Slightly under 700 miles, MINIMUM of 15 hours of non-stop driving if you did the full circuit

It's also a major public holiday on the 27th with many people taking the full week to enjoy the end of what is laughingly known as summer.

I know I shouldn't ask - but what is the remaining 10 days like

A hard look a what would be ahead. The earlier days includes two days in Edinburgh, two days in Perthshire, three in Inverness, and two in Skye. Great to know about the holiday on the 27th. Thanks for the tip.

I suggest you use www.theaa.com/route-planner for tracking distances and travel times. With all that Scotland has to offer, I wonder why one would even consider traveling that far south. If you only have four extra days, I would spend them somewhere in the Highlands. How long were you planning to spend on Skye? Two weeks to cover Edinburgh, Inverness and Skye areas really isn't that long.

Apparently we were posting at the same time. You are really short-changing Edinburgh and Skye and all that's in between. As for Inverness,the surrounding area has enough to keep you busy for a couple of days but not the town itself.

Thanks, historytraveler. You are persuading me to add an extra day to Skye and perhaps an extra day in Edinburgh. That would leave two nights somewhere in between, perhaps Trossachs. We decided on three days in Inverness so as to be able to branch out from there.

"We decided on three days in Inverness " 3 days near Inverness would be great, 3 days in Inverness- not so much. Have you already booked? If not, I'd look for someplace 10-15 miles east or west of the city - not in the city.

The aa route planner is terrific (my favorite of the on-line calculators). But you'll need to add 25% - 50% to most drive times, and sometimes more.

As for adding an extra day to Edinburgh, which is a good idea, -- if you are thinking of doing that contact your hotel/B&B as soon as possible. Edinburgh is is very crowded in August and accommodations fill up early.

You don't really have time for the Lakes or York - I'd add at least another day on Skye - 2nights there only nets you about 1.5 days on the island.

Then you could add 1 or 2 days in the Oban/Kilmartin/Inveraray area, and the last 1 or 2 days near Callander in the Trossachs.

janisj ... more very helpful comments. We'll just have to return to the UK for another visit in future! Appreciate it.

I'm assuming you've already booked your accommodation in Edinburgh as it's somewhat busy there in August - especially over the last weekend from the 24th to 27th August.