Can You Do The Scottish Highlands By Train? Yes You Can!

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 I’m a Scottish Highlands expert because I’ve lived here for 23 years, I’ve led tours around the Highlands for 30 years and I work as a local guide for visiting cruise ships.

If you have been wondering if you can do the Scottish Highlands by train then I have great news – you can do it easily, either yourself or as a touring holiday.

Read on for everything you need to know about this great way to explore the Scottish Highlands.

Can You Do The Scottish Highlands by Train?

Table of Contents

Train Journeys in the Highlands

We are so lucky here in the Highlands to have some wonderful train journeys available to enjoy. I would say that every one of our railway lines are worth exploring and given we have lines going North, South, East and West you can explore in all directions.

Let me go through each of the railway journeys in detail.

You can get all of these journeys from Inverness railway station.

Before I jump into the train routes let me just tell you a little bit about travelling on train in Scotland.

Can you do the Scottish Highlands by train?

Travelling by Train

The Scottish Government own and operate all the train services mentioned in this article. They nationalised the railway service in 2022 and in 2023 they appointed a Government body to run the Caledonian Sleeper service.

Most of the services on this line operate 2 or 3 carriages per train.

The Highlands is sparsely populated so there isn’t the volume of people using trains that you might find elsewhere.

Services heading South can be longer trains of several carriages and the Sleeper train is a longer train.

There is WIFI on Scotrail services but it isn’t always a great or reliable service. It’s a good excuse to look out of the window and enjoy the scenery, which is lovely whatever the weather.

Some train journeys have a trolley service. The problem with this is you can never be sure until you are on the train. Inverness has a Costa Coffee in the station along with a WHSmith selling snacks and sandwiches if you want to be sure of having something.

Inverness has a ticket office and ticket machines.

You can also download the Scotrail app and get tickets downloaded to your mobile phone as MTickets.

There are ticket barriers at Inverness station.

Many smaller stations do not have ticket machines or barriers, you buy your ticket when you get on the train.

Most of the railway lines in the Highlands are single-track lines with passing places. The passing places tend to be railway stations.

This means that sometimes there can be a bit of a wait if the train you need to pass has been delayed.

On the Far North Line, this can be problematic as trains have to pass at Georgemas Junction, which is located between Wick and Thurso. If they don’t pass on time this can mean that trains are out of sync.

There are toilets on board the Scotrail trains.

Can you do the Scottish Highlands by train?

Heading West on the Kyle Line

Made famous by Michael Palin declaring the journey one of the top 10 railway routes in the world, the Kyle line is a fantastic journey.

Starting from Inverness the train heads North West to Dingwall and then turns out the West.

The journey has a mix of landscapes and scenery to enjoy – there’s everything from Highland villages, to wide open glens, lochs and the lovely coastline as you approach Kyle of Lochalsh.

The journey takes around 2.75 hours each way and there are trains in the morning that give enough time to have lunch in Kyle of Lochalsh before returning later that day. There’s also the option to visit Skye by taking a local bus service from Kyle of Lochalsh.

Kyle of Lochalsh is a small village, looking over sea towards Skye. In the past a ferry connected Kyle to Skye but the service was replaced with the Skye bridge, a very controversial project given the level of tolls charged for crossing the bridge. Thankfully there are no tolls now.

can you travel the scottish highlands by train

Can you do the Scottish Highlands by train?

Heading North on the Far North Line

As the name suggests this train service heads all the way up to Wick or Thurso.

It’s a long journey as the train has to make a big sweep inland to get round the edge of the Dornoch Firth. Unfortunately, when the built the road bridge crossing the Dornoch Firth they didn’t have the money to put the train line across at the same time.

It’s just under 4 hours each way, making a long train journey, especially if you plan to go there and back in a day.

The journey itself is lovely. The train heads North, following along the edge of the coast before diving inland to Ardgay. It then continues heading North before heading back out to the coast again.

As you approach Helmsdale the train almost runs over the beach, squeezing in between the road and the coastline.

Further North it sweeps inland again to Georgemas Junction and then travels to Wick and Thurso.

Can you do the Scottish Highlands by train?

Heading South on the Highland Line

The route South from Inverness is a busier route because trains run to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and Perth.

The journey down from Inverness is another one of contrasts. There’s a lovely sweep over the Findhorn viaduct before heading down between the hills, with the main road, the A9 running nearby.

The train passes through the busy town of Aviemore, before heading between the sparsely populated hills. You could take the train all the way down to Perth and come back again if you wanted.

