Look out next week for our next WOW Wednesday and be sure to let all your friends know about the new best day of the week! Next week there will be some great Scottish music up for grabs.

My first stop of the day was House of the Binns, a National Trust Property 3 miles east of Linlithgow. Athough the House wasn’t open (it has limited opening hours during the winter) it was possible to take a walk on the grounds. I chose to climb up to  Binn Tower, a 19th century folly reportedly the result of a wager to see who could spend £100 on something useless. Sir James Dayell lost the wager and he had the tower built.

Next on my tower was Blackness Castle, which is just down the road from the House of Binn. This impressive fortification is open to the public although as I found out many Historic Scotland buldings are shut on Thursday’s and Friday’s so I couldn’t get inside although it is worth driving down just to see the outside of the castle.

My next stop was a Historic Scotland site that was open – namely Linlithgow Palace. Although I had walked round this Palace many times before on my way North I had never ventured inside it. I am so go glad I did as it is a fantastic place steeped in history. Often in historical ruins it is hard to imagine the grandeur which used to exist, although here you can get a real feel for what it used to be like. This was undoubtedly the highlight of my day and I can’t recommend it highly enough!

My next stop was the Waiting Lodge, part of the Antonine Wall. For those that don’t know, the Antonine Wall marked the edge of the Roman Empire and was as far north as the Roman’s managed to get. There are a number of places to visit along the wall where you can see the raised earthworks. Although nothing remains of the wall, you can get a feel for how mighty it would have once been.

Enroute to Rough Castle (another part of the Antonine Wall) I stopped in at the Falkirk Wheel.  The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal and an incredible piece of engineering which lifts boats up 24 metres to a newly built aquaduct. The two canals were previously connected by a series of 11 locks which hadn’t been used since the 1930′s.

My final stop of the day was to Rough Castle, one of the best preserved parts of the Antonine Wall. At one point there was fortress here and it is still possible to see a series of pits that were built to keep out invaders. This is an impressive location and is worth spending 20 or so minutes here to get a feel for the place.

This trip took me around 5 hours and is a great way to get between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Of course, there are many other possible routes although I was only wanting to visit new locations. If you are interested in doing a similar tour please contact us - we will gladly show you these fantastic places or will prepare a detailed self guided itinerary for you.

Today I had two great American couples out with me for a great day’s whisky touring in Speyside. It was cold and foggy when I picked them up but we soon rose out of the mist and made our first stop at an atmospheric Culloden Battlefield followed by Clava Cairns. Our tour then took us through Nairn and onto Forres where we visiting the historic Dallas Dhu distillery where we took a self-guided tour of this historic distillery then sampled a wee dram of Roderick Dhu (only available to buy at the distillery). We then went to see our friends at Glen Moray who gave us an excellent whisky tasting – with the guys both sampling 5 great whiskies each (the girls managed an impressive 3!). Next on our stop was Thomas Telford’s famous bridge over the River Spey then we visited Speyside Cooperage for a great insight into the art of barrel making (these guys are always great to visit – so friendly and informative) plus a sample of the Heather Cream (think Baileys only Scottish and better!). Our penultimate stop was Glen Fiddich where we did a distillery tour follow by a sampling of the 12 year old, 15 year old and 18 year old Glen Fiddich before rounding it off with a visit to The Dufftown Whisky Shop where we sampled there excellent 41 year old own bottling, whisky of the year Old Pulteney 21 year old, plus many other great drams! What a fantastic day out – why don’t you join us on our Whisky Galore tour when you are in the Highlands next. We do the driving so you can sample the liquid gold! For details please contact us!

There are some great deals available if you book in advance. There are two trains available for heading north to Inverness – First Scotrail and East Coast. Where possible, we recommend you take the East Coast line. This is a wonderful train and if you book in advance you can get some great deals in the first class carriage. However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the First Scotrail service and if you can’t get yourself onto the East Coast line it is a fine alternative.

There is of course also a bus option to get north. In our personal experience the service on these buses ranges from fantastic to absolutely terrible (I had one horrific Megabus experience where the bus driver assaulted me so haven’t travelled with them since!!). However, from what I can see the bus companies have upped their game in recent years and Citylink has introduced it’s Gold Service which sounds great. If you are booking last minute the bus can work out to be much cheaper (and if you book far enough ahead you can get some amazing deals) however our favourite will always be the good old train!

Fabien from Switzerland (plus his friend whose name I can’t remember!) became our self-guided hiking customers this week and they really picked a great day for it! They contacted WOW Scotland and we provided them with all the information the needed to have a great and above all safe day out in the Scottish mountains. By sharing our expert knowledge of the area, plus equipping the two with maps, a compass, a first aid kit, head torch and survival bags plus explaining the route to the two men in detail they were able to have an amazing day out and discover an area of Scotland that most tourists never see!

