Nelson

We were at Dunnottar some years back in mid-July. If you stood just to the left of the men's loo and looked over the cliff, there were a few puffins perched there!
We also saw some floating in and flying around the bay to north of the castle.

Photo showing approximate location:

Kristina

Janisj- thanks for the recommendation. The food looks good at the Marine Hotel.

Nelson- very cool about the Puffins! We were too late to see them last year on Staffa Island off Mull so it would be great to see them this time.

Kristina

So...plans have changed somewhat, but isn't always what happens? As it turns out, it doesn't work for us to visit family at the end of the trip, so we're changing the itinerary and flipping it around.

This is where I'm at now, and I've got some holes to fill or days to move:

Day 1: Arrive LHR 10:05 am, go to Winchester. Overnight in Winchester
Day 2: AM and afternoon in Winchester. Go to London in afternoon. Overnight train to Inverness, departs Euston around 9 pm
Day 3: Arrive Inverness, pick up rental car, go to Dornoch (yes, we still want to stay in a castle)
Day 4: Drive up coast to Wick or John o Groats? Stay somewhere in area.(this is a somewhat open day, the original plan was to drive from Tongue to Dornoch in one day so we could do still do that, but skipping the coastal route?).
Day 5 & 6: Drive to Tongue. Explore area, stay 2 nights
Day 7: Open day? Stop/stay where? Or drive to Ullapool and put this day elsewhere like Aberdeenshire?
Day 8 & 9: Drive to Ullapool (or elsewhere?). Stay 2 nights
Day 10 & 11: Drive to Speyside area, stay 2 nights
Day 12: Drive through Aberdeenshire, stay somewhere close(ish) to Aberdeen airport. Thinking Stonehaven (looks cute and then we can still see Dunnotar Castle)
Day 13: Fly to Heathrow in afternoon (4pm) and stay in airport hotel
Day 14: return home 9am flight

Here's the latest version of the map: https://goo.gl/maps/rZ7sANTg6at

janisj

>>Day 4: Drive up coast to Wick or John o Groats?<<

I wouldn't . . . John o"Groats isn't all that much. I'd use that time to go NW and West (Durness, Ullapool, Poolewe -- sort of Gardyloo's original map up top). The loop up to John o'Groats/Wick is a LOT of driving for mainly some interesting neolithic sites and not that great of scenery. Cutting that frees up 1+ day to allocate to the west coast/Aberdeenshire/wherever.

Kristina

Janisj- Point taken. I'll admit the allure of "doing the North Coast 500" is great, though since we would not actually be doing all of it anyway (we cut off the lower west area and over 100 miles in our current configuration), maybe the goal is missed anyway. I did think the coastal scenery would be nice though. It's not?

janisj

IMO the coastal scenery is MUCH better over on the West coast -- not up the A99 which mostly is pretty bleak/flat/uninteresting. This video shows a lot of what it looks like.


The west coast on the other hand is amazing.

Kristina

Has anyone picked up a rental car in Inverness at the Rail station? I'm aware that via Hertz at least, cars are not actually picked up at the station, but rather at the airport location. One is supposed to call the local site and let them know you are arriving and they will take you to the airport location. How much of a hassle is this? Unfortunately, Hertz has the best price through AutoEurope.
Are there any car rental agencies which actually have cars onsite at the station?

Kristina

Hmmm...perhaps I should ask the Inverness car rental question in a seperate post.

