When is the trip?

>>go to Fort William<< . . . No need to 'go' to Ft William - 1) there is no'there' there, and 2) you will drive right through it on your way to Skye.

Here is a way to see your 'wish list' w/ mostly 2 night stops: The drive from GLA through Glencoe to Skye via the Mallaig ferry takes 4.5 to 5 hours so if you have an early flight into GLA you can spend time in Glencoe and at Glenfinnan and get to Skye by late afternoon/early evening.

Spend 2 nights on Skye. Next day take the bridge off Skye - see Eilean Donan (no need to go inside), up along Loch Ness and visit Urquhart Castle. Stay 2 nights in the Inverness area (not IN the city). Visit Culloden, Clava Cairns, maybe Cawdor Castle or Ft George.

Then head south down the A9 - stop at Blair Castle and maybe Scone Palace. Jog west to Stirling and spend the night in the area (Doune/Stirling/Callander). First thing the next morning visit Stirling Castle. Drive to EDI, drop the car and take the airport coach into Edinburgh. Stay 2 nights, fly out.

For the time you have, I don't think you can do better than Janis's suggestion.

If I were coming from the States, I would tend to spend the first day/night in Glasgow to shake off jetlag and cut a day from Inverness, but since you will be coming from Ireland, I think hers will work well.

Time of year matters a lot, though.

Thanks JanisJ!

We'll be there the first week in June. I think we'd like to stay three nights on Skye, and we will have just been driving all around Ireland for a week. Would you recommend Loch Ness and the sights around Inverness above taking our time elsewhere, like in Edinburgh? Or perhaps a night in a part of the highlands closer to Skye with less driving? I'm going off of my historical interests, but realistically, I'm afraid of fatigue!

Three nights on Skye is great. And in June it will be light til VERY late (like til almost 11PM - sunset a bit after 10PM). So you'll be able to tour around the island until quite late.

>>Or perhaps a night in a part of the highlands closer to Skye with less driving?<<

The problem is Skye is stuck out there on the far west coast and nothing is 'closer' that is in any way convenient to getting down to Edinburgh. You really either have to go via Inverness, or back sort of the way you came.

If you want to skip Culloden, you can take the bridge off the island past Eilean Donan, back down through Ft William/Glencoe and then through the Trossachs. This is a gorgeous part of the country w/ lots of lochs/waterfalls/etc. A short detour to see Killin/the Falls of Dochart and stay the night in the same Doune/Stirling/Callander area. Callander is good. Broadford on Skye to Stirling/Callander will take 4.5 to 5 hours plus stops. But part of the route will be re-tracing -not a bad thing necessarily. Because of the changeable weather -- two shots at Glencoe/etc is a good thing

I'd still stay the last 2 nights in Edinburgh-that will only net you a bit over 1 day.

We liked Dunrobin Castle north of Inverness a LOT - looks great, outstanding grounds, interesting exhibitions too. http://www.dunrobincastle.co.uk/. No Shakespearean tie-in, but it's a castle-lover's castle. If you want to go to the tip of Britain, the Castle of Mey (vacation home of the Queen Mum) is further north.

Glenmorangie Distillery (#1 selling single malt scotch in Scotland) is on the way to Dunrobin from Inverness.

Culloden is interesting to an extent but it's like all battlefields - mostly foliage with signs (here's where THIS happened, here's where THIS happened).

Blair Castle is very nice to visit on the A9 heading to Edinburgh (see spelling, it just sounds like Edinborough). You'll pass Dalwhinnie Distillery, the highest in Scotland on the way (someone has to look out for your boy's interests).

I'd try to figure out how to stretch the time in Edinburgh and add a night. Scotland > Ireland; Edinburgh > Dublin and the latter's not a close call. If you're going in August, make your accommodation arrangements RIGHT NOW. Edinburgh is festival world in August and swells to about 3x its normal size.