Scotland by Luxury Train
Days on Scotland’s Most Storied Train. The Days Either Side Stay With You Too.
The Royal Scotsman is the centerpiece. What happens on either side of it is the trip. We plan both, then hand you one itinerary and one person to call.
A private Highland rail journey, no more than forty guests traveling at once.
Every day before and after the train, planned around you, not a template.
One planner, one point of contact, from your first email to the platform at Waverley.
Your Time Aboard the Royal Scotsman
The Royal Scotsman is a private sleeper train, not a day excursion, running through the Highlands since 1985 and operated today by Belmond. The cars are mahogany paneled and brass fitted, restored to their original Edwardian detail, and for three to seven nights, depending on the route, this is where you live: your own private cabin, a dining car set for dinner each night, a lounge car for the hours in between.
Mornings bring the scenery: north past the Cairngorms, the climb through Strathcarron on the Kyle of Lochalsh line, the coast at Plockton. By midmorning you are usually off the train, a distillery, a walk through a private Highland estate, clay pigeon shooting, before returning for lunch. Evenings are more formal, dinner in the dining car, a whisky tasting most nights, and once each trip, an evening that calls for a jacket, or for guests who own one, a kilt.
No more than forty guests travel at a time, and every meal, every glass of wine, and every excursion in your chosen itinerary is included. We arrange the booking with Belmond directly on your behalf, as one part of a longer trip we have already built around it.
The Train Is Part of the Trip. Everything Around It Is Yours to Build.
What happens before you board and after you disembark decides whether the whole trip holds together, or whether it has one very good week in the middle of an otherwise ordinary one.
Before you board, a driver and guide meets you at the airport, and your first hours in Scotland are already arranged: a private garden, a distillery, an evening in Edinburgh that feels like the start of something rather than a layover before the train. After you disembark, we keep going, west into the Highlands, north to the coast, or on into Ireland, so the trip closes properly instead of ending the moment you step off the platform.
We arrange all three parts as one trip: the days before, the days on board, and the days after. You book one trip. We build every part of it.
Before You Board The Royal Scotsman
You arrive in Edinburgh with time to actually settle before the train departs from Waverley. We place you at The Caledonian, built in 1903 as a station hotel for travelers arriving by rail. Its windows look out over Princes Street Gardens to Edinburgh Castle and its grand staircase is still lit by the original Victorian stained glass.
A driver and guide meet you at the airport, so your first hours in Scotland are spent somewhere worth remembering, not in a taxi queue.
Depending on how many days you spend in Scotland before you board, we can build in Stirling, the Trossachs, or a private whisky tasting before you ever set foot on the train, so day one on board feels like a continuation of something, not the start of it.
After You Disembark
The train ends back in Edinburgh, and for most guests, that is where the trip quietly loses momentum. We build the opposite: real days after you disembark that give the whole trip a proper close.
For guests who want more of the Highlands, we extend west toward the coast and the islands, with private estate access and time built in rather than rushed. For golfers, we place you on courses that don’t take walk-ins. And for guests who want to see both countries we know best, this is where a Scotland trip often becomes a Scotland and Ireland trip, with one driver and guide handing you off to the next.
Your Trip Arranged By Sheenco
- We are an Irish-owned travel specialist working only in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales.
- You communicate with one Sheenco Travel Specialist for your entire trip, with our Irish Support Team securing the best tables and seats along the way.
- Every driver and guide acts as your specialist on the ground, knowing the back roads, the timing of the light, and the places worth stopping that never make it onto a standard route.
- We’ve spent over a decade building direct relationships with private estates, distilleries, and golf clubs to secure access for our guests.
Let’s Build the Whole Trip
Tell us a little about when you’re hoping to travel and what matters most to you, and one of our specialists will reply personally with how we’d build this around the Royal Scotsman for you.
