Edinburgh, Inverness and Fort William with a nearly 4 yo

[ETsmum]

We are visiting Edinburgh, Inverness and Fort William (3 nights each) at the end of May/beginning of June. Would be interested to know the best things to do there with a nearly 4yo ds. Either recommendations for any leisure centres/soft play type places, or proper outings (already have Edinburgh zoo in mind )

We are driving between the 3 in the order listed, so also if there are any worthwhile places stopping off en route/any foolproof tips for 3 hrs in the car, please send them my way

can i add on this that there is a new park opened in the meadows in edinburgh which is FANTASTIC, well worth a trip to see it.

Thanks bluebubbles and sorry it took me so long to spot your message Is that the one on the east end? We have been working on our final list of things to do as hol is only a couple of weeks away

Seeing as this thread has been brought back to life (was going to start a new one) Castles please. Have Edinburgh and Urquhart....any others worth the visit? I'm thinking in/nr Inverness or Fort William as we don't have a car in Edinburgh and are a bit more limited (plus thanks to you lovely lot we already have so much to do, esp in Edinburgh.) Despite one or two of you saying Edinburgh castle is pricy, our ds loves exploring so any other castles would be excellent.

Just a little bump for my "castles" request.......

Hello ETsmum I am not very good on castles, but I wonder if Stirling would be any good? There must be people on here who would know. Pretty easy to get to, certainly. Or you could just stay in Waterstones

(amd wondering what this park is- I live right by there and haven't noticed it!)

Oh, here we go, it looks good

Craigmillar castle while you're in Edinburgh. I think you can get there by bus quite easily. Marina went recently I believe but she's not around atm.

How about staying in a castle? Carbisdale castle is part of the Scottish Youth Hostel Association and it not far north of Inverness. Staying overnight is cheap and they have a website here if you're interested.

HTH

We went to the Landmark place with DS (6) and was not ery impressed I'm afraid. It was dear for us all to get in & as we were there at Easter & it was sunny, it was packed. This meant 20-30 min queues & to be honest there wasnt that much to go on.
Water slide was a hit but may be too scary for a little one even with mum or dad, there is a climbing frame/slide thing, forest walks etc, he's too small for the climbing wall & rope walks - i'd say, save your money & go for a nice walk in a forest !

And there's not really much to see at Urquhart castle apart from the great views over Loch Ness.
A trip on the Nessie Hunter boat is very cheesy but has to be done !

Thanks all for your input - very much appreciated, and for the links Tamum and SisterofSoapbox (too late for this hol I'm afraid,but will def look into it for next time as it looks fantastic ) Off to look a bit further into Stirling and Craigmillar (think Srirling might have to be another hol, but Craigmillar def looks possible...) And Whizz, thanks as well, will not pin everyting on Landmark then and will see how it goes....already had in mind the trip on Loch Ness tho