Loch Tay Highland Lodge Park - Fun Days Out

Castle Menzies is a sixteenth-century Z-plan castle at Weem, near Aberfeldy. It was the seat of the chiefs of Clan Menzies for over 500 years and shows the shift from rugged Highland fortress to more comfortable mansion house. Bonnie Prince Charlie rested here on his way to Culloden, and Duleep Singh, last maharajah of the Sikh Empire, lived here in the 1850s.

Rescued as a ruin in 1957 and restored by the Menzies Clan Society, the castle is now owned and maintained by a separate charity, the Castle Menzies SCIO. You can explore the rooms at your own pace, watch a film about the castle's history, and visit the walled garden, tearoom and the nearby Old Kirk of Weem. Visitors have praised the Lego figure hunt for children and the chance to enter small spaces that are often roped off elsewhere.

Tip: There are steep stone steps, spiral staircases and uneven floors, so wear sensible shoes. The ground-floor film shows the upper floors if stairs are difficult.

Dewar's Aberfeldy Distillery stands on the eastern edge of Aberfeldy, on the southern bank of the River Tay. It is the only distillery built by the Dewar family, and it makes Aberfeldy Single Malt, the largest malt component in Dewar's blended Scotch. The water comes from the Pitilie Burn, which runs alongside the site.

Tours cover how the whisky is made and the Dewar family story, usually with a guided tasting of the blend and the single malt. Other options include a blending masterclass, where you make your own bottle to take home, and tastings of rarer, older whiskies. There is also a whisky bar, a shop, and a café in the restored former malting house. It suits whisky fans, and the signature tour is recommended for beginners. Drivers can ask for a takeaway gift instead of a dram.

Tip: If you're new to whisky, book the signature Dewar's Aberfeldy Experience, and leave time for the café before or after your tour.

Blair Castle, near Blair Atholl, has been the home of the Atholl family for centuries. Its 30 rooms show off fine 18th century interiors and Scots Baronial architecture, with collections of weapons, paintings, furniture and needlework. The story runs from medieval times to the present day, and takes in the Jacobite risings and a visit from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Outside, there is plenty to fill the rest of the day. The grounds include a nine-acre walled garden, a wooded grove with a ruined kirk, a gothic folly and a deer park. Families can use the woodland adventure playgrounds, collect free activity sheets, and dress up in the ballroom. History fans and garden lovers will enjoy it just as much as children do.

Tip: Buying tickets online in advance is cheaper than at the ticket office, which takes card payments only. If you want to see the red deer feeding, call ahead to check days and times.

Blair Athol is a Highland single malt Scotch whisky distillery on the south edge of Pitlochry in Perthshire, close to the River Tummel. It takes its water from the Allt Dour burn, which gave the distillery its first name, Aldour.

Its story goes back to the 1790s. It closed soon after opening, reopened in the 1820s and changed hands several times over the following decades. It closed again in the 1930s, and Arthur Bell and Sons bought the mothballed site and rebuilt it, reopening it in the late 1940s. Two more stills were added in the 1970s, taking the total to four. Diageo came to own it through a merger in the 1990s.

Doune Castle is a medieval stronghold on a wooded bend where the Ardoch Burn meets the River Teith, about 8 miles northwest of Stirling. The earliest identifiable work dates from the 13th century, but it took its present form between 1375 and 1425, when Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany and Regent of Scotland, rebuilt it. It has survived relatively unchanged and complete, and is now looked after by Historic Environment Scotland.

Inside, you can see the large tower house over the entrance, which held the rooms of the Lord and his family, and the separate kitchen and guest tower. The great hall links the two. Mary, Queen of Scots stayed here several times, in the rooms above the kitchen. It suits anyone who enjoys medieval architecture and Scottish history, and it makes an easy stop on a trip towards Callander and the edge of the Trossachs.

St Conan's Kirk stands in the village of Loch Awe in Argyll and Bute. Designed by Walter Douglas Campbell, it was built in the 1880s, extended in the early 1900s and consecrated in 1930. It is a category A listed building, and a 2016 Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland public poll placed it among the Top 10 Scottish buildings of the last 100 years.

Inside, the style mixes church designs from ancient Roman to Norman, all in local stone. Look for the chancel arch piers, made from large granite boulders from Ben Cruachan, and the oak beams in the cloister, believed to come from the broken-up warships HMS Caledonia and HMS Duke of Wellington. There are three chapels, including the Bruce Chapel with its carved wood and alabaster effigy of Robert the Bruce. The Kirk also holds a bone fragment said to be from the king. St Conan's Tower is half a mile away.

Tip: St Conan's Tower is only half a mile away, so you can see both in one outing.