are its sons and daughters”.
This is not surprising when you consider the amount of emigration, voluntary and otherwise, which has been a hallmark of Highland life for centuries.
Through the hardships of weather, famine and the outrage of the Highland Clearances the wider world has enjoyed the rich harvest of transplanted Highland people. Almost all of them feel a yearning and sense of belonging and homecoming when, often after generations, they revisit their mother soil.
Prime ministers of Canada, Australia and other far flung dominions, generals, physicians, poets, inventors and conservationists. All bring honour to their native land. Very ordinary folk have sown the seeds of community and enlightenment to dark corners of the world. Wherever they go if “the Heart is Highland” then the welcome is warm.
Visit Hugh Miller’s cottage where many of his literary works were penned.
Learn at Dingwall how General Sir Hector MacDonald conducted his military endeavours.
Witness the pomposity of the Duke of Sutherland’s statue atop of bleak Ben Bragghie and see firsthand the obscene grandeur of his ancestral home at Dunrobin Castle.
Hear how the Gaelic seer, Coinneach Odhar (Kenneth Mackenzie) was scorned when he predicted that “boats would pass either side of Tomnahurich Hill.”
This was indeed to come to pass by virtue of the fact that the Caledonian Canal was to be dug out along the Northern side of the Cemetery Hill, the river winding its customary path down the south side.