Scotland to Greenland - 12 nights / 12 guests

Hop from Scotland to Greenland 1930s style, when the first pilots crossed the Atlantic one island at a time. We gather in Edinburgh, in the ancient heart of the Scottish capital, before setting off for points beyond. First the Faroes, a green dragonscape of blackened cliffs and sea caves we can sail into. There is a lake that seems to float above the ocean and dinner at a farmer’s table in a turf-roofed village. A short flight lands us in Iceland, where we super-jeep into the interior, into “Thor’s Valley”, to waterfalls, hot springs and glaciers dusted with volcanic ash, like a page out of Tolkien.

Then the eastern coast of Greenland, and a village where the sled dogs outnumber the people and icebergs crowd the harbour. Inuit hosts, whose families have hunted this coast for thousands of years, take us onto a glacier and into an ice cave beneath. From there, the aircraft climbs onto the ice sheet itself and lands at a Cold War spy station abandoned mid-shift in 1988. There are reading books still open and meals half-prepared. We come down among the icebergs of Ilulissat, and end at a camp deep in the Nuuk fjord that only a boat can reach. Twelve nights, four countries, each with its own stories, each landing wilder than the last.

Dates:  
Jun 1-13, 2027

Jun 12-24, 2027

Jul 12-24, 2027
Jul 24-Aug 5, 2027


Rates: Please inquire

Itinerary
Day 1: Edinburgh
The journey begins in the ancient heart of the Scottish capital. You’ll be met on arrival and taken to the Balmoral, at the east end of Princes Street, where the clock on the tower has run three minutes fast for a century so that no one misses their train. The afternoon is yours: the Royal Mile climbs from the palace to the castle through closes and courtyards, the Georgian New Town runs in order below it, and Arthur’s Seat stands over the whole thing for anyone who wants a view of where we’re going. In the evening we sit down together for the first time, at the Balmoral, for a welcome dinner from a Scottish kitchen: the fish and the beef the country does better than almost anywhere, and a whisky afterwards, to toast our journey. 1 night


Days 2-5: Faroe Islands
The aircraft leaves the Scottish coast behind and the next land is the Faroes, rising green and vertical out of the sea, a dragonscape of blackened cliffs with the Atlantic working away at their feet. You’ll walk out to the Drangarnir sea stacks, where a natural arch stands in the water off the western cliffs, and follow the cliff edge with the ocean far below.

In the village of Bøur, a farmer opens his house for lunch: lamb from the hillside, fish from the harbour, and a way of life that has barely moved in three hundred years. Another day begins under sail, to the island of Koltur, where the last residents tell the story of the place themselves, and the boat takes you into vast sea caves where the light comes green through the water. You can swim if you can stand it. On the third day you’ll kayak or hike to the lake that seems to float atop cliffs, high above the ocean, eat lunch outdoors, and end at a spa hidden in the hills before a long Faroese dinner, where the seafood is as good as any in the North Atlantic. 3 nights


Days 6-8: Iceland
A peninsula on Iceland’s west coast, with a glacier capped volcano at the end of it. Jules Verne sent his fictional travelers down through this mountain to the centre of the earth. Icelanders call it the country in miniature: lava, black beaches, waterfalls and hot springs in one long arm of land.

Iceland comes up out of the sea as a line of black rock and white ice, and the aircraft follows the coast in. You’ll spend the first day on the peninsula itself, under Snæfellsjökull: lava fields, a black-sand beach, basalt cliffs with the sea working at them, and a fishing village or two with a church painted black.

The next day goes inland and up, and the group chooses between two options in the interior. One is Þórsmörk, Thor’s Valley: a super-jeep built for the job fords the glacial rivers that keep everyone else out, into a hidden valley of moss-covered lava and braided riverbeds under the tongue of Eyjafjallajökull. Lunch is a barbecue in the valley, then a hike up Valahnúkur for the view and on to a waterfall you can walk behind. The other is the Highlands: a short flight into the empty centre of the island, a c rossing of black sand and open country in big-wheeled trucks, a walk along the rim of one of Iceland’s largest canyons, and a lava cave to climb into. The day ends in a hot waterfall, warm water falling out of the rock in the middle of nowhere. Either way, dinner is back at the lodge, cooked by a private chef from what Iceland does best: lamb that has grazed on wild thyme, fish from the cold water, and skyr for the end of it.

Days: 9-13: Greenland - Kulusuk, Ilulissat + Nuuk Fjord
The largest town in East Greenland has about two thousand people, and the only way in is by air or by sea. The mountains come straight down to the water, the icebergs crowd the tiny harbour, and the dogs are still working animals, grouped in teams along the shore. This coast is raw and largely unchanged, as is the community that calls it home.

The Denmark Strait is a long stretch of grey water, and then Greenland arrives all at once: mountains, ice, and a coast with no roads to interrupt it. We land at Kulusuk, on an island off the coast, and cross by boat to Tasiilaq, past icebergs that have come down from the north. Our hosts here are Inuit, whose families have hunted this coast for thousands of years, and they lead us through one of the most dramatic landscapes on earth.

This is the day the aircraft earns its keep. From the east coast we climb onto the high polar plateau, ice to the horizon in every direction, and land on it, at DYE-2, a Cold War spy station abruptly abandoned in 1988 and left exactly as it was. More than sixty people once lived here, listening for Soviet bombers coming over the pole. You’ll walk through the dome and the dormitories, past meals halfeaten, books left open, and blueprints of plans that no longer matter, all of it frozen in time.

The last flight brings us to Nuuk, a capital of about 20,000 people, where you’ll walk to the National Museum to see the mummies found at Qilakitsoq, five hundred years old and dressed for the cold, and have time in the town before our boat departs. Then across the fjord, and into total wildness.

* Please inquire for full itinerary, rates and bookings