This new service also offers customers the chance to borrow hiking boots, water proof trousers and jacket, hiking rucksack, warm clothing etc – basically anything that you need to have a great hiking experience in the Scottish Highlands. With many airlines know charging extortionate fees luggage why bring your own when you can borrow for us! Also, you can be sure that our gear is tried and tested and works in the Scottish hills – many of our customers on our guided hiking tours bring gear that is ill-suited to our every changing Scottish weather (for example – you need to have waterproof boots or you’ll get soaked!).

Our service is soon to be extended to offer customers pre-programmed routes on GPS plus we will be able to keep track of our customers via satellite so we know where you are at all times. This extra layer of safety means that we know where you are at all times and in the event of an emergency the relevant services can be informed instantly of your location, even if you are in terrain where cell phones don’t work (and that is most of the mountainous areas of the Highlands!).

For those look for an extended adventure we are also able to provide you with tents, sleeping bags and stoves, not to mention camp food, which will enable to have a very comfortable adventure even if the weather doesn’t play ball!

Our self guiding hiking tours of Scotland are ideal for couples, groups of friends, solo travellers and families alike. They are also a great tool for corporate groups looking to do something a little bit different for their next team building trip!

For more information on our self guided hiking tours of Scotland please contact us!

The design work featured in the movie

Company owner, Gordon Pearson, was approached by Laura Grant, a top London graphic designer and an old school friend in late September 2010 for permission to use WOW Scotland’s logo in the set design for Jonny English Reborn. Keen to see his fledging company’s name in lights, Gordon readily agreed and signed a contract with Universal Studios giving them rights to use his art work.

Over a year later Gordon was delighted to see his logo make the final cut, although he admits it was a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moment. Gordon said ‘I knew what scene it was coming up in and I also knew what to look for – 70 minutes into the film the logo appeared and I was delighted – 1 year of waiting was worth it!’

WOW Scotland's contract with Universal Studios

The Hollywood cameo comes only 24 hours after company owner Gordon Pearson was short-listed for the ‘Young Ambassador Award’ at the year’s Highland Tourism Awards giving the Inverness based tour guiding and outdoor activity company a double whammy of celebrations.

This has rounded off a successful year for WOW Scotland, with the business achieving an acclaimed ‘TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence Award’ and company owner Gordon getting married to his now-wife Kay in May.

Next on the horizon for WOW Scotland is the Adventure Travel World Summit in Mexico next week which Gordon will be attending as part of VisitScotland’s ‘Team Scotland’ delegation.

Depart Inverness 9am

The tour starts by driving along the South-side of Loch Ness taking in some great views along the way including the Falls of Foyers, Boleskine House and the Suidhe view point. We will pass through the historic town of Fort Augustus with it’s amazing locks (part of the Caledonian Canal before heading off the main road to Glen Sheil and the famous ‘Five Sisters of Kintail’. We will make a stop at Eilean Donan Castle before heading round to the beautiful village of Plockton for great views over to Skye. We then drive round to Loch Carran and head over the famous ‘Bealach na Ba’ (highest ascent of any road in Britain with amazing views to the Islands) to the wonderful village of Applecross where we will explore secret beaches and spend the night. The are a number of options for staying here including my favourite – staying at a old farmers house on the beach free of charge (I’ll supply sleeping bags and mats if you are interested in this option). Please note, this is a bothy meaning there is no running water/toilets/light etc although it is a great place to spend the night. There are also some Inns and B&Bs with rooms as well. For dinner we either go to the great local bar ‘The Applecross Inn’ or eat in a great restaurant close by . Alternatively, we can also cook for ourselves. The evening will be spent together on the beach round a camp fire. Here are some pics from some past trips.

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Day Two

We continue exploring the Applecross Penisula exploring amazing beaches, abandoned villages and other great sights before heading round to Sheildaig for morning coffee at Nanny;s and a chance to have a shower should you chose to stay in the hut! We would then explore some of the amazing scenery in the area including Diabeg, once home to the most feared whisky smugglers in the country. There will be some opportunities for some small hikes to try and find evidence of the illegal whisky stills that once littered this area. Our journey will then takes us through the breathtaking scenery of the Torridon Mountains before slowly heading back to Inverness for around 4pm.

This tour costs £160 per person and there will be a maximum of 7 people on the trip. Accommodation is not included although if you want to stay in the hut there is no charge (just let us know so we can bring sleeping bags). Any meals and entrance fees are also extra. To book please contact us.