Revised itinerary with questions:
Day 1: Arrive LHR 10:05 am, go to Winchester. Overnight in Winchester
Day 2: AM and afternoon in Winchester. Go to London in afternoon. Overnight train to Inverness, departs Euston around 9 pm
Day 3: Arrive Inverness, pick up rental car, go to Dornoch (yes, we still want to stay in a castle)
Day 4 & 5: Drive to Tongue. Explore area, stay 2 nights
Days 6, 7 & 8: Drive down West Coast to Ullapool (or elsewhere?). How/where to split 3 nights? Not sure we can find accomodation in Ullapool. Much is already booked so we are open to other options for days 6, 7, & 8.
Day 9, 10 & 11: Drive to Speyside/Aberdeenshire area, stay 3 nights. Where? does not have to be same place for all 3 nights, but can be. Been looking at the Dufftown and Craigellachie area. Could split 2 nights here and 2 nights in Aberdeenshire, including day 12.
Day 12: Drive through Aberdeenshire, stay somewhere close(ish) to Aberdeen airport. Thinking Stonehaven (looks cute and then we can still see Dunnotar Castle)
Day 13: Fly to Heathrow in afternoon (4pm) and stay in airport hotel
Day 14: return home 9am flight

janisj

I have no idea, the only time I've collected a car in Inverness was at the airport. Why not phone Autoeurope and ask them - they would know who if any have cars at the station.

Kristina

Janisj (or anyone else), any thoughts on how/where to break up the time in days 6-8 and 9-11? Any northern west coast highlights not to miss? Great places to stay?

Kristina

Ok, things are firming up. Here's where we're at now:

Day 1: Arrive LHR 10:05 am, go to Winchester. Overnight in Winchester
Day 2: AM and afternoon in Winchester. Go to London in afternoon. Overnight train to Inverness, departs Euston around 9 pm
Day 3: Arrive Inverness, pick up rental car, go to Dornoch (reservations, 1 night)
Day 4 & 5: Drive to Tongue. Explore area, (reservations 2 nights)
Days 6 & 7 Drive down West Coast to Ullapool (reservations 2 nights)
Days 8, 9, 10 & 11: This is where we are still wide open. We could add one more night to the West Coast, even to our reservation in Ullapool as of right now. Ultimately the goal is to spend time in the Speyside/Aberdeenshire area at least 3 nights if not all 4.
Day 12: Drive through Aberdeenshire, ending up somewhere close to Aberdeen airport. Thinking Stonehaven (looks cute and then we can see Dunnotar Castle)
Day 13: Fly to Heathrow in afternoon (2:40 pm) from Aberdeen. (Tickets booked)
Day 14: return home 9am flight

janisj

I'd do 2 nights on Speyside (Grantown or maybe Dufftown or Aberlour, and 2 nights on Deeside (Ballater or maybe Banchory)

PalenQ

You may be able to board the night train earlier than scheduled departure IME.

Kristina

Ok, it's taken me a month to organize everything, but here it is, with everything booked.

Day 1: Arrive LHR 10:05 am, go to Winchester. Overnight in Winchester
Day 2: AM and afternoon in Winchester. Go to London in afternoon. Overnight train to Inverness, departs Euston around 9 pm
Day 3: Arrive Inverness, pick up rental car (booked at train station!**), go to Dornoch (reservations, 1 night)
Day 4 & 5: Drive to Tongue (reservations 2 nights)
Days 6 & 7 Drive down West Coast to Ullapool (reservations 2 nights)
Days 8 & 9 Drive to Dufftown (reservations 2 nights)
Days 10 & 11: Drive to Ballater (reservations 2 nights)
Day 12: Drive to Stonehaven (reservation 1 night)
Day 13: Fly to Heathrow in afternoon (2:40 pm) from Aberdeen. (Tickets booked)
Day 14: return home 9am flight

I know it's a lot of moving, but at least it's better than our last trip which was a series of mostly 1 night stays over 8 nights.
**For car rentals I usually use AutoEurope but they had nothing available from the train station and I really wanted to avoid having to go out the airport if we didn't have to. I ended up booking through economycarrentals.com and their cost was lower, with better coverage, and we can pick it up right there at the station. They are a consolidator (like AutoEurope) and the car rental will be through Europcar. My mother has used them several times and recommended them so it's not a complete unknown.

