Travel Information

Information about how to get to Highland 2015 and travelling around when you are here.

Last edited: 29th Jul

How to get here

By Air

Although there is an airport in Inverness, this mainly handles UK flights. There are daily flights from Birmingham, Bristol, Belfast and the London airports of Gatwick and Luton. There are also international flights from Amsterdam and Dusseldorf. Details about these flights can be obtained on Easyjet, Flybe and the Highlands and Islands websites.

Most people travelling from Europe will however find it better to fly into either Edinburgh or Glasgow airports, where there are regular flights to many European destinations. These airports are a 3-4hour drive (depending on the traffic) away from Inverness, and there are also bus and train services connecting them with Inverness. There are also some flights into Aberdeen airport, particularly from Scandinavia. Aberdeen is about 2 hours' drive from Inverness.

Overseas visitors, including some European participants, may wish to arrive through one of the London airports (Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and City Airport) and then continue their journey by a further flight, train, bus or car.

For those travelling from the World Masters Orienteering Championships, there are plans to arrange a charter flight from Gothenburg to Inverness on Saturday 1 August.
See this news item for more details.
Other options are SAS flights from Copenhagen to Aberdeen via Frankfurt on Saturday 1 August, or British Airways flights from Gothenburg to Aberdeen via Heathrow on Saturday 1 / Sunday 2 August. Please see this news item for more information.

By Rail

There are trains to Inverness from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen as well as a train service from London. Details can be obtained from Scotrail (http://www.scotrail.co.uk), East Coast (http://www.eastcoast.co.uk) and Network Rail (http://www.networkrail.co.uk).

By Road

The A9 connects Inverness with Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital, and Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city. This is a very busy road in the holiday season and therefore although the journey can take as little as 3 hours, in the height of the season up to 4 hours should be allowed. Inverness is linked to Aberdeen to the east by the A96.

Scottish Citylink (http://www.citylink.co.uk) and National Express (http://www.nationalexpress.com) run coach services from Scotland’s main cities and the rest of the UK. There are also plenty of opportunities to hire a car.

By Sea

For participants who wish to bring their own car, apart from the channel ferries there are also ferry services between Amsterdam and Newcastle and Hull and Rotterdam and Zeebrugge. Both Newcastle and Hull are in the north of England and therefore save a long journey from the south of England.

The ferry service between Rosyth (just north of Edinburgh) and Zeebrugge is now a freight-only service.

When you are here

Travel to events

If you drive to events please follow the travel specific directions to reach each event. There may be other possible routes but those given are the routes agreed with local police and other relevant official bodies.

A bus service will be available to competitors and spectators as a package that covers transport to and from events, from Saturday 1 August to Saturday 8 August. A detailed timetable, including pick up and drop off points, has been published. It is anticipated that this package will be popular, so that we will be able to run a regular shuttle service. The cost is £65 for adults, £20 for children and students. The bus package can be booked through the online entry system. ~~Subject to availability, there may be limited spaces on buses bookable at the event.~~

We are afraid that there are now no more bus passes available to purchase for travel to and from the events. The full capacity of buses has now been reached with those competitors who pre-booked through the on-line booking system.

Buses will run from the Campsite and Event Centre, in addition to a pick up point near the hotels and hostel on the east side of Inverness. Detailed timetables for each day will depend on whether the events are located east of Inverness (Nairn, Forres, Achagour and Darnaway), or west (Glen Strathfarrar and Glen Affric). Buses en route to Forres, Achagour and Darnaway will also have a pickup point in Nairn. If there is sufficient demand, there may be a limited bus service starting in Forres for all days.

The buses on Saturday 1 August will transport orienteers to the Opening Ceremony and WOC Sprint Relay in Nairn, with transport returning after the Open Sprint Race.
On Sunday 2 August, there will be transport to Achagour for Day 1, and afterwards buses will take competitors back to Inverness, or to the WOC Sprint Final in Forres with a return service to Inverness afterwards.
On Day 2 (Monday 3 August) and Days 3 to 6 (Wednesday 5 August to Saturday 8 August), the bus service will operate to and from the event areas; this includes the days when the WOC Relay and WOC Long Distance Race are being staged.
On Tuesday 4 August, there will be an Open Sprint race in Forres. Transport will be available to take competitors to this race and onwards to Darnaway for the WOC Middle Distance race. Buses will also run directly to Darnaway for the Highland O-Fest, with many different activities and attractions on offer. Return transport will be available from Darnaway.

We hope as many orienteers as possible will take advantage of this package, reducing the number of cars and helping to decrease the environmental impact of the event.

If you book travel on the event buses, please put BUS in the "Club for Entry Block" space onthe entry form. This will ensure that you are allocated a start block which fits with the departure times of the event buses.

Trains - Scotrail timetable for Inverness-Nairn-Forres (Inverness-Abredeen line)