Nope! Everyone will be staying on site at Achnagairn on Wednesday and Thursday. Guests will be assigned rooms and prompted via email to pay for their rooms once all RSVPs have been received. Room costs will vary depending on size and location on the Castle grounds, but guests should expect to pay roughly $200 per night, which includes breakfast. If you would like to stay in Inverness for additional nights before or after the wedding, we recommend checking on AirBnB for available options.
No, there are no US airports that offer direct flights to Inverness; most will require a connection in London or other major city in UK / Ireland. Depending on your itinerary, it may be cheaper to book a roundtrip flight to London and then book any local UK flights or trains (e.g, London to/from Inverness, London to/from Edinburgh) separately. You can also try the “multi-city” option on Google Flights to book a roundtrip flight that returns home from a different airport (e.g., departing flight from the US to Inverness and return flight from Edinburgh to US). Using this multi-city option will be cheaper than booking the two legs of the journey separately. Note that there are several airports in London (Heathrow, Luton, Gatwick, Stansted), which may all offer domestic flights to Inverness, including on some budget airlines with cheaper options. All airports are located within about 60-90 mins of each other and can be accessed via public transport, but be sure to leave adequate time (at least 4-5 hours) between flights if you plan on connecting from a different airport.
Yes - this is important! Effective January 8th, 2025, American citizens traveling to the UK will need to pay a small fee ($13 per person) as part of the UK’s expanding Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) program establishing new UK travel requirements for visitors: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/uk-electronic-travel-authorisation-eta-visa-entry-cost-b2610815.html. Guests will need to apply online for the ETA (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-an-electronic-travel-authorisation-eta) before traveling to the UK in July 2025. Approval should be granted within 72-hours and the ETA is valid for multiple entries to the UK over 2 years.
Achnagairn is easily accessible by bus, car, or taxi. The taxi ride from Inverness airport will take just over a half-hour. Taxis can easily be hailed directly outside the main airport doors (note: the airport is incredibly small and easy to navigate). For those that will be in Inverness in advance of the wedding, we recommend taking the #28 bus toward Dingwall from the Inverness bus station on Margaret Street. You’ll hop off at the Kirkhill Post Office stop and take a short walk (~10 minutes) to the Castle. If the weather is bad, we recommend simply taking a taxi.
No, renting a car is not necessary. Achnagairn is easily accessible by bus and taxi, and taxi services on the day we check out and depart (Friday, July 11) can be arranged in advance. If you do rent a car, parking is available and free on site. Please let us know in advance if you plan to bring a car to the Castle.
Yes, children are welcome and should be listed on your RSVP. Please be sure to indicate who within your family is attending for planning purposes. There will be several young children in attendance (including our own!), so we plan to bring in professional creche services recommended by Achnagairn that can help care for the young children within a dedicated room in the Castle during certain hours of the evening. If you are interested in childcare for your child(ren), please reach out to us directly, as we will need to have a precise headcount when hiring these childcare services.
Wednesday July 9: Dinner and drinks, starting at 5:30pm Thursday July 10: Breakfast, appetizers for lunch, Wedding Breakfast (yes, it’s different than the breakfast you’ll eat in the morning), and evening snacks. Friday July 11: Breakfast in the morning before check-out and departure. We will also be stocking the Castle and Manors with snacks and other food items that you can help yourself to in between meals. We won’t let you go hungry! If there are specific foods or drinks you’d like to bring (i.e., food for children), you’re welcome to do so and store them in the communal Castle refrigerator or the refrigerators in the Manors.
We recommend booking your travel and paying for the ETA between February and April. There are always plenty of flights to the UK, but prices will fluctuate and be higher for flights in the summer since that is high season for tourism in the UK. We recommend setting up travel alerts if you’re hunting for a good deal. This is a friendly reminder that you do NOT need to book hotel accommodation for the wedding, but it would be advisable to book hotels in other cities well in advance if you’re planning on other travels in the UK.
If you have an extra day before or after the wedding events in Inverness, we recommend considering the following options of activities in or near Inverness: Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle tour with Jacobite Cruises: Loch Ness is one of the most iconic locations in Scotland and is less than 30-mins away from city center by car or bus. The boat tour will teach you all about the legend and history of the Loch Ness Monster and will then drop you off at the ancient ruins of Urquhart Castle. We recommend the following tour company: https://www.jacobite.co.uk/. The tour takes about 4 hours and begins and ends at the Inverness bus station on Margaret Street. Isle of Skye: If you are interested in venturing further out, we recommend visiting Isle of Skye, which is the largest and northernmost island in Scotland with stunning landscapes and medieval castles. There are 12-hour Isle of Skye tours from Inverness, as well as multiple different tours for castle enthusiasts. Clava Clairns: Any Outlander fans? If so, Clava Cairns is prehistoric burial site dating back over 4,000 years where the circle of stone monuments are located that transport Claire back in time in the show. Culloden Battlefield: This battlefield is a short 15-min drive from city center and was the final site of the last and most harrowing battle of the Jacobite rising that impacted the future of life in the Highlands. Explore Downtown Inverness: There are a lot of quaint restaurants and bars in Inverness, as well as the the Victorian Market (which dates back to 1890) where you can visit shops and find various food options. Visit Beauly: Beauly is a lovely village west of Kirkhill near Achnagairn that we also strongly recommend a visit there if you have time. See the answer to the final FAQ for more information on Beauty!
No, there is no Uber / Lyft in Inverness at this time. During the day, the taxi services are easily accessible and reliable. We also found the bus system that starts from the Inverness Bus Station on Margaret Street to be very easy to navigate.
While it is never a bad thing to have a few quid on hand, we found that virtually every transaction can be done by chip-and-pin credit card in Inverness and the surrounding areas. Taxis and bus fares can both be purchased with credit cards. Restaurants, coffee shops, and local stores all accept credit cards. American Express is NOT always accepted, so bring your Visa/Mastercard to be safe!
If you arrive to Inverness airport with a few hours to spare before check-in, we recommend one of two things: Take a taxi and spend some in Beauly, just west and slightly north of Achnagairn. It is a stunningly beautiful and charming village that has some lovely shops and few great places for coffee, tea, and some lunch. We enjoyed our time in Beauly immensely, and we would have stayed longer if we had the chance! To get to Achnagairn from Beauly, take the #28 bus toward Inverness and hop off at the Kirkhill Post Office stop. Achnagairn is a short walk (~10 minutes) from there. Taxi to Inverness and stroll in and around the Victorian Market. The area north and west of the Market toward and along the River Ness has many attractions and options for food. We recommend a visit to Leakey’s Bookshop and Perk Coffee + Donuts. That area will keep you close to the Inverness Bus Station where you can take the #28 bus toward Dingwall and walk to the Castle after hopping off at the Kirkhill Post Office stop.