Caledonian Sleeper

[Dfatcontroller]

That does sound a bit of a faff to me. A long while ago (25 years or more now) I did the sleeper to Fort William followed by the coach to Inverness and the sleeper back to London. Very doable if you can afford to do 2 sleeper journeys*. Plenty of scenery to look at plus you get to see Loch Ness (and see if the monster says 'hello'). And you get some time in either FW or Inverness for a look round.

* Of course this isn't possible if your travel north on a Friday night, but it might be possible to catch the last day train from Inverness and then stop off on route on your way back on day trains.

It is possible as I suggested spending the Saturday night in Inverness.

 

[najaB]

Or look around Aberdeen, train to Dundee, look around and pick up the CS from Dundee?

That's entirely feasible, but does have the downside of having to spend time in Dundee!

 

[norbitonflyer]

Bear in mind if it's scenery you want now is the wrong time of year. At present sunset in the Highlands is about 730pm and sunrise about 7 am (Aberdeen times about 15 minutes earler than Fort Wiilliam, Inverness somewhere in between) That means you will see no secenery southbound as all departures are after sunset. Northbound the sun will rise as you reach Loch Lomond, Dalwhinnie or Aberdeen, but the time of sunrise chages rapidly at this time of year and by December sunrise isn't until 9am so you won't see much at all except the run along the edge of the Monessie Gorge in Glen Spean, betweeen Tulloch and Roy Bridge.

Wait until June and sunset isn't until after 10pm, by which time the southbound portions will be crossing the Tay Bridge, or at or Dalwhinnie, or Loch Lomond, and it will still be twilight as you cross the Forth Bridge, or reach Perth or the Firth of Clyde

And northbound it will be rising before you even leave Edinburgh