Tain is a town in Easter Ross in the Scottish Highlands, with a population of 3570 in 2020. It's on the coast 40 miles north of Inverness on the A9 and the railway line to Thurso. In Gaelic it's Baile Dhubhthaich, the town of St Duthus. It mostly grew up in Victorian times and has changed little since then. Its main attraction for visitors is the Glenmorangie distillery.

Get in

By train: Six trains run M-Sa from Inverness, taking 70-80 min via Dingwall, Alness, Invergordon and Fearn. Four of them continue north from Tain to Lairg, Golspie (for Dunrobin Castle), Brora, Helmsdale, Thurso and Wick. Sunday has four trains, only one continuing north.

1 Tain railway station is just east of town centre. It's a platform halt with no ticket office or machines, buy your ticket on board if you start from here. No toilets, but see below for the restaurant. There is level access to Platform 2 (northbound from Inverness) and a ramp to Platform 1.

By bus: Stagecoach Highlands Bus 25X runs from Inverness to Tain via Invergordon. It runs hourly M-Sa taking 75 min; only four buses on Sunday. No bus station, the bus stops are along High Street.

Stagecoach X99 from Inverness to Wick and Thurso also stops at Tain.

Get around

You can walk between town and distillery. That's probably a good plan all round.

Nigg - Cromarty Ferry sails across the mouth of Cromarty Firth Apr-Sept daily every 30 min. In 2022 fares are car + driver £9.50, foot passenger £4.50, and £1 per bicycle.

See

• 1 Tain Museum, Castle Brae IV19 1AJ, ☏ +44 1862 894089. Apr-Oct: Tu-F 10AM-4PM. Volunteer-run museum in a former church. Adult £3.50, conc or child £2.50. (updated Aug 2022)
• 2 Ferry Point is the breezy spit where the ferry used to cross the Dornoch Firth. On 16 Aug 1809 the ferry was overcrowded with people flocking to the fair at Tain: it capsized and 99 were drowned. In 1812 a bridge was built upriver at Bonar Bridge, but it was a longer way round and the ferry continued to sail until 1957. In 1991 the Dornoch Bridge opened and took A9 a shorter route. You can drive up the lane to the Point but it's very narrow. No parking area, pull onto the grass verge and don't obstruct the passing place.
• 3 Edderton village has the Balblair whisky distillery, an old church with a Pictish stone, and Clach Biorach a Bronze Age monument with Pictish carvings.
• 4 Fearn Abbey is mostly from 1772 but retains parts of a Premonstratensian monastery of 1238. The order was suppressed in 1609 but the church continued in use until 1742, when they prayed so hard that the roof fell in and killed fifty of the congregation. A new church was built adjacent and that too fell into ruin by 1770. Nothing daunted, they rebuilt on the site of the first collapse, and this is the version you see now, still in use as a Church of Scotland.
• 5 Balintore is the largest of a string of three coastal villages 6 miles southeast of Tain. "Mermaid of the North" is a waif-cum-snake perched on a rock, awash at high tide. The 2007 original lasted five years, good going for a piece of wood in a rough sea, and was replaced in 2014 by a bronze version. Shandwick Stone southwest of Balintore is Pictish, from 780 AD, and nowadays protected by a glass case (as much against frost as vandals). Hilton of Cadboll Stone to the northeast is a magnificently carved Pictish stone of similar date, but the original is now in the National Museum in Edinburgh, with a replica on site.

Glenmorangie Distillery

• 6 Portmahomack ten miles east is a small fishing village, with an attractive harbour, and St Colmóc's Church which now houses the museum open daily Apr-Oct. This itself became a museum piece when the structure was found to be from the 9th century. It's on the site of a Pictish monastery, destroyed by Vikings in 800 AD, and the church was built over the ruin.
• 7 Tarbat Ness Lighthouse was built by Robert Stevenson in 1830. It's 53 m (174 ft) tall, with a range of 24 nautical miles (28 miles, 44 km), automated in 1985 and still active. The keepers from time to time noted eathquakes: this coast is the northern continuation of the Great Glen Fault, which cleaves from Shetland through Loch Ness to Donegal.
• 8 Nigg is a tiny village near the historic ferry crossing over Cromarty Firth. Nigg Bay has a bird reserve, but there's a lot of industry based on North Sea oil and gas. Nigg Stone, a finely carved 8th-century Pictish slab, is now kept within th 18th century church. No-one has felt the need to do this with the Cholera Stone out in the graveyard: during the terrible epidemic of 1832 an elder coming out of church saw a puff of mist which he took to be cholera, threw a blanket over it then a stone to keep the cholera pinned there.

