Travel and Transport information for Wester Ross in the Scottish Highlands including Buses and trains Wester Ross can be approached: from the east from Inverness from the north from Ullapool from the south from Kyle of Lochalsh, gateway to the Isle of Skye

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Wester Ross is a largely undiscovered jewel in north-west Scotland and is well worth being incorporated into your holiday through the Highlands.

Inverness is the capital of the Highlands and can be reached by road, rail and air. There are regular trains every day from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, London, etc. (timetables available online). Several buses services operate to Inverness from other main towns and cities including the CityLink coach services.

Day trips on a coach from Inverness are also available if you don't have much time but would like to visit Inverewe Gardens, Applecross, Torridon, etc. and don't have a car. Click here for coach trip details.

Inverness Airport (at Dalcross) is 8 miles out of town with regular buses running Mondays-Saturdays. Taxis and car hire available at the airport. Flights are operated by

• British Airways
• Bmi
• EasyJet
• Eastern Airways
• Ryanair

Visitors can also approach Wester Ross via Ullapool, the main town in the NW Highlands and the ferry terminal for the Hebridean island of Lewis.

The other approach is from the south via Kyle of Lochalsh which is the most popular route to the Isle of Skye enabling you to see the photogenic Eilean Donan Castle. Kyle can be easily reached by train and bus.

Taxi / Guided Tours

Kenny Murray Wester Ross Tours 2 Kielburn Crescent Lochcarron Ross-shire IV54 8YT Tel: 01520 722711

Conducted tours of Wester Ross & Skye with local guide, in a comfortable modern vehicle. Numerous itineraries, personal attention, maximum of six people. Also available for private hire, airport and train transfers, and weddings. No smoking. Open all year. Email: [email protected] Visit web site

Public Transport within Wester Ross

Among our visitors each year are at least several hundred people who reckon that all they have to do in order to reach this area is to appear at Inverness Bus Station and hop on to one of the many buses going to Achnasheen, Applecross, Gairloch or Aultbea. Well, it's not quite as simple as that! The fact is that Public Transport facilities in Wester Ross are somewhat limited. You can visit TravelineScotland.com which is an online searchable database for public transport timetables in Scotland. The Westerbus service operates between Inverness and Gairloch (Monday-Saturday). This bus service is comfortable, reliable and good value for money. Not only that, but it calls at all the major settlements along the route of the A832 which is the main traffic road throughout the whole of the Celtic Fringe area. Click here for Westerbus details. Hans Zell Publishing has a useful list of local public transport timetables.

Train Services

Over the years, many visitors must have climbed off the train at Achnasheen only to look around and ask themselves where on earth they were! Where are the hotels? The taxi services? The buses? Was this not the mainline station for most of Wester Ross? Yes, it was. No, it has no hotels or taxis. Yes, it is in the middle of nowhere. In fact, it is 9 miles from the nearest village (Kinlochewe). Bus services passing through Achnasheen are very limited so you do need to plan in advance.
Click here for searchable railway timetables. Achnasheen is on the main line between Kyle of Lochalsh and Inverness.