lindsaybeth

Many you responded to my last post about what to see between Dornoch and Aberdeen, but we are thinking about making an itenerary change and I'm curious about how much longer by car this will be.

Instead of driving from Dornoch to Aberdeen to stay the night, then get up and check out of our hotel to drive to St. Andrews and stay the next few days, we are thinking we would rather just do the drive to St. Andrews direct from Dornoch. What are the road conditions in comparison?

drive-alive.co.uk says that it's 50 miles more and only about 40 minutes more to go straight to St. Andrews. Does that sound reasonable? (3 hours and 45 minutes compared to 3 hours 10 minutes). It's my understanding that it's about an hour and a half from Aberdeen to St. Andrews if we were to do that drive separately, is that correct?

As always - thanks a bunch!!

meks

It would be far easier to drive straight to St Andrews than an overnight stop in Aberdeen. I would suggest the A9 from Dornoch to Perth and then the Bypass round Perth to join the A90 to Dundee across the Tay Road Bridge and down to St Andrews. Depending on traffic I would say that it will be about 4 hours continuous driving but you may wish to stop off at the likes of Blair Castle or Pitlochry on your way so that will add to your overall journey.

janisj

If you don't care about the "castle trail"/Donnottar or Deeside, the drive to St Andrews would be more direct - and maybe even a bit less time. Yes it is farther - but most of the route is on the faster A9. You could stop at Blair Atholl/castle

sheila

Blast! the North East by-pass strikes again!

I reckon the time difference is even less than your on line calculator. The roads are, for the most part, better.

But, oh! what you'll miss

janisj

I <u>totally</u> agree w/ sheila. You could spend a week in the NE and barely scratch the surface.

But if time/speed is what you want - go straight to St Andrews.