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Your itinerary is pretty difficult. you really only have 1 day in Yorkshire so will really only have time for one or maybe 2 of your list. And the fabulous sites like Fountains Abbey, Castle Howard and York itself are off the list entirely.

Is the week on Skye set in stone? Are you renting a cottage that requires a fulll week? If not, I'd consider maybe 4 or 5 days on Skye and add the extra time to your journey south.

If the week is firmly set - And you want to visit Woodstock - I'd probably not go through Stirling at all. I'd get an early start off Skye and head south. It will be a long drive but totally doable to go all the way to the Lake District from Skye. It is just a bit over 200 miles from Mallaig to Penrith - and maybe 5 - 6 hours drive time.

Then you could spend the next day exploring the Dales and the day after for the Moors railway/Whitby.

Something like:

Sat - Skye > Penrith or somewhere in that general area

Sun - explore the Dales

Mon - more of Yorkshire

Tues - Yorkshire > Woodstock/Oxford

Wed - Oxfordshire > LHR

(But like I said - if you can cut back on your time on Skye it would make the rest of your itinerary a lot easier)

We spent about a week in Yorkshire last spring, 4 nights in Richmond and 3 nights in York itself. We stayed in a great B&B in Richmond, Millgate House (www.millgatehouse.com). This place gets rave reviews in tripadvisor; ask for room 1.

Richmond is a very cute and interesting town, with its own castle and a nice walk down to the river. We made daytrips to Durham (love the cathedral and the view of it from the river), and to Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal and we stopped at Castle Howard on our way into York.

I'm not sure how much time you will have. Perhaps not enough time for the railway. Maybe you can research the options and make the decision at the time depending on how much time you have -- and what the weather's like.

Actually, on further thought, we did a similar trip, but we flew into Glasgow (via Heathrow; didn't cost much more than just to Heathrow), did a driving trip in Scotland and northern England, finished up with a week in London. Have you considered this order of travel? I think it's more efficient and might give you a little more time.

I can recommend a B&B to the north east of York, near Castle Howard and not far from Eden Camp. My wife and I went over there April 2006 for a weekend break; it's called Low Penhowe, a 5* B&B in the countryside (the last couple of miles are down a narrow, single track country lane). The accommodation was great and the hosts, Chris and Philippa, were excellent. For example, they booked us a table at a nearby pub/restaurant on the Saturday night, and then Chris – unprompted - drove us there, dropped us off, collected us after the meal and took us back, so we could have a drink or two. We ate at the Blacksmiths Inn, but there are several others nearby which came well-recommended. Our room was good – we didn’t have an ensuite room (they were booked up), but we had a private bathroom just across the hallway, without any issues - and the breakfast great. Overall it was a great place to stay - and less than 5 miles from Castle Howard. See more at www.bedandbreakfastyorkshire.co.uk

Yorkshire and the Dales are amongst my favourite areas on the planet and need a few weeks to explore. Time constraints are rather limiting, I know, but please make sure you do a Yorkshire trip in the future!

Since you are driving from Scotland south toward Yorkshire and eventually London I would encourage you to think about visiting Hadrian's wall on your way.

We are committed for our first week in London and then a week on Skye but will consider taking the Penrith route when we head south. I am eager to look into all the suggestions for sights and places to stay and to eat. Next trip we will do a whole week in Yorkshire! Thank you all so much!