Ok, so any "don't miss" places along our route? Favorite castles in Aberdeenshire? Favorite distilleries? We already have a Distillery walking tour in Dufftown. When we are in Tongue, I'd like to see Smoo Cave. Any other sights not to miss on the Northwest Coast? I'd like to do a sightseeing boat trip around the Summer Isles from Ullapool too if we can find one that fits our dates.

janisj

Crap- lost my post . . . Nice plans with mostly 2 night stays.

I'm dashing out the door for the evening but just quick: For Deeside/Aberdeenshire castles besides Dunnottar: Craigievar (a 'must' in my book), Castle Fraser, Crathes (especially if you like gardens), Huntly if you have time the day you leave Dufftown, Corgarff (quite isolated and the setting makes it feel pretty spooky). There are many more but you don't have days and days.

Gardyloo

I'll throw out a couple of places I've mentioned before, as part of my broken-record persona.

Inverness to Dornoch: Bear left onto the Struie Hill Road (B9176) from the A9 and descend down to Ardgay and head up Strathcarron to Croick Church. The views from Struie Hill are terrific, and there are few places in the Highlands as atmospheric as Croick.

Dornoch Firth from Struie Hill -



Croick Church



Messages from the Clearances



Then I'd drive back toward the Dornoch Firth Bridge but stop at the Glenmorangie distillery just outside Tain. Like I said, holy ground.

Map of this route - https://goo.gl/maps/sP7s5wSWbxn

North Coast: A little west of Tongue on the way toward Loch Eriboll and Durness, you'll come to a small road that heads south past Ben Hope. 20 minutes or so down that road is the Dun Dornaigil broch, a prehistoric Pictish fort that's been sitting at the side of the road for three millennia or so. Quite marvelous and speaks to the antiquity of the land.



By the way, if you're interested in woolen goods - jumpers, hats, tweed... there's a terrific shop in Lairg that I can recommend highly - https://scottishtweeds.co.uk/

Map for this portion - https://goo.gl/maps/hQh8jRVzMTD2

Kristina

Janisj and Gardyloo, thanks for the specific recommendations on sites to visit. I will do my best to check them out.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good paper driving map for Northern Scotland? I'm so used to using google maps on my phone (which will have access to data while I'm there) but I've read that cell reception can be spotty in places. I thought it would be good to have a paper back up.

Also, does anyone know anything about the boat trips around the Summer Isles from Ullapool? From what I can tell there are two companies which do this in the summer, but neither go out on Sundays which is our one full day there. We so enjoyed our boat trip from Mull to Staffa last year I was hoping to do something similar. I didn't want to have to rush the drive down the west coast just to make it there on Saturday in time for doing it unless it's really worth it. Or maybe we could delay our departure on Monday to do an early boat trip if we can find one.

Nelson

I'm also a fan of paper maps for backup. Don't have a specific recommendation, but amazon has at least three for Scotland that look good: Michelin, National Geographic, Collins.

However, do you know that you can download Google maps in advance and then use them offline even if there is no cell reception? Go to an area of Scotland on Google maps, then look at at "Offline Maps" and "Custom Map". You are size limited but you can cover a decent area. When I did it last year for Mont Blanc they kept it on my device for 29 days and I didn't need to use data for the maps.

janisj

Even with google map and a SatNav/GPS you really do need a 'real' map. But don't even try it with a fold up map. Get a proper road atlas. Any will do - AA, Collins, Michelin, etc etc. Do not buy one at home -- wait until you are there. Every garage, book shop, news agent will have them and at really good prices. My last one cost £2.99 in a motorway service area shop. I saw a post from annhig a few weeks ago that hers cost £1.99.

3 to 4 miles to the inch is a good scale for the small roads you will often be on.

scotlib

Hi Kristina, I visited Stonehaven in 2010. I'm still trying to find a fish & chips as good as I had at The Bay, http://thebayfishandchips.co.uk/ Yes, eight years is a span, but the awards page list on their web site continues to grow!

As your trip is in June, are you packing a swim suit? Stonehaven Heated Open Air Pool, http://www.stonehavenopenairpool.co.uk/