Do

Replica of Hilton of Cadboll Stone

• Duthac Centre stages live shows.
• 1 Glenmorangie Distillery (on A9 a mile north of town), ☏ +44 1862 892477. M-F 10AM-5PM, Sa (+Su Jun-Aug) 10AM-4PM. This distillery (say "Glen-MORR-anjee", not "Glenmorr-ANJEE") produces 6 million litres of Scotch whisky per year, sold as single malt and not blended. (Their blend, Glen Moray, was hived off in 2009.) It's one of the smoothest single malts, so if you find classic Speyside whiskies a tad heavy then do try this. Limited numbers for tours so booking is recommended. In April the distillery goes offline for maintenance: limited tours (free) are still available. The firm also runs Ardbeg distillery on Islay. Standard tour £8, Signet tour £35. (updated Feb 2019)
• Golf: Tain GC is on Chapel Rd east of the railway station. White tees 6109 yards, par 70, visitor round £50-£70.
• Tain Highland Gathering is held at Glenmorangie Ground just north of the village, with the next on Su 11 Aug 2024.

Dornoch Highland Games are next held on Friday 2 Aug 2024.

Buy

• Tesco in town centre is open daily 8AM-10PM.
• Asda south edge of town (jcn of A9 and B9174) is open daily 7AM-11PM and has a filling station.
• ATMs are outside the High St banks and supermarkets, and so they should be, because the inventor of the world's first ATM lived in nearby Portmahomack. John Shepherd-Barron (1925–2010) devised the Barclay cash dispenser, first installed in Enfield, London in June 1967. Withdrawals were limited to £10 as that was "quite enough for a wild weekend". However the system was ponderous, needing the insertion of radioactive cheque-like tokens, and was quickly superseded by those using a magnetic bank card plus PIN.

Eat

• Sunflowers Cafe on High St is open M-Sa 10AM-2:30PM, Su 10AM-12:30PM.
• Green's on High St is open lunchtime Tu-Sa, evening meals Th-Sa.
• Platform 1864, Station Rd IV19 1JA, ☏ +44 1862 894181. M-Sa 10AM-2:30PM, 5-8:30PM, Su 10AM-6PM. Great reviews for this restaurant in the old station building. (updated Aug 2022)

Drink

• St Duthus Hotel is your best option. Star Inn and Archways are a mite drouthy.
• Local whisky: Glen Morangie is not the only distillery hereabouts, there's one in Edderton, one in Invergordon and two in Alness.
• Sutors Gin at Loandhu also makes vodka and, er, hand sanitiser.

Sleep

Tain Pipe Band on parade

• 1 Dornoch Firth Caravan Park, Meikle Ferry South, IV19 1JX, ☏ +44 1862 892292. Open all year, this has static caravans and pitches for visiting caravans and tents. Tent £15, caravan £28. (updated Aug 2022)
• 2 Royal Hotel, High Street IV19 1AB, ☏ +44 1862 892013. Trad town centre 3-star hotel with 25 rooms. Pet friendly. With restaurant, lunch dinner & Sunday carvery. B&B double £110. (updated Aug 2022)
• St Duthus Hotel nearby on High St may have rooms but is mostly an eating place.
• 3 Morangie Hotel, Morangie Rd IV19 1PY, ☏ +44 1862 892281. Victorian mansion with 26 rooms north end of town. B&B double £170. (updated Aug 2022)
• 4 Mansfield Castle, Scotsburn Rd IV19 1PS, ☏ +44 1862 892052. Comfy spacious Victorian mansion with a few cod-castellations. B&B double £150. (updated Aug 2022)

Connect

As of July 2022, Tain and the A9 have 4G from EE and O2, and a basic mobile signal from Three and Vodafone. 5G has not reached this area.

Go next

• North you cross into Sutherland towards Dunrobin Castle, Helmsdale, Wick and Thurso.
• West inland via Bonar Bridge the roads lead out to the wild northwest coast.
• South is the gentler country of Black Isle, and A9 brings you into Inverness.
• North Coast 500 is a motoring itinerary looping from Inverness through Ullapool, Thurso and Tain.

Routes through Tain

Thurso ← Helmsdale ←

N  SW

→ Invergordon → Inverness