The Columba is closed for renovations...or at least that is what the site says. The royal had no availability. I will try the other ones and see.

turns out the Columba was sold to another company....I was able to book a room via Booking.com instead of the main site.

Well Its time I posted what we ended up doing.....a fantastic journey with lots of adventure and driving. I'm keeping this short but all questions are welcome.

We flew into Edinburgh and stayed 4 nights at an 2 bedroom apartment we rented....I highly recommend it....it was clean and the owner really did an outstanding job of making us feel at home. She provided tons of material on the city and all activities available.We rented a car to drive up towards Inverness approx 4.5 hours .....we spent 2 nights in a fantastic farm house in the village of Drumadrochit about a mile away from Urquhart Castle which sits beside Loch Ness along the A82 road, between Fort William and Inverness.The owners are dutch and they have horses, sheep and cats. The kids actually got to ride the horses and that was a very special treat. The accommodation we chose was right by the barn...it was a lovely little cottage with a kitchenette. The accommodations in the main house looks great as well. We just opted to have more space since we were 4. We did the loch Ness cruise which which we all enjoyed and a visit to the castle was lots of fun..and very scenic. Ofcourse we did some driving in the area and went to Dog falls and did a little hike there. I would suggest this and to bring some picnic items....water etc. kids loved it.

We then drove down a long way down...about 1.5 hours and had lunch at Oban....this was a picturesque port town I would recommend. After spending an hour walking and checking out the famous Oban distilary and having some lunch
around we drove another 3 hours and took a ferry from Claonaig to Lochranza on the Isle of arran called Darven Cottage B&B for a 2 night stay in the town of Sannox. It was right on the water and had the most gracious host....great breakfast and dinners. We then took the ferry over from Brodick to Ardrossan. The Ferry ride with the car onboard was a treat in itself! We continued our easy drive (as long as you have directions) to Edinburgh where we returned our rental and took the train to York. We arrived in York and took a taxi to our B & B...it was a tiny little place but it worked for the 2 nights we were there. York was a charming town and i'm glad we went to the Jorvik viking center....the kids learned a thing or two as did mommy and daddy. It was pricey for what you get but hey its history to learn. We then continued our journey to london for a few days before our flight home. We have been to london many times so this was just a relaxed venture to introduce the children to the parks and palace, aquarium, the london eye etc.... While in London we did a day trip to Brighton....worth doing...and very relaxing. We had a late lunch and returned to London in time for dinner.

So glad you enjoyed your trip! It sounds like you made good choices and it worked for you and your family.

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the report