For a really wonderful train experience why not head all the way to Edinburgh and cross the Forth Road Bridge in a train. (To be sure of crossing the bridge don’t take any trains that go to Edinburgh via Stirling).

If you wanted to enjoy a steam train journey you could take the train from Inverness to Aviemore. Aviemore is shared railway service, with the steam and regular trains operating from adjacent platforms.

You can easily take a ride on the Strathspey Steam Railway and return to Inverness on the Scotrail service later in the day. There’s lots to see in Aviemore.

Can you do the Scottish Highlands by train?

Heading East on the Aberdeen Line

You can travel all the way to Aberdeen, in around 2 hours and 15 minutes.

The journey is mostly inland, apart from the initial section from Inverness to Inverness Airport. It then passes through small towns and ever changing farmland before reaching the busy city of Aberdeen.

The train station in Aberdeen is part of a large indoor shopping mall. There is a hotel here too making it a great base for exploring Aberdeen.

If you didn’t fancy a city why not visit Elgin? The train station is just outside the town centre. Elgin has a pedestrianised centre and there are lots of nice little shops, cafes and restaurants to enjoy.

Can you do the Scottish Highlands by train?

My Favourite Train

My favourite train to travel on, especially if heading to Edinburgh or further South is the Highland Chieftain.

This train leaves Inverness at 7.55 am and arrives into London at 3.47pm. It’s a big long train and my favourite way to travel is in the first class carriage. Here you get free WIFI, larger seats (3 across the carriage rather than 4). There is a great included food and drink service, with food and drink served to your seat.

In standard class there is a buffet car.

You can also take the 7.55am train from Inverness and change onto the LUMO Service in Edinburgh, arriving 3 minutes ahead of the Highland Chieftain!

Can you do the Scottish Highlands by train?

Inverness Airport Train

Thanks to the addition of a new railway station you can now take a train to Inverness Airport.

The journey time is 10 minutes and there is 1 train per hour. It’s a 10 minute walk from the railway station to the terminal building, with a footpath that loops around the end of the runway.

Can you do the Scottish Highlands by train?

Sleeper Train

If you fancy travelling overnight to or from Inverness by train you can do it thanks to the Sleeper Train.

The train has been upgraded and now has single, doubles and twin rooms, some with en-suite and some not available.

If you are travelling on the sleeper make sure to bring heavy-duty earplugs or something to help you deal with the noise of the train.

It can also be very hot inside the bedroom compartments.

The train leaves London at 9.15pm and arrives in Inverness 8.45am. It runs every night of the week apart from Saturday. It makes a stop at Crewe and Preston and once it gets North of Perth it makes more stops to let southbound trains pass.

If you are travelling from Inverness to London the train leaves at 8.45pm and arrives in London Euston at 8am. On the journey down to Perth there are a number of stops for passing Northbound trains.

You can buy all your tickets on The Trainline which has an app or on Scotrail

Can you do the Scottish Highlands by train?

Scottish Highlands Railway Tour

If you don’t want the hassle of organising everything yourself why not consider a Scottish Highlands touring holiday?

Newmarket has a great holiday that starts in Edinburgh.

You can book with regional flights or tour only. The journey travels on the Kyle Line and also the Mallaig Line, which crosses the beautiful Harry Potter viaduct. It also visits the Cairngorm Mountain and takes a trip on the Strathspey Railway.

A great feature of this holiday is that one part of each journey is done by train and one part is done by coach giving you two different views of the Highland scenery to enjoy.

It’s fully guided by a Tour Manager, so you get to hear all about the history and culture of the Highlands too.

It also stays in Carrbridge with half board for 4 nights so you don’t have to worry about organising all your evening meals.

Can You Do The Scottish Highlands By Train Conclusion

Touring the Scottish Highlands by train is easy and convenient, with Inverness making an ideal base.

Train journeys make ideal day trips or you could easily spend a night in each destination before travelling back to Inverness.

You can also travel to the Highlands by train on the Highland Chieftain (operated by LNER) or the Caledonian Sleeper, along with regular scheduled train services from Scotrail.

If you want to fly to the Highlands you can now take the train from Inverness Airport to the city centre.

If you have found my ‘Can you do the Scottish Highlands by Rail’ article useful you might also like;

Scottish Highlands Railway Holiday detailed review – all you need to know about this holiday from Newmarket

You can find lots more articles on my Scottish